- What is your offering for the Defense industry and HLS sector? What news can we expect from Mobilicom this year?
Mobilicom designs, develops and markets turn-key solutions for mission-critical and remote mobile private communication networks without the need for, or use of, any existing infrastructure.Mobilicom’s products and technology are based on an innovative approach that merges 4G communication with Mobile MESH technologies into a unified solution, with a number of product families that have been commercially deployed. Mobilicom develops in-house and fully owns all assets for its unique technology and solutions, including: 4G modem, MESH networking, radios, HW & SW applications, among others. The technology is backed by its patent holding and know-how. Mobilicom assures optimal, resilient and secured wireless communications where others do not.
In 2019, Mobilicom will continue the release of system solutions with a customized, end-to-end approach. These solutions will provide not only communication component but also SW applications, management tools, controlling and viewing terminals and more.
- How is Mobilicom handling the security challenge, in reference to drones and drones communications?
Security is one of the key elements that Mobilicom already identified two years ago as critical for the drones’ market scalability. During the last two years, we have been constantly educating the market, explaining companies, governments and enterprises why they must use a secured solution rather than simple off-the-shelf communication modules.
Mobilicom technologies and solutions include secured communication, high-end encryption and cyber protection. Just recently, Mobilicom has received a 1.2 million USD grant from the Israeli Ministry of Defense and the Israel Innovation Authority, for the development of a unique technology using AI that will mitigate the risk of cyber-attacks in drones & robotics. Within the scope of this project, Mobilicom will develop an anti-hijacking and anti-spoofing system for commercial, government and enterprise drones and robotics that will enable autonomous drone cyber security without intervention by an operator in real-time. Mobilicom’s innovative solution will mitigate cyber security risks and as a result, enable the acceleration of commercial drone market scalability. This program reinforces Mobilicom as a holistic provider of equipment, software and solutions for unmanned platforms, and will become a game-changer for commercial drone deployment, as well as drones in security, public safety and federal operations.
- How does Mobilicom targets the commercial and industrial drones’ sector?
Mobilicom already realized that the commercial and industrial sectors are different than the enterprise and government sectors. This is why Mobilicom launched the SkyHopper entity. SkyHopper brings all the key components that make “just a drone” into a “smart drone”, integrating all the important pieces that are valuable for the drone’s creation in the commercial and industrial sectors. Our portfolio consists of 4 types of solutions now: communication data links (SkyHopper PRO, SkyHopper ONE), video processing & analytics (SkyHopper PRO V), content consumption systems (SkyHopper VU) and controlling systems (SkyHopper ControlAir). With its proprietary encryption mechanism, lightweight and built-in flexibility to optimize to customer needs, SkyHopper is ideal for mining and process industry, security and surveillance, infrastructure inspection and delivery applications.
SkyHopper’s technologies are fully owned and developed by Mobilicom, and are patented and proven in all of the verticals in which Mobilicom is active. Looking forward, the next aspects SkyHopper will be tackling are 5G and cellular networks, as well as Artificial Intelligence and cyber security solutions which are critical for the success and the scalability of drones.
- How do you think that regulation changes will affect the growth of the drone industry?
Regulation can stop, hold or delay the growth of the drone industry, but can also accelerate it dramatically. Until recent years, the growth of this industry was under the burden of regulation, that didn’t allow deployment of drones and robotics in the commercial and industrial sectors on a larger scale. Regulation is changing now, and beginning to loosen. Many countries such as the US, UK, Japan and others are slowly opening their skies for drone testing as well as for certain applications to be executed through drone operation such as delivery, infrastructure inspections and more. We anticipate that 2019 will be the year when a bigger change in regulation for this industry will occur.
- What are the leading trends in the drones’ segment that you think can shape up the Indian industry in coming years?
In addition to regulation changes, there are four additional elements that I believe will affect the Indian Drone industry in the coming years.
The first one is security and cyber protection. No one will allow mass use of drones and robotics in the commercial sector if they are not safe, cannot be fully trusted or with the risk they might be hijacked. Also, to allow the scalability of this revolution, platforms will have to be fully autonomous. We are taking the pilot out of the loop, thereby needing the assurance that the platform be secure and safe.
The second element is Autonomous Drone Systems. A drone that decides where to fly and when to fly, without relying on a human for instruction. What sounds like something out of the future is happening right now – we lose the pilot and rely on the machine, and it allows for many additional drones to take flight simultaneously. However, due to the lack of human control, these systems must be extremely reliable in order to ensure their missions will be accomplished successfully and safely. Their hardware and software components must be of the highest quality and performance, they must be highly secure and encrypted to protect from cyber-attacks and must utilize artificial intelligence and self-operation algorithms for their operation.
The third element is Fleet-Management & Swarm Operations. Today, most drones are controlled by an operator. In the near future we will see one operator that controls a fleet of drones, and sets of drones that are operating together as one. With the idea of simultaneously operating a fleet of drones, enabling communication between drones, or seamlessly handing off a drone between control stations, operations that up until now have been operated by a single pilot and a single drone will become scalable and reach a broader base of targets – and therefore allow the Indian industry to rely more on drones and robotics for delivery, area scanning and protection, logistics and other missions.
The fourth element is cloud-based operations. Today, most drone operations are conducted line-of-sight or very close to line-of-sight. However, if we would like to use drones and robotics in order to perform missions further away, we have to do so over cloud computing. They streamline drone operations by simultaneously controlling multiple drones in various locations and enable more data to be captured simultaneously. This will allow nation-wide drone deployments, for example.
- Where do you see the drone industry in 2025?
I think that drones and robotics in general, will share the same type of revolution as the mobile technology revolution in 1997. Just like we couldn’t anticipate the scalability of the mobile phone revolution back then, people don’t understand yet how significant the revolution in the drone industry is, and how it will affect so many aspects of our daily lives. The significant revolution will start with the commercial and industrial sectors that will benefit from drones and robotics in streamlining their operations and reducing their costs. We believe that drones and robotics will influence every aspect of our lives: From delivery of items to higher security and patrol missions – most will be performed by robots and drones instead of people. The impact will be enormous – much like the mobile phone and the internet revolutions.
