[VIDEO] AI Drone Pilots Itself

Jan. 14, 2021

Skydio, a U.S.-based drone manufacturer, is working to bring about “the age of AI driven autonomy” in the drone segment. With this idea drones are no longer powered by manual operations, but are defined by software and AI with native obstacle avoidance. Skydio argues that fully automated workflows are integrated solutions, where drones can make split second decisions in the air to keep operations safe, will reduce operating costs. 

To this end, Skydio has developed a full suite of enterprise solutions designed to usher in an autonomous workflow for drone operations. Onboard every Skydio 2 aircraft are six 4K cameras with 200-degree fisheye lenses that collect 45 megapixels of visual sensing. The brains of the Skydio consist of a NVIDIA Tegra TX2 processing chip, which is capable of doing 1.3 trillion operations a second. 

These combined features enable the Skydio 2 platform to see, understand, predict, and act on the world using artificial intelligence. It creates a real-time, three-dimensional model of the world as it flies through it with 360-degree obstacle recognition and avoidance, and motion prediction.

On top of the Skydio Autonomy core engine, Skydio offers an add-on solution for AI pilot assistance. This includes super zoom, vertical view, and close proximity obstacle avoidance. This helps the pilot fly into tighter spaces where a manual pilot or human shouldn’t go.