Until now, commercial drone pilots controlled their drones by Wi-Fi connection, which means that they have to be in close proximity to the vehicle because Wi-Fi only goes a couple of hundred yards. But the recent flight controlled via long distance using the internet shows that change is coming to the industry.
Red Cat Holdings Inc.'s (RCAT:OTCMKTS) subsidiary Fat Shark teamed up with Skypersonic for the flight. The pilot was in Orlando, Fla., the drone was in Detroit, Mich., and they connected via servers located in Italy. The integration of Fat Shark's new digital hardware technology "Shark Byte" with Skypersonic's Skycopter and remote pilot software system made the flight possible. Fat Shark makes first person view video goggles for drone pilots.
The two companies believe that this was the "first commercial completion of a remote flight similar to how drones are used by military forces."
"This is pretty exciting for us; combining Skypersonic's software with our Fat Shark hardware enabled this capability," Red Cat CEO Jeff Thompson told Streetwise Reports. "This solves a lot of issues; a pilot anywhere in the world can basically fly a drone anywhere in the world."
Thompson stated that the company's long-term goal is to "build out a server network across the U.S. so that the latency is very low for flying drones."
Until now, other than military drones that are flown through huge, multibillion dollar satellite systems, drones are flown through line of sight, Thompson explained. "We've changed that; what would take billions of dollars in the military world to replicate, we now are able to do it over the internet."
"This is very exciting, game-changing technology that gets us all closer to the mass adoption of commercial drones," Thompson said.
The next step, according to Thompson, is to commercialize this product for mass usage.
"Red Cat is a hardware enabled software platform, Thompson explained. "The main goal for us is to make the life of a drone operator in the commercial space easier. A pilot would no longer have to fly to get to the drone, nor would it be necessary to ship the drone. So all of those things become less difficult for a commercial drone operator."
"The ability to control the flight of a drone from thousands of miles away should accelerate the commercial adoption of drone technology, expand the number of business services that can be provided by drones, and lower travel and training costs for companies deploying drones." stated Thompson. "The combination of our recently launched Shark Byte digital system and Skypersonic's patent pending software platform provides video resolution that will enable pilots to navigate more safely and execute commercial flights that were not possible with an analog system."
"We are upgrading our entire fleet to the new Shark Byte digital system," stated Giuseppe Santangelo, founder and CEO of Skypersonic. "Global customers like Exelon rely on our drones to safely reach places that are difficult, expensive and dangerous to inspect by manned teams. Shark Byte's low-latency high-definition video, a significant advance from prior analog systems, will enable our customers to take their inspections and security applications to a higher level of performance and safety."
You can watch the video of the first flight here.
In other news, DraftKings, the $21 billion market cap fantasy sports and sports betting operator, announced an exclusive agreement with the Drone Racing League to enable betting on drone racing in a number of states. "Two of the top racing pilots, the champions of the Drone Racing League last year and the year before, use Fat Shark goggles and are professional Rotor Riot pilots," Thompson said. "Red Cat subsidiary Rotor Riot is a premium brand and large influence on the drone industry."
"It seems that Red Cat is in the middle of everything right now," Thompson concluded.
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