Smart Poles with Integrated Drone Hubs to Power Modern Cities

San Jose, California (USA), June 2, 2021: FlytBase is incredibly excited to partner with Omniflow, an internet of things (IoT) company that manufactures smart multifunctional infrastructure powered by hybrid wind and solar energy. Leveraging FlytBase’s powerful drone-automation software, Omniflow has incorporated a drone charging hub with their flagship product, OMNILED, to create scalable and sustainable networks and highways for drone service providers.

Evolution of the Smart Pole

Automation and IoT has catalyzed global digitization and helped enterprises/services stay connected with always-on devices and cloud-based applications. One of the primary objectives of such modern technology is to optimize resource utilization. However, most public lighting systems today still run on 20-year-old technology that consumes power in a highly inefficient and unsustainable manner. It has been estimated that one streetlight is responsible for around 1.3 tons of annual CO2 emissions. Consequently, excess power consumption owing to outdated technology has long been a problem for its highly damaging effect on the environment, particularly in instances where the electricity is generated by burning fossil fuels.

To address these issues, Omniflow developed OMNILED, a multifunctional lighting solution that can turn any regular streetlight into a smart pole with ultra-efficient LEDs, IP cameras, high-quality PA systems, LTE/small-cell connectivity, public Wi-Fi, and off-the-grid operability with battery storage, among several other features, powered almost entirely through renewable energy and carbon-conscious technology. Their vision and business model are centered around realizing an eco-friendly world that digitizes existing infrastructure, avoiding the expensive and resource-intensive process of remanufacturing and deploying products with limited functionalities.

Development of smart poles has increased the accessibility of 5G connectivity and other essential digital services, such as EV charging, for the world. Today, Omniflow has active sales in more than 30 countries around the globe, with thousands of units already installed. Their primary markets comprise the UK, EU, and the US, with the MENA and South-east Asian regions now receiving considerable traction.

Introducing the Drone Hub

As autonomous drones continued to gain widespread recognition within the automation and robotics industry, engineers at Omniflow began exploring the possibility of retrofitting their smart poles with docking pads that drones could land on for refuelling. Because their smart poles are cloud-connected and equipped with edge-computing capabilities, they were able to easily install a smart charging station for such drones that could be leveraged for various use-cases, including security, public safety, delivery, and emergency response.

Integration with FlytNow

To enable drones to perform autonomous functions such as landing, take-off, and executing pre/post-flight checks, Omniflow collaborated with FlytBase to deploy a fully integrated software solution that would enable remote control of both the drone and the hub. FlytBase’s intuitive and modular software solution, FlytNow, can be used to plan and schedule repeatable missions and set failsafe actions that are automatically triggered during emergencies or incidents. One of the key features of the software is its precision-landing module, which uses computer-vision technology and landing algorithms to accurately align, approach, and land the drones on the charging pad every time.



To learn more, watch FlytBase’s latest webinar on ‘Smart Poles: The Future of Autonomous Drone Operations’ with Omniflow using this link: https://flytnow.com/webinars/flytnow-and-omniflow/

About FlytBase

Founded in 2016, FlytBase, Inc., a Silicon Valley startup, has built the world’s first Internet of Drones (IoD) platform, providing drone agnostic software solutions to automate and scale drone operations. FlytBase offerings are compatible with major drone hardware platforms (e.g., DJI, Ardupilot, PX4) and come with SDKs, simulators, and APIs for reliable testing and seamless integration. FlytBase was a part of Cisco's accelerator program and was recognised as the Grand Champion at the NTT Data’s Global Innovation Contest in 2019.

About Omniflow

Omniflow was founded in 2012 after its initial concept was proposed at the Richard Branson / EDP innovation award. By 2015, Omniflow had begun providing sustainable smart city solutions with the mission to have a positive impact on the world, avoiding CO2 emissions and expanding digitalization. Enabling savings of over 90% on lighting solutions, they were able to further provide value-added services powered by sustainable energy. On the development roadmap, Omniflow has several different technologies that will be implemented at great scale in cities within the next 5 to 15 years.

Silicon Valley/India-based Aerial Robotics Startup FlytBase Raises Seed Funding

 FlytBase, Inc. - a startup based in Silicon Valley & India - recently closed its Series Seed round of venture financing, as it powers fully autonomous drone fleets for global businesses. The seed funding comes as the company gains traction for its commercial drone automation software, with a focus on high-value enterprise use-cases such as warehouse inventory management, wind turbine inspection, live remote drone operations, and public safety.

Nitin Gupta, CEO, FlytBase, explained: “We have been fortunate to have support from leading incubators and angel investors since our inception. With the most recent round, we now can rapidly build upon our unique competitive position in the global drone ecosystem. Our ability to combine intelligent software with off-the-shelf, cost-effective drones positions us well with enterprise customers, as they mature their drone adoption from PoCs and pilots to fully autonomous, multi-site drone operations. We are focused on developing cutting-edge autonomous systems that solve real-world problems for our customers, at scale”.

The Series Seed round is led by a US-based, early-stage seed fund, and brings not only venture capital, but also a wealth of professional experience and world-class B2B networks to the table. FlytBase holds a unique position in the global commercial drone ecosystem - its FlytOS & FlytCloud software offerings, built & enriched over the years, can enable intelligent automation of most major drone hardware platforms.



Sharvashish Das, Director of Engineering, added: “With an IoT architecture, intelligent plugins and open APIs, our technology platform brings a variety of capabilities to drones - ranging from indoor autonomous navigation and obstacle avoidance to precision landing and autonomous charging. This, in turn, is enabled by our team’s expertise in control theory, multi-sensor fusion, SLAM, machine vision, AI/ML, robotics and embedded systems”.

[caption id="attachment_139819" align="aligncenter" width="1024"] Drone Security Surveillance[/caption]

FlytBase’s R&D lab is in Pune, India at the Bhau Institute, a leading engineering startup incubator. The FlytBase team has several decades of cumulative professional experience and holds degrees from IIT Bombay, IIT Kharagpur, Georgia Tech, COEP, University of Maryland - College Park, University of Minnesota - Minneapolis, and the University of Texas - Austin.

Dhiraj Dhule, Head of Strategic Projects, emphasized: “We’ve developed fully autonomous drone solutions for a wide variety of industries for customers in the US, Europe & Japan. Our team’s strengths in automation R&D, as well as scalable solution architecture, have resulted in bleeding-edge solutions for challenging use-cases such as wind turbine inspection where a drone has to precisely scan each turbine blade from each side, all on one battery charge while withstanding tough environmental conditions. This requires a mix of control systems, AI/ML, aerial navigation, path-planning and drone hardware optimization expertise”.

The commercial drone market continues to accelerate worldwide - with indoor applications likely to lead the way, while the security & privacy regulations for outdoor use of drones get developed by aviation authorities across the world. For example, IAG Cargo, part of the same group that owns British Airways, recently highlighted its use of fully autonomous drones for scanning inventory at its air cargo facility - an innovation in warehouse inventory management powered by FlytBase technology. FlytBase was also the global champion at NTT Data’s 2019 Open Innovation contest.

[caption id="attachment_139821" align="aligncenter" width="1024"] Team[/caption]

 

FlytBase continues to rapidly expand its India team - with emphasis on experience and expertise in robotics, control systems, computer vision, machine learning, MEAN stack, Android development, and related technologies.

Indian Drone Startup FlytBase Beats 401 Startups from 18 Countries to become the Winner of Global Contest

FlytBase Labs, a San Fransico and Pune-based drone technology startup, has won the grand winner award in grand finale of NTT (Nippon Telegraph and Telephone) Data Open Innovation Contest 9.0 which held in Tokyo on March 13-14 . The international contest saw the participation of 401 startups from 18 countries.

Formerly known as NavStick, FlytBase has beaten 20 startups in the finals. The startup were from all across the globe and had made it to the finals by careful selection by Japanese IT firm NTT Data.

Notably, for identifying innovative startups from India, NTT Data had tied up with the Pune chapter of The Indus Entrepreneurs (TiE), an international association of Indian entrepreneurs which mentors startups.

Founded in 2017, by IIT-Bombay alumnus Nitin Gupta, FlytBase claims to be world's first Internet of Drones (IoD) platform, that allows developers to easily build intelligent drones, connected with cloud-based business applications.

Team of FlytBase
(Source - FlytBase@facebook)

Currently being incubated at Bhau Institute’s Incubation Centre on the College of Engineering campus, Pune, the innovative startup has developed a software that works across off-the-shelf drones from various vendors, enables intelligent fleets and seamless integration with business applications.

FlytBase was part of Microsoft Ventures backed GenNext Accelerator Program, 2016.

According to FlytBase -- Unlike most IoT devices, drones need real-time, high bandwidth connectivity; drones usually have fairly powerful onboard compute, big batteries and operate in smaller fleets for only minutes/hours at a time. IoT platforms are just not designed for this. FlytBase has built a custom protocol and developer platform, optimised for these specific requirements.

"Whether you want a drone to inspect a wind turbine, check a cellphone tower, or count inventory in a warehouse, our software is capable of working across different use-cases," said Achal Negi, head, business development at FlytBase.

FlytBase also allows easy integration of drones with cloud-based business applications, such as, SAP, Slack, Twilio, Box, Salesforce, Airmap, Cisco Spark, etc.

With headquarter in San Francisco Bay Area, Silicon Valley of the US, FlytBase has its customer base mainly in the US, and its clients range from US telecom operators, security services companies, emergency response and public safety agencies among others.

Source - Financial Express
Top Featured Image - Pune Mirror