Drone providers use edge computing for autonomous control and deriving insights on the edge

September 25, 2018 | Case Study

Drones are being used in applications like infrastructure inspection, wildlife tracking, traffic management, and search and rescue operations. Some of these tasks are too dangerous and/or time-consuming for human beings to tackle. For example, pipelines and electric power lines traverse hundreds of miles, often through rugged terrains that are not easily accessible. Drones can make inspecting such infrastructure easy, provided that they can be operated even when out of sight. Other applications, such as traffic management, search and rescue operations, and wildlife tracking to prevent poaching, involve time-critical decisions. Images and video feeds need to be analyzed rapidly; transmitting them to servers for analysis is not an option.