Multi-Drone Mapping: Teal Drones and Reveal Technology Demonstrate for US Military

Teal Drones and Reveal Technology Demonstrate Multi-Drone Mapping to US Military

by DRONELIFE Staff Writer Ian M. Crosby

Red Cat Holdings [NASDAQ:RCAT]  is held in the AdvisorShares Drone Technology ETF [NYSE ARCA:UAV], the only ETF dedicated to the drone economy. The AdvisorShares Drone Technology ETF is a thematic investment strategy seeking to capture the growth opportunities in drones and autonomous vehicles (AV).  AdvisorShares is a DRONELIFE sponsor.

Today, Red Cat Holdings subsidiary Teal Drones announced a partnership with Reveal Technology in order to equip Reveal’s “Farsight” mapping software with the ability to generate high-fidelity 3D maps by autonomously joining imagery from multiple unmanned aerial systems (UAS).

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This significantly accelerates the rate of production, providing users with access to maps and analytics much more quickly, as was recently demonstrated to U.S. Army Special Operations Command near Fort Bragg.

“Farsight already significantly sped up the rate at which aerial imagery could be used to help teams more safely and effectively carry out their missions,” said Andrew Dixon, COO of Reveal. “Simultaneously gathering data from multiple drones, such as using Teal’s 4-Ship multi-drone system, compounds this for significant intelligence advantages on the battlefield.”

Teal’s 4-Ship enables the simultaneous operation of up to four of the company’s Golden Eagle drones by a single operator, granting instant and persistent 360-degree surveillance of a target. Farsight provides military teams with near real-time access to comprehensive 3D maps of a target area. These maps can be overlaid with a variety of additional information, including line-of-sight analysis, terrain analysis and graphing, an AI-generated “best route” through a target area, a vertical measurement tool for determining the height of buildings and structures, and a helicopter landing zone survey for identifying the optimal spot to land. These combined features grant advanced situation awareness and increase the success rate of missions.

Before having access to this technology, military teams in the field were frequently reliant on overextended and commonly unconnected intelligence organizations, culminating in delayed and inefficient intelligence analysis ill-suited to the urgent environment on the ground. To combat these issues, Farsight introduces cutting-edge computer vision and AI. Additionally, all computing takes place in the field on handheld devices, both eliminating the need for a network connection or additional processing capabilities such as servers or cloud infrastructure, and preventing an increase of the team’s electronic signature to the enemy. This accelerates the entire process, while also enabling the formation of thorough maps from nearly any location.

“A primary role of Teal Drones – which is one of only a handful of drone companies approved to provide equipment to the U.S. military – is to provide a superior airframe upon which others build apps that allow the military to better meet their objectives, including warfighter safety mitigation,” said Red Cat CEO Jeff Thompson. “This integration of Reveal’s Farsight software with Teal’s 4-Ship product is one of the most important apps that has been developed for the Golden Eagle so far. We are excited about our partnership with Reveal and look forward to even more groundbreaking developments in the future.”

“What sets Teal and Red Cat apart – and an important reason why we are excited to be working with them – is their demonstrated ability to build and ship product,” added Dixon. “Because Teal has a dedicated manufacturing facility in the U.S., they can make good on their promise to deliver product to the military on-time, which is an enormous advantage in today’s drone industry, and means that our technology is much more likely to get to users on the front lines when they need it.”

Read more about Teal Drones and Red Cat Holdings:

• Teal Drones Acquired by Red Cat Holdings
• Red Cat 4 Ship: One Pilot, Four Drones; Will a Multi Drone System Be the New Normal?
• Blue sUAS Companies Come Together for Unmanned Leadership Forum
• US Senate Introduces Drone Infrastructure Inspection Grant Act (DIIG Act)

Ian attended Dominican University of California, where he received a BA in English in 2019. With a lifelong passion for writing and storytelling and a keen interest in technology, he is now contributing to DroneLife as a staff writer.