Together, Drones and AR Improve Situational Awareness

At InnovateEnergy, you know we’re big fans of AR, drones, and other tech that’s helping industrial enterprises. We’re even bigger fans of those technologies coming together. 

Some of our favorite technologies—drones and augmented reality (AR)—are converging to help energy companies, emergency responders, construction companies, and other enterprises safely view and analyze their environment beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS).

One example of this pairing is the new drone AR system for DJI by Anarky Labs, which recently received a patent for its artificial reality (AR) guided drone software. The software, created through a collaboration with Flyby Guys, uses Microsoft HoloLens and allows pilots to see telemetry data in the sky, rather than looking down at a screen.

The system is set to launch in a few weeks, and is already being eyed for construction site inspections and other BVLOS deployments.

ThirdEye, an enterprise XR company, is also working on developing AR drone solutions. “The advantage of AR and drones is that it allows the user to maintain positional awareness while flying the drone,” said Nick Cherukuri, CEO and founder of ThirdEye. 

While EMS and law enforcement were the first ThirdEye users to make use of AR drone tech, Cherukuri has since seen clients in the agriculture and real estate industries adopt the same approach. “Whatever information the drone is able to capture, we are able to display on the glasses,” said Cherukuri. “Pretty much any industry that drones are used in, AR can improve.”

from AR POSt

As is the case with new technologies, the uses for AR and drones are already being innovated. Researchers from the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology built a solution that uses holographic augmented reality hardware to create live 3D terrain maps, enabling drone pilots to simply point at targets visualized above any flat surface.

In the system, a Microsoft HoloLens headset generates the augmented reality content. Then the HoloLens feeds commands back to the drone, determining its next target within the holographic map by turning the wearer’s hand gestures and gazes into point-and-click-like controls. The autonomous drone then flies to the new location, updating the 3D map as it travels.

3D map data will be more bandwidth efficient than live first-person video, which is crucial as 5G network technology catches up. Ideally, in the future, both first-person and 3D map data will be streamable in real time. 

Drones and AR working together not only looks cool, it’s also a big functional win. There’s a big benefit in controlling a remote vehicle from a portable, standalone AR headset without needing a full-fledged computer, monitor, and joystick. 

Where does reality end and augmented reality begin? The line is getting blurrier.