Drones are rapidly gaining popularity in all walks of life and are becoming more widely used. Under this background, people urgently need a platform to deploy and manage UAV fleets. Jonathan Downey cut into the drone industry from this particular perspective and became a rising star in the drone startup army.
Recently, MIT Technology Review released the list of the 16th TR35, the list of 35 young innovators in the world under 35, and Jonathan Downey has also become a member of the list. Foresight."
In 2002, 21-year-old Jonathan Downey entered MIT's School of Computer Engineering. From then on, Downey began his drone career. During the period of MIT, Downey was formed. The machine interest team developed a drone during the rest of the school and competed in drone development teams of other institutions. It was also during that time that he had a profound impact on drone technology.
Jonathan Downey grew up in a suburb of Houston, Texas, USA. His father was a civil aviation pilot with thirty years of flying experience. His mother also had the experience of a civil aviation pilot, so the "flying dream" was Downey, to a certain extent, has also been influenced by his parents.
In addition to flying, Jonathan Downey also showed great interest in mechanical engineering. When he was in high school at Kingwood Middle School, he founded a robotics club to study robot-related knowledge with classmates.
The above experience seems destined to Jonathan Downey will later flex its muscles in the machinery + flying industry.
Downey graduated from MIT in 2006 and entered the Boeing Company. During this time, he helped Boeing publicly develop an unmanned helicopter that created a hovering record of the same level of drone at the same time (20000). Feet hover high 18.7 hours).
In 2011, Jonathan Downey left Boeing and raised $700,000 in funds to establish Airware. Jonathan Downey said at the time that there was still a gap in the drone's autopilot instrument, and many drone enthusiasts needed it. Boeing’s military-grade drone R&D experience has given him confidence in entrepreneurship.
AIP drone systemThe second year after the company was founded, Airware developed a set of drone control software, which is the early prototype of the product. But technology was far from mature at that time. In a few years Jonathan Downey and his team are looking for a suitable direction.
Until 2013, telecom operator Infinigy released a set of figures. In 2013, 13 people had died in the inspection process. Therefore, the company hopes to replace the unmanned aircraft with humans will be more safe when the communication tower is overhauled. However, the drones on the market all have limitations on various operating platforms and it is not very easy to implement them. This incident not only inspired Jonathan Downey but also left him with a "mission." At that time, he secretly decided to be a universal platform for drones.
After two years of research and development, Airware released a commercial aircraft's Aerial Information Platform (AIP) in 2015 and announced that the system can be used correctly and systematically by companies that use drone operations. Unmanned aircraft.
According to reports, this AIP system has an intelligent controller Flight Core. As long as this controller is installed on the aircraft, it can achieve control of flight and data collection.
On the ground, there are two different systems that can be used to direct the mission.
The basic command system Ground Control Station allows you to set up flight plans, set up geofences, and emergency response measures.
The higher-order system Configuration Manager allows you to create larger, more complex flight settings, combine and add only basic options in the system, and send the final command to the Ground Control Station.
The data collected by the aircraft is sent to the cloud service Airware Cloud and can be shared within your company. The cloud service will also help detect whether the flight route is in compliance with the regulations and the company can plan it with confidence.
In addition, this system is also specifically for developers to prepare API interfaces, allowing them to develop applications for Airware systems.
Flight Core
For this system Jonathan Downey said:
"Some drone companies deploy a laptop computer while deploying UAV operations. There are seven or eight different applications running on the computer. However, Airware builds a system platform in the cloud and integrates with third-party cloud services. , such as post-processing software company Pix4D, drone companies will be able to realize the integrated process of flying and collecting data, all data will be in the same cloud, and then through a third-party integrated cloud service, drone companies can use a variety of Process software to get different data reports."
Make a Windows-level drone systemFrom the earliest Windows system "unified" PC to iOS and Android in the field of smartphones, it can be seen that the general operating system is one of the necessary conditions for hardware development. With the wide application of drones, drone operating system has become an arena for teammates. Jonathan Downey saw this because it only contributed to Airware's early start. It is still a leader in this field.
"The birth of DOS and Microsoft Windows operating systems made hardware manufacturers produce compatible hardware. Software vendors developed related applications and formed a benign ecosystem. This is unprecedented."
After releasing the AIP system, Downey stated that he hopes to catalyze the development of the UAV industry through the opportunity presented by this aeronautical information platform, and try to strive to achieve the same status as Microsoft or Android in its field. Uniform operating platform in drones.
Although the idea is very far-sighted, it seems that the development prospects are very broad. However, the special nature of drones is destined to be analogous to the PC and smart phone industries. Moreover, Airware's AIP system is very expensive, and a single aircraft has to pay an annual fee of $2,500.
Downey said that the $2,500 will be much lower than the hired labor, which is a good deal.
Judging from the current drone market, the companies that make hardware are far more than R&D software. Downey has a certain chance in this respect. Whether Airware will become Microsoft in drones in the future depends on the future. Jonathan Downey grasps the strategy.
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