PrecisionHawk, Inc. has announced that it has raised a $75 million round of funding, bringing its total funding to more than $100 million since it was founded in 2010.
With this investment, PrecisionHawk says that it can “build upon its lead in the commercial drone space,” apply capital to expand its team, focus on product innovation, and make strategic acquisitions.
The company says that this is “all part of a broader mission to foster the adoption of commercial drones and capture the global market opportunity.”
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Software
Commercial UAS software provider Converge raises more than $750,000 in seed funding
A commercial UAS software provider called Converge has announced that during its first seed funding, the company raised more than $750,000. The initial round of funding included investors such as Samsung NEXT, Techstars Ventures, and Kima Ventures.
Founded by alumni from The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Converge is developing artificial intelligence (AI) fueled software for UAS that enables them to handle dull, dirty, and dangerous work. Converge says that its software has already been piloted by a selection of UAS service providers, as well as one of the largest construction companies in Florida.
DJI unveils smartphone-sized Mavic Air UAS
On Tuesday, Jan. 23, at an event in New York, DJI unveiled its latest product, Mavic Air, which the company describes as an “ultra-portable, foldable camera drone that delivers higher performance, more intelligent features and greater creative possibilities than any other consumer drone.”
According to DJI, Mavic Air was developed with the traveler and outdoor enthusiast in mind, as it inherits the best features of DJI’s Mavic series but is considerably smaller, at half the size and 40 percent of the weight. It's closer in size to the company's Spark, but actually has a smaller footprint because its rotor arms fold up, and it carries a better camera.
Weekend Roundup
This Week in the Unmanned Systems and Robotics World
New Jersey state legislators have approved a ban on operating UAS while inebriated. Under the approved legislation, drunk or high pilots would be punished with up to six months in prison or a $1,000 fine. (Gizmodo)
BlackBerry unveils software cybersecurity product that can be used in connected and autonomous vehicles
During a keynote address at the North American International Automotive Show (NAIAS), BlackBerry Limited Executive Chairman and CEO, John Chen, unveiled a “transformational software cybersecurity product” called BlackBerry Jarvis, which is built on BlackBerry’s decades of cybersecurity expertise and proprietary technology.
BlackBerry Jarvis has many potential uses; chief among them, in connected and autonomous vehicles.
Described as a “one-of-its-kind cloud-based static binary code scanning solution that identifies vulnerabilities in software used in automobiles,” Jarvis, in just minutes, scans and delivers deep actionable insights. If done manually, the scanning process would take large numbers of experts and an “impractical amount of time,” according to BlackBerry.
Using UAV Imagery and Deep Learning for Wind Turbine Inspection
When it comes to using a UAV to collect imagery for wind turbine inspections, maneuvering a drone around a huge turbine isn’t the only challenge involved. There’s also the issue of capturing extra positional information so images can be projected onto a plane, which is necessary since the camera is not positioned to look directly down as in most UAV imagery applications. Then there’s ensuring the quality of the capture while in the field to avoid the costs associated with having to re-fly a job. Finally, there is the time and rigor required to analyze all that data to identify and locate damage and other abnormalities on turbine blades.
Cicer One Technologies and AVIDRONE Aerospace partnering to secure UAS fleets
Cicer One Technologies Inc., which provides data privacy technologies, and commercial and industrial UAS manufacturer AVIDRONE Aerospace Inc. have announced a new strategic partnership that the companies say “ends the risks around cloud-based data capture services.”
Through the partnership, AVIDRONE’s proprietary flight control and mission planning software will be combined with Cicer One’s point-to-point, globally-accessible information management system to deliver a “secure, fully private, flight control and data capture” technology for UAS.
Weekend Roundup
This Week in the Unmanned Systems and Robotics World
In an effort to “meet the demands of future multi-mode transportation and business applications,” Toyota Motor Corporation President Akio Toyoda announced a new mobility service business alliance and e-Palette Concept Vehicle during CES 2018. The new e-Palette Alliance will utilize Toyota’s proprietary Mobility Services Platform (MSPF) to create a suite of connected mobility technologies and a flexible, purpose-built vehicle. (Toyota)
Kittyhawk adds new features to its Flight Deck platform for UAS
During CES 2018, commercial UAS operations software provider Kittyhawk announced new features to its Flight Deck platform, including the addition of an automated flight system to Flight Deck, which will work in conjunction with the company's recently released secure live streaming feature.
Using the new automation features, operators can plan missions in the Kittyhawk mobile application, and then execute the entire flight, from takeoff to landing, with unlimited waypoints.