There are thousands of drone companies out there, but Intel has chosen to acquire Mavinci, a start-up from one of ESA’s business incubators in Germany that has developed an easy-to-use system for land surveillance.
“They focus on precision payloads for construction and inspections,” noted Anil Nanduri, heading Intel’s drone business.
“They have best-in-class mission planning software for terrain mapping. You can very quickly create a mission for a specific job.”
The company will work with Ascending Technologies, also acquired by Intel, to expand Intel’s business with commercial customers in agriculture, insurance, construction and mining.
Ascending Technologies develops artificial intelligence for unmanned aerial vehicles to avoid collisions.
Mavinci’s Sirius fixed-wing vehicle comes in a box asan easy-to-assemble drone with a wingspan of less than 2 m, offeringsatellite-quality remote sensing at ultra-high resolution – down to centimetres.
The propeller-driven drone produces visible, near-infrared and 3D geolocated images, delivering upwards of 2000 per flight. Following a quick assembly, the aircraft is simply thrown it into the air for takeoff.
Mavinci’s own autopilot controls the aircraft from takeoff to landing, using precision satnav to image along a programmed track, with automated air traffic monitoring to avoid any collision risk.
To guarantee safety, a human pilot follows progress, standing ready to take over the controls at any time.
Based in St Leon-Rot, Germany, the company has more than 20 employees.
