Drones news
Intel Unveils 'Aero' Drone Development Platform
<p><strong>Semiconductor manufacturer Intel Corporation this week announced the launch of the “Aero Ready to Fly” quadcopter drone, designed as a platform for drone application developers. The quadcopter will be available later this year; it was unveiled August 16 at the Intel Developer Forum in San Francisco.</strong></p>
<p><strong>“Designed from the ground up to support drones,” the Aero platform is a UAV developer kit powered by Intel’s Atom processor and combining computing, storage, communications and data input/output “in a form factor the size of a standard playing card. When matched with the optional Vision Accessory Kit, developers will have opportunities to launch sophisticated drone applications,” Intel said.</strong></p>
<p>The quadcopter platform supports “plug and play” options, including a flight controller with open-source Dronecode PX4 software; Intel’s “RealSense” camera for obstacle avoidance; and the Map SDK (software development kit) from AirMap, of Santa Monica, Calif., for airspace mapping applications.</p>
<p>Also at the developer forum, Intel showcased the Yuneec Typhoon H hexacopter equipped with its RealSense depth-sensing camera technology. The Typhoon H with Intel RealSense is available now for $1,899, the company said.</p>
<p>The launch of the Aero quadcopter is the latest of multiple recent drone-related announcements by Intel. Last August, company announced that it would invest $60 million in Hong Kong-based Yuneec, and this January it acquired Ascending Technologies, a manufacturer of autopilot systems and multi-rotor drones based in Krailing, Germany. Intel Capital, the company’s venture capital arm, has made equity investments in Airware of San Francisco, designer of a commercial drone operating system; and PrecisionHawk of Raleigh, N.C., a drone manufacturer and aerial data provider.</p>
<p>In May, the FAA announced that it had appointed Intel CEO Brian Krzanich as chairman of its new Drone Advisory Committee, a group consisting of C-level executives representing the small unmanned aircraft systems industry and users.</p>
8/21/2016
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