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 has taken part in developing the cloud solution for FlyPulse’s autonomous drone system, which is used in many different projects.
“This is a good example of where Semcon can provide leading-edge technology that makes a real difference. With its drones, FlyPulse has already achieved goals which would otherwise have been impossible, and we have contributed our skills to make their cloud solution as good as possible”, says Markus Granlund, CEO of Semcon.
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.
Today, many electricity companies – for example, one of FlyPulse’s customers – use leased helicopters to inspect overhead power lines. With autonomous drones, the job is 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 the 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.
