Intel is looking to advance its position in the commercial drone market with new capabilities and solutions. Brian Krzanich, CEO of Intel, kicked off AUVSI XPONENTIAL this week with the unveiling of the Intel Falcon 8+ drone. This new unmanned aerial vehicle is designed for professional drone service providers.
“As companies consider commercial drone solutions to help maximize operational efficiency by reducing downtime, increasing safety and lowering costs, Intel is accelerating this trend with software and hardware innovations for commercial drones. These innovations will streamline drone operations and expand use cases for commercial drones,” the company said in a statement.
The drone features a V-shaped multicopter, redundant batteries, redundant communication and redundant sensing. In addition, it provides detailed data for orthography and 2D reconstruction. Intel believes the new drone along with its capabilities will help customers better detect and prevent damages as well as analyze and predict the overall health of their assets and infrastructure.
Other features include a newly designed cockpit for use in harsh outdoor environments, the smart Intel powerpack batteries, and an improved weight-to-payload ratio.
“The Intel Falcon 8+ System sets a new standard for commercial-grade drones. It is stable and rugged enough to work in high winds, is designed with resistance to magnetic field disturbances for accurate data capture, and features electronic system redundancy, including autopilot and battery redundancies. The system also provides detailed images down to millimeter resolution, providing operators with tremendous opportunities to efficiently generate valuable aerial precision data ? what businesses have come to expect,” Anil Nanduri, vice president and general manager of unmanned aviation systems at Intel’s Perceptual Computing Group, wrote in a post. Also announced during Intel’s XPONENTIAL keynote was its Intel Mission Control software, a new app for flight planning, management and post-processing. The app is expected to be available later this year.
In addition, Intel announced plans to collaborate with Airbus in order to create automated drone solutions for inspection purposes.
