In case you missed it, we launched our all-in-one drone app, SkyGrid Flight Control, on the Apple App Store for iPhone and iPad users across the world. After the positive response to our iPad application in the US, we had to make our app available to a global audience of drone users.
The skies are opening up for the drone industry, and SkyGrid Flight Control™ is leading the flock. As the only drone application powered by artificial intelligence (AI) and blockchain technologies, SkyGrid Flight Control enables drone operators to manage their entire drone workflow with an all-in-one application, facilitating safe, secure, and efficient drone operations.
We set out to solve the challenges many drone operators face today by automating every phase of flight in one solution, eliminating the manual workflows, and allowing drone operators to safely explore our shared airspace.
Our easy-to-use airspace map includes advanced weather, location, and regulatory insights to make more informed decisions before you fly. Our drone flight planner minimizes manual workflows with automated mission plans and autonomous flight execution. As an FAA-approved UAS Service Supplier of Low Altitude Authorization and Notification Capability (LAANC) 4.0., SkyGrid also provides authorization to fly in controlled airspace in near-real-time.
So why use SkyGrid for your drone operations? Bottom line, we do the heavy lifting. Our app makes it easy to explore the airspace and automate airspace authorization, mission planning, and flight execution to simplify your drone operations.
Learn more about the app experience in our latest video:
Stay tuned as we’ll have more insights to share from our product experts in the coming weeks!
In the meantime, you can get started today by downloading SkyGrid Flight Control for free in the Apple App Store. You can also check out our advanced enterprise features, such as geofencing, custom object detection, and multi-drone missions, for more complex drone operations.
SkyGrid Flight Control app now available worldwide for all iPhone and iPad users.
AUSTIN, Texas, February 23, 2022 /PRNewswire/ – SkyGrid, a Boeing, SparkCognition company, launched its SkyGrid Flight Control™ application globally today. The all-in-one drone application is now available for free on the Apple App Store for iPhone and iPad users across the world. The SkyGrid Flight Control application makes it easy for drone operators to explore the airspace, automate flights, and get real-time insights as one integrated solution, enabling safe, secure, and efficient operations.
“After the positive response to our iPad application in the US, we are now making SkyGrid Flight Control accessible from both the iPad and iPhone iOS, and available to a global audience of drone users. We think this application is a critical unlock in providing users with a seamless solution and encouraging more drones in the global airspace,” said Amir Husain, Founder and CEO of SkyGrid. “Simultaneously, SkyGrid continues to progress towards a future where unmanned and manned aviation coexists. We’re already solving some of the most complex problems in the drone industry, and our journey has just begun!”
Powered by SkyGrid’s AerialOS™, SkyGrid Flight Control enables drone operators to explore airspace, and automate airspace authorization, mission planning, and flight execution in one unified solution. The following features and functionality are available for free within the new iOS application:
Airspace intelligence: Provides a map of airspace classes, boundaries, temporary flight restrictions, notices to airmen, and other advisories
Weather layers: Details local precipitation, wind speed and direction, temperature, cloud cover, and more
Automated flight planning: Automatically generates area exploration, waypoint, and multi-objective missions based on custom flight parameters, such as desired speed, altitude, and location
Autonomous flight execution: Launches the mission to autonomously perform the predefined flight plan or scheduled flight
For US-based users, SkyGrid Flight Control also provides automated authorization to fly in U.S. controlled airspace under 400 feet near airports through integration with the Federal Aviation Administration’s Low Altitude Authorization and Notification Capability (LAANC) 4.0.
More advanced enterprise features are also available for organizations looking to deploy, manage, and scale their drone operations. These features include AI-based mission planning and rerouting, multi-drone missions, custom object detection and counting, micro-weather, geofencing and alerts, and more.
Download SkyGrid Flight Control today in the Apple App Store or visit the SkyGrid website for more information about the advanced enterprise features.
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About SkyGrid
SkyGrid, a Boeing, SparkCognition company, is powering the next generation of autonomous aviation. As the only airspace management system built on AI and blockchain technologies, SkyGrid solves the industry’s biggest challenges integrating unmanned aircraft into complex, rapidly changing airspace. SkyGrid’s intelligent system monitors, predicts, and adapts to changes in environment conditions, aircraft performance, and regulatory dynamics to safely enable a wide variety of commercial drone operations, from package deliveries to aerial taxis. SkyGrid is also an FAA approved LAANC service supplier, providing flight authorizations to thousands of drone operators in the US.
As drone technology advances, its applications are evolving rapidly across the globe. Drones are delivering medical supplies, samples, and pharmaceuticals. They’re assessing hurricane damage and delivering aid to affected areas. And they’re surveying oil pipelines to inspect damage and prevent leaks.
From retail and logistics to healthcare and energy, drones are disrupting a wide variety of industries and upending outdated business models. Even with all this progress, drone operations remain comp- lex and challenging. The burden falls on drone operators to manually plan, execute, and adapt their flights in the rapidly changing airspace. They’re expected to monitor weather changes, avoid buildings and construction cranes, navigate around roadway traffic, and comply with shifting regulatory dynamics.
But this approach isn’t scalable. As an organization’s fleet grows, it’s not feasible to manually plan and execute every flight that’s delivering a package, conducting an inspection, or responding to an emergency. Automation is critical to safely scale drone operations and enable more advanced missions.
SkyGrid is addressing this challenge with a smarter drone solution that automates every phase of flight. Powered by SkyGrid’s AerialOS™, SkyGrid Flight Control makes it easy for drone operators to explore the airspace, automate airspace authorization, mission planning, flight execution, object detection, and get real-time insights in one end-to-end solution. We eliminate manual workflows by automating drone flight planning and autonomously executing the mission.
Here’s how it works:
1. Check airspace conditions
SkyGrid Flight Control provides detailed airspace, regulatory, and location data to help drone operators make more informed flight decisions. Our airspace intelligence includes advanced weather data, such as precipitation, wind speed and direction, cloud cover, visibility, and more. Our regulatory data includes airspace classes and advisories from the FAA, such as UAS flight restrictions. And our location insights include local buildings, obstacles, population density, elevation, and roadway traffic.
2. Generate a flight plan
SkyGrid Flight Control automatically generates mission plans based on the drone operator’s flight parameters, such as start and end time, desired speed, altitude, and location. Our drone mission planner minimizes manual workflows with automated mission planning and autonomous flight execution. Streamline operations with AI-based route planning, intelligent rerouting and automated deconfliction from aircraft and obstacles.
3. Get flight authorization
As a trusted supplier of the FAA’s Low Altitude Authorization and Notification Capability (LAANC), SkyGrid provides real-time flight authorization in U.S. controlled airspace un- der 400 feet. We simplify compliance by integrating LAANC directly into the flight planning workflow. That means drone operators can seamlessly plan their mission, ensure their flight meets all FAA requirements, and get auto-approval to fly.
4. Autonomously execute your flight
Once the flight plan is generated and authorized, operators can connect their drone to autonomously execute the pre-defined flight plan. With a Part 107 Waiver, SkyGrid Flight Control can also support multi-drone missions by optimizing the distribution of multiple drones over a defined area based on a defined timeframe or fleet size. Our live video feed allows operators to monitor each flight simultaneously and pause missions as needed.
5. Detect objects in real-time
During flight, drone operators can also detect key objects, such as vehicles, people, and animals, with our AI computer vision. This technology can be a powerful tool to quickly gain situational awareness after a traffic incident, identify potential threats near critical infrastructure, or detect defects in an oil and gas pipeline. Based on the needs of the mission, our algorithms can be trained to detect and track customized objects.
Ultimately, we believe in a future where millions of autonomous aircraft of all shapes and sizes will take to the skies to move our goods, improve our agriculture, augment our security, and even provide safe transportation. SkyGrid Flight Control is the first step toward enabling this future.
Considering the emerging drone environment and the exponential drone growth occurring across enterprise industries like agriculture, construction, mining, insurance, oil, gas, and law enforcement. Businesses are compelled to make changes to remain competitive and companies must look towards advanced digitization and automation to stay ahead of the curve. Advanced technology, airspace data and artificial intelligence is critical to provide a more simplified, efficient, cost-effective approach to autonomous operations.
SkyGrid provides a ready-to-use solution that lets you remotely control and manage drones and view live video feed with ease for autonomous drone operations.
Organizations can use SkyGrid to facilitate routine inspections over an area of interest and generate optimal flight paths for multiple flight segments. These optimized segments are then linked automatically to create complete routes. Our advanced route generation capabilities create the safest route for each drone based on the flight plan, environmental conditions, the vehicle’s performance, and the mission criteria with minimum onsite support required for flight operations.
Enabling autonomous remote drone operations for single and multiple drones reduces operational costs by pooling human, financial and material resources. It improves safety by eliminating the need for field workers to physically inspect faulty power lines to identify an issue and provides immediate access to critical insights to prevent and solve potential issues with real-time live video feed. With the new remote UAV operations functionality, SkyGrid will now allow remote operators to create and deploy these automated missions to a fleet of geographically disbursed aerial vehicles.
Features:
Remote Fleet Control – Plan flights and manage drone fleets remotely via SkyGrid Remote Command.
Live HD Video Feed – Rapidly deploy drones and stream live, high quality video to remote ground station. Get expert eyes on scene monitoring all active flights in real-time with details on each drone’s mission progress, location, altitude, battery life, and more.
Integration with Computer Vision Models – SkyGrid enables customers to integrate Computer VIsion Models with their drones’ Live HD Video Feed enabling automatic detection and alerting for objects of interest.
Customize airspace & flight rules – Set up geofences, customize pre-flight checklists, and establish in-flight monitoring parameters to enforce flight rules for different missions and aircraft.
Fully Automated Operations – Set and execute your flight parameters to automatically generate advanced sweep, waypoint, and multi-objective missions.
Assign pilots and aircraft – Assign RPICs, visual observers, and add aircraft to support each mission.
Drone fleet insights – Gather insights on the performance of your fleet and schedule maintenance requirements before your next mission.
Easy Flight Information Access – Access all flight information and video streams on a single dashboard with an easy-to-use interface.
How SkyGrid’s Enterprise Remote UAV Operations works:
Initiate
Assign RPICs, visual observer, and add aircraft to support your mission. Set up geofences, customize pre-flight checklists, and establish in-flight monitoring parameters to enforce flight rules for different missions and aircraft. Set and execute your flight parameters to automatically generate advanced sweep, waypoint, and multi-objective missions. Send a field operative on-site with a drone or fleet of drones. Turn on the drone. The drone is now ready to be connected by the remote operator.
Connect, Fly, Stream
Once connected, the remote operator can initiate drone flight and is able to effectively control the drone using a simple and intuitive interface. Geofences aid in avoiding hazards and optimize routing. Advanced automated flight features pilot the drone to pre-defined locations or routes. UAV progress is tracked throughout flight with live UAV feed and metrics streamed in real-time. remote operators can switch feeds to any fleet UAV currently flying.
Manage Date, Users, and Drones
Our software provides the tools to create, archive, and manage everything you need for your operation:
Flight Plans: Make your drone flight plan prior to flight. Reuse flight plans to facilitate routine inspections. Create unlimited flight plans and view, modify, or archive flight plan details. Specify waypoints, fly manually, or select an area to cover. Advanced route settings enable maximum control over route.
Flight Data: Flight instructions capture your pre and post flight actions. Telemetry data and flight history provide insights into how drones are being used for your business and by which users aid in planning of maintenance, fleet expansion, and location reach.
Videos & Photos: Access all your flight information and video streams on a single dashboard with an easy-to-use interface.
Drones: Manage your drone fleet, location, status, capabilities, and historical data.
Secure Access: Our portal provides secure access for you and your team. Authorize member access, assign crews to flights, and provide secure streams to enable your team with a safe operation.
See it in Action:
SkyGrid Flight Control is an end-to-end airspace management system that uses AI and blockchain to provide a more simplified, efficient, cost-effective approach to traditional UAV operations. It is built for drone operation managers, subject matter experts, and operators. SkyGrid Enterprise Remote UAV Operations enables drone deployment with a few clicks, allowing you to manage everything, on one dashboard, for a flawless experience.
Leading AI company announces the launch of a cutting-edge testing facility.
AUSTIN, Texas,May 26, 2021 – SkyGrid, a Boeing, SparkCognition company, and SparkCognition, the world’s leading infrastructure-focused artificial intelligence (AI) company, is pleased to announce the opening of a new complex, HyperWerx™, a first-of-its-kind autonomy facility to showcase the potential of AI integrated with physical systems. The HyperWerx facility will be used by SparkCognition and its partners to develop and test the exciting, new advancements in the world’s most promising technologies.
“When you work with technology as nebulous as software, it can be challenging to visualize exactly how AI and physical systems will work together. Beyond that, it is simply not possible to develop new physical applications without the experimentation, testing and safety validation process,” said Amir Husain, Founder and CEO of SparkCognition. “With that in mind, we conceived HyperWerx – a place where we can truly explore the interplay between AI software and the physical systems, which I believe will be a core driver in shaping the future of society.”
The HyperWerx facility sits on 50 acres in the greater Austin area, and will explore many facets of AI capabilities–ranging from the development of robotics platforms and unmanned aerial vehicles to the integration of terrestrial and aerial systems and extending to applications in commercial and defense industries. While plans to further develop the entire campus are already in motion, the immediate opening of Building One at HyperWerx will allow SparkCognition to begin deploying complex sensors, fleets of drones, radars, next generation versions of the SkyGrid platform, integrated aerial and terrestrial autonomous systems, and much more.
The HyperWerx facility currently includes participation from key partners SkyGrid and SparkCognition Government Systems and will continue to enhance its partner ecosystem as it adds new capabilities. SkyGrid, a joint venture between Boeing and SparkCognition, is the world’s first aviation operating system built on AI and blockchain, and SparkCognition Government Systems, a wholly owned subsidiary of SparkCognition, is the world’s first full-spectrum AI company devoted entirely to government and national defense. Current and future partners of HyperWerx will also use the facility to explore new systems and deliver cutting-edge solutions to their customers and partners.
“As technology progresses exponentially, our physical world is increasingly intersecting with the digital world – and exploring the fusion of hardware and software has never been a greater imperative,” said Steve Nordlund, Vice President and General Manager of Phantom Works at The Boeing Company, and Chairman of the Board of Directors at SparkCognition. “With the launch of HyperWerx, SparkCognition is proving its ongoing commitment to bringing the potential of AI to life, solving real world challenges facing its customers and partners.”
This first facility represents hour zero for HyperWerx. The vision for the entire HyperWerx campus is to create an AI ecosystem that involves several partners focused on exploring the art of the possible with AI and other exponential technologies. In the future, SparkCognition will continue to develop the HyperWerx campus, adding more facilities and innovative courses to support the vision of SparkCognition and its HyperWerx partners.
About SkyGrid
SkyGrid, a Boeing, SparkCognition company, is powering the next generation of aviation. As the only airspace management system built on AI and blockchain, SkyGrid is solving the industry’s biggest challenges integrating unmanned aircraft in the global airspace and executing autonomous operations. SkyGrid’s AerialOS™ monitors, predicts, and adapts to changes in airspace traffic, environmental conditions, and vehicle health to intelligently route, synchronize, and manage unmanned aircraft. Based in Austin, Texas, SkyGrid is enabling a wide variety of commercial drone operations from package delivery to emergency assistance. For more information, visit skygrid.com, LinkedIn, or Twitter.
About SparkCognition
SparkCognition catalyzes sustainable growth for their clients throughout the world with proven artificial intelligence (AI) systems, award-winning machine learning technology, and a multinational team of AI thought-leaders. Clients are trusted with advancing lives, infrastructure, sustainability, and financial systems across the globe. They partner with SparkCognition to understand their industry’s most pressing challenges, analyze complex data, empower decision-making, and transform human and industrial productivity. With leading-edge artificial intelligence products—Darwin®️, DeepArmor ®️, SparkPredict ®️, and DeepNLPTM—SparkCognition’s clients can adapt to a rapidly changing digital landscape and accelerate their business strategies. To learn more about how SparkCognition’s AI applications can unlock the power in your data, visit. www.sparkcognition.com.
High-performance, edge deployed cybersecurity platform will provide zero-day protection against advanced attacks.
AUSTIN, Texas,January 19, 2021 – SparkCognition, the world’s leading industrial artificial intelligence (AI) company, and SkyGrid, a Boeing, SparkCognition company, today announced a new collaboration to deploy AI-powered cybersecurity directly on drones, protecting them from zero-day attacks during flight. Equipped with SparkCognition’s DeepArmor® cybersecurity product, SkyGrid is the first airspace management system to enable drone protection powered by AI. This approach provides more advanced airspace security than traditional anti-malware reliant on signatures of known threats.
“In the near future, we’ll essentially have a network of flying computers in the sky, and just like the computers we use today, drones can be hacked if not secured properly,” said Amir Husain, CEO and founder of SparkCognition and SkyGrid. “In this emerging environment, traditional anti-malware technology won’t be adequate to detect these never-before-seen attacks. SkyGrid is taking a new, intelligent approach by using AI to more accurately detect and prevent cyberattacks from impacting a drone, a payload, or a ground station.”
Integrated with SkyGrid’s airspace management system, AerialOS™, the DeepArmor product can be deployed directly on drone hardware to function even when network connectivity is impaired or non-existent. The AI protection defends drones from zero-day attacks by leveraging models trained on the DNA of malicious files instead of relying on a signature database.
SkyGrid and SparkCognition showcased the DeepArmor product’s drone protection in a recent demonstration: https://youtu.be/syX_NevNJX0
“We leveraged cutting-edge AI research and technology to build the DeepArmor product, which allows it to protect endpoints against 99.9% of never-before-seen threats,” said Sridhar Sudarsan, Chief Technology Officer at SparkCognition. “In addition, the product’s uniqueness lies in its ability to provide top-rate endpoint protection on the lowest footprint with minimal interference – all in varying degrees of connectivity. This is the true overarching security differentiator from which SkyGrid’s customers will see value.”
The DeepArmor product suite leverages SparkCognition’s patented machine learning technology combined with a defense in depth mantra to provide multiple layers of protection on an endpoint – instead of using known signatures, heuristics, or rules-based approaches. The software protects a wide range of endpoints, with its most recent addition to the product suite, DeepArmor Industrial, launched in collaboration with Siemens Energy and designed to protect operational technology assets across the energy value chain.
SparkCognition’s AI-first approach to cybersecurity and the DeepArmor product’s advanced threat detection models have been validated by multiple awards, including 2020 Cyber Defense Magazine’s award for best endpoint security and CRN’s 2020 Security 100 List.
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About SkyGrid
SkyGrid, a Boeing, SparkCognition company, is powering the next generation of aviation. As the only airspace management system built on AI and blockchain, SkyGrid is solving the industry’s biggest challenges integrating unmanned aircraft in the global airspace and executing autonomous operations. SkyGrid’s AerialOS™ monitors, predicts, and adapts to changes in airspace traffic, environmental conditions, and vehicle health to intelligently route, synchronize, and manage unmanned aircraft. Based in Austin, Texas, SkyGrid is enabling a wide variety of commercial drone operations from package delivery to emergency assistance. For more information, visit skygrid.com, LinkedIn, or Twitter.
About SparkCognition
SparkCognition catalyzes sustainable growth for their clients throughout the world with proven artificial intelligence (AI) systems, award-winning machine learning technology, and a multinational team of AI thought-leaders. Clients are trusted with advancing lives, infrastructure, sustainability, and financial systems across the globe. They partner with SparkCognition to understand their industry’s most pressing challenges, analyze complex data, empower decision-making, and transform human and industrial productivity. With leading-edge artificial intelligence products—Darwin®️, DeepArmor ®️, SparkPredict ®️, and DeepNLPTM—SparkCognition’s clients can adapt to a rapidly changing digital landscape and accelerate their business strategies. To learn more about how SparkCognition’s AI applications can unlock the power in your data, visit www.sparkcognition.com.
Free iPad app, SkyGrid Flight Control, makes it easy to explore the airspace, automate flights, and get real-time insights
AUSTIN, Texas,September 29, 2020 – SkyGrid, a Boeing, SparkCognition company, today launched a new application for drone operators and enterprises to automate every phase of flight in one unified solution. Now available for free in the iPad App Store, SkyGrid Flight Control™ simplifies mission planning and execution, allowing drone operators to autonomously surveil a defined area and detect objects in real-time. Powered by artificial intelligence (AI) computer vision, the solution enables more efficient search and rescue missions, disaster response, perimeter surveillance, site inspections, and more.
“Traditionally, drone operators have used several different tools to check airspace, get LAANC, plan and execute flights, and gather insights, but it’s a manual, cumbersome process,” said Amir Husain, CEO and founder of SkyGrid. “Recognizing this challenge, SkyGrid has minimized the burden on drone operators by creating one solution that automates airspace, flights, and insights. As the only drone solution built on AI and blockchain technologies, we give operators and enterprises the assurances they need to execute safe, compliant missions.”
Powered by SkyGrid’s AerialOS™, SkyGrid Flight Control enables drone operators to automate airspace authorization, mission planning, flight execution, and object detection in one end-to-end solution. The following features and functionality are available for free within the iPad application:
Airspace intelligence: Provides a map of airspace classes, boundaries, temporary flight restrictions, notices to airmen, and other advisories.
Ground intelligence: Displays population density, obstacles, elevation, and more.
Advanced weather data: Details hyper-local precipitation, wind speed and direction, temperature, cloud cover, and more.
Real-time airspace authorization: Automates authorization to fly in U.S. controlled airspace under 400 feet through integration with the Federal Aviation Administration’s Low Altitude Authorization and Notification Capability (LAANC) 4.0.
Automated mission planning: Automatically generates area exploration, waypoint, and multi-objective missions based on custom flight parameters, such as desired speed, altitude, and location.
Autonomous flight execution: Autonomously launches the drone and performs the pre-defined flight plan.
AI object recognition: Detects objects in real-time as a drone surveils the defined area with AI computer vision.
More advanced enterprise features are also available for organizations to better manage all drones, pilots, and airspace operations. These features include AI-based mission planning and rerouting, multi-drone missions, custom object detection and counting, geofencing and alerts, and more.
“SkyGrid Flight Control is an important stepping-stone to enable more complex commercial drone operations and advanced air mobility in urban, regional, and global markets,” said Steve Nordlund, vice president and general manager of Being NeXt and executive board advisor of SkyGrid. “SkyGrid is solving complex problems in unmanned aviation with a system that will safely integrate the future volume of drones, passenger air vehicles, and other autonomous aircraft in the global airspace.”
Download SkyGrid Flight Control today in the iPad App Store or visit the SkyGrid website for more information about the advanced enterprise features.
About SkyGrid
SkyGrid, a Boeing, SparkCognition company, is powering the next generation of aviation. As the only airspace management system built on AI and blockchain, SkyGrid is solving the industry’s biggest challenges integrating unmanned aircraft in the global airspace and executing autonomous operations. SkyGrid’s AerialOS™ monitors, predicts, and adapts to changes in airspace traffic, environmental conditions, and vehicle health to intelligently route, synchronize, and manage unmanned aircraft. Based in Austin, Texas, SkyGrid is enabling a wide variety of commercial drone operations from package delivery to emergency assistance.
