New APIs, Developer Interfaces: the Evolution of Drone Operations Systems

The concept of an “end to end” solution in commercial drone operations management is evolving.  From a “best of breed” approach that was often a euphemism for “pieced together,” developers like ANRA Technologies are opening systems to allow for clean integration and customization, enabling smoothly operating end to end solutions.

Version 3.0 of DroneOSS™ introduces extensible Open APIs and exposes a catalog of capabilities to enterprises and service providers – allowing them to monetize existing capabilities and drive innovative new services. “It dramatically reduces the costs, risks and time-to-market associated with traditional point integration, lowering implementation and operating costs for the entire organization,” says ANRA.

DroneOSS is a horizontal platform – meaning it’s designed to help commercial providers in any industry.  Users access integrated vertical-specific data engines to process data optimally for their specific industry needs.

DroneOSS™ enables real time flight planning, automated notification/authorizations like LAANC (coming soon), autonomous execution, tracking, remote command and control, real time live sensor data/video streaming, data analytics and integration of the processed actionable data back into enterprise systems. DroneOSS™ first introduced real time integrated video streaming and sensor control for commercial drones in 2016 and over the years has been evolving this capability to minimize latency and enhance security.

Using the DroneOSS™ Platform, a user can be flying a drone in California while another user is watching the feed in Washington, DC and an analyst is controlling the sensor and watching the live data come in securely in Colorado. With dynamic data management systems like DroneOSS™, key personnel can share/collaborate leveraging images, video and other data across several platforms including web browsers and smart devices.

“There is no one size fits all solution. Pick a drone; pick a flight profile; pick an analytics engine based on your needs and your backend enterprise system and let DroneOSS™ orchestrate the whole workflow end to end. In simplistic terms, it replaces ‘n’ fragmented element managers with ‘1’ network manager”, said Jim Begley, Director, Business Development at ANRA.

ANRA Technologies also announced a deeper integration of the DroneOSS™ platform and its UAS Traffic Management (UTM) platform DroneUSS™ enabling operators to have sense and avoid capabilities for non cooperative assets leveraging airborne radars, RF Detection, Vehicle to Vehicle technologies and  ADS-B.  The DroneUSS™ platform already supports sensors from leading providers like Echodyne, Fortem and uAvionix with more integrations to be announced over the next few weeks.

“Running a commercial drone operation is complex – we want to minimize the complexity and the workload for all of the stakeholders involved,”says Amit Ganjoo, CEO of ANRA Technologies.

The very best “best-of-breed” approach can provide the flexibility that enterprise customers need – without sacrificing ease of use.  “Best-of-breed doesn’t have to mean ‘cobbled together,’” says Ganjoo.  “A robust operational platform/framework provides clean integration and data sharing throughout the organization.”