The potential for autonomous drones is huge. By providing an overview of a forest fire, inspecting power lines, or supplying medicines to disaster-struck areas, a great deal of time and money can be saved at the same time as safety is increased.
Semcon, a Swedish multinational technology company, has announced its part in developing the cloud solution for FlyPulse’s autonomous drone system, which is used in many different projects.
The autonomous drone can fly out of sight and covers around 10 miles with a load of 1 kg. All drone films and photographs are streamed directly to an operator who then has an overview of the selected area. The operator can also stop and zoom in as required. By using a cloud solution, the company can get a total picture of its drones and using a map view can easily adapt and create new operations.
Artificial intelligence the next step
Today, many electricity companies – for example, one of FlyPulse’s customers – use leased helicopters to inspect overhead power lines. With autonomous drones the job done more effectively, for less money and with considerably less risk.
“It is clear that we are at the beginning of a major step in technological development. The possibilities are infinite. In addition, we are able to add AI to the autonomous drones so they can draw their own conclusions and decisions, based on what is being filmed”, says Mikael Wiktorell, Project Manager and Software Developer at Semcon.
The drone system developed by FlyPulse has been used in many projects, from transporting medicines to people on the islands in Lake Victoria in Tanzania, to being used by emergency services as a basis for decision on turning out.
“Through Semcon, we now have access to the top-level competence we need to achieve our high goals in terms of the quality and safety of our drone platform”, says Jan Björn, CEO and co-founder of FlyPulse.
