Skydio

Skydio is an American manufacturer of drones headquartered in San Mateo, California. The company manufactures drones for use in battlefield situational awareness, policing, and inspection. Skydio drones are designed for autonomous operation through the use of computer vision, and can complete fully autonomous missions with the use of a dock to automatically recharge the drone.

As of February 2023, Skydio drones are used in every branch of the US Department of Defense, by over half of all Departments of Transportation in the US at the state level, and by more than 200 public safety agencies in 47 states. Skydio drones are also used by allies of the United States, including the UK Ministry of Defence, the Israel Defense Forces, and the Indian Armed Forces. Skydio drones are also sold in the commercial market, where they hold a 4% market share as of 2021.

Skydio drones can also carry payloads, such as grenades. However, they have been criticized for failing to fly at the distances advertised or carry substantial payloads, compared to drones designed for the consumer market such as those manufactured by DJI.

The drones integrate directly with the Android Team Awareness Kit, an Android application used by the US military and police. Skydio also develops software applications for their drones. Subject tracking enables following enemy combatants or other subjects of interest. A scouting application enables monitoring military convoys for threats from enemy soldiers. The crosshair coordinates application enables 3D positioning of targets for scouting and weapons targeting purposes. A 3D reconstruction application can also be purchased, which has been used to document war crimes in Ukraine as well as inspect ships for the Royal Canadian Navy.

History

Skydio was founded in 2014 by Adam Bry, Abe Bachrach, and Matt Donahoe, all of whom had studied at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Adam Bry and Abe Bachrach were in the Robust Robotics Group, researching ways to build aircraft that could fly themselves without GPS, culminating in a fixed wing drone with a laser range finder that autonomously navigated its way around a parking lot. In 2012, Bry and Bachrach helped develop autonomous-control algorithms that could calculate a plane's trajectory and determine its location, physical orientation, velocity, and acceleration. After graduation, in 2012, Bry and Bachrach took jobs at Google working on Project Wing, an autonomous drone project. Seeing a need for autonomy in drones, in 2014, Bry, Bachrach, and Donahoe founded Skydio to fulfill a vision that drones can have enormous potential across industries and applications. Early investors included venture capitalist Andreessen Horowitz.

In March 2021, the company became a unicorn, becoming the first US company that both manufactures and sells its own drones to exceed $1 billion in value.

In February 2023, Skydio announced a $230 million Series E that fund-raised round and the construction of a new manufacturing facility in America. The company said that it has seen a 30x growth over the last three years and is now the largest drone manufacturer in the United States. The Series E round was led by Linse Capital, with participation from existing investors Andreessen Horowitz, Next47, IVP, DoCoMo, Nvidia, Lockheed Martin, Walton Family Foundation, and UP.Partners. Hercules Capital, and Axon, the company behind the Taser and police body cameras, also invested in Skydio. The company claims that its drones are used in every branch of the U.S. Department of Defense, by over half of all U.S. State Departments of Transportation and by more than 200 public safety agencies in 47 states.

In August 2023, Skydio exited the consumer drone market to focus on military, police, and industrial use cases.

Products

Skydio R1

In 2018, the company introduced its first consumer product with the Skydio R1, which cost $2,500. The Skydio R1 had 12 cameras around the body of the drone and a gimbal stabilized 4K main camera. The drone had subject follow mode and obstacle avoidance. The R1 was powered by a Nvidia Jetson on-board computer. Controlling the R1 was done from the Skydio app, using on-screen height and directional toggles.

Skydio 2

The Skydio 2 model came out a year later in October, 2019 and was priced much lower at $999. Skydio 2 combined better obstacle avoidance, a smaller form factor and had 6 navigation cameras instead of 12 compared against the R1. The Skydio 2 also had a gimbal stabilized main camera that was capable of 4K at 60 frames per second, 3.5 kilometers of wireless range, and a 23 minute flight time. The Skydio 2 was powered by the NVIDIA Jetson TX2 and it could be flown by the Skydio controller, Skydio Beacon, or with the Skydio app.

Skydio X2

In 2020, Skydio announced it would design a drone for military and corporate use, which would be named the X2. The third-generation drone from Skydio had folding arms, a thermal camera, and a new touchscreen controller. Flight time was improved from the previous generation to 35 minutes and on the front, there's a 12-megapixel 4k color camera and a 320 x 256 resolution FLIR Boson thermal camera for seeing heat. The Skydio X2 uses the same Skydio Autonomy engine with 6 navigation cameras located on the outside of the drone but now with a thermal camera, 35 min flight time, range, and foldable.The X2 platform offers a 14° to 109°F temperature operating range. Additionally this drone has increased supply chain security with its NDAA compliant certification allowing it to be used at the Federal level.

Skydio X10

The Skydio X10 is a professional autonomous drone announced in September 2023 at the Skydio Ascend conference. It is designed for a wide range of applications, including public safety, inspection, and mapping.

The X10 is equipped with custom-designed high-resolution cameras, including a 64MP narrow camera, a 48MP zoom camera capable of reading license plates at 800 feet, a 50MP wide field of view camera for detecting minute details like 0.1 mm cracks in concrete, and a 640x512 Teledyne FLIR Boson+ radiometric thermal camera for measuring temperature differences during inspection missions or finding a missing person in total darkness.

The X10 is powered by the NVIDIA Jetson Orin processor, which gives it 10x more compute power and 10x higher-fidelity custom-designed navigation cameras than the previous generation. This allows the X10 to navigate with more confidence, avoiding thinner obstacles, in more challenging conditions. The all-new NightSense enables autonomous flight in zero-light environments, so operations can run 24x7. The all-new X10 Spatial AI engine enables real-time environment mapping and fully automated modeling at the edge with 3D Scan and Onboard Modeling.

The X10's airframe is open and modular, featuring four payload bays, replaceable gimbal sensor packages, and an IP55 weather resistance rating. It also includes Skydio Connect, which offers connectivity options for a redesigned point-to-point link, a multi-band radio designed for contested and jammed environments, and a 5G radio for infinite range wherever there is cellular coverage. The X10 is also highly portable, capable of going from folded up in a backpack to in the air in less than 40 seconds.

Government programs

In February 2022 Skydio won the U.S. Army Short-Range Reconnaissance (SRR) Program production agreement. This contract has a first year value of $20.2 million and a total value of $99.8 million over 5 years. The Skydio X2D (RQ-28A) was integrated into the Army at the platoon level. The SRR program, which is described by the service as an effort to develop an inexpensive, rucksack-portable, vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) small unmanned aircraft to provide rapidly deployable intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) capabilities.

Controversies

Lobbying issues

Government employees have been accused of an improper relationship with the company.

Skydio CEO Adam Bry posted a statement on LinkedIn claiming Skydio had “nothing to do” with the DJI drone ban bill, and blamed DJI for the “extreme levels of hate” directed at Skydio.

References

External links

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2014 establishments in California
Companies based in San Mateo, California
Technology companies based in the San Francisco Bay Area
Technology companies established in 2014
American companies established in 2014
Unmanned aerial vehicle manufacturers
Privately held companies of the United States
Privately held companies based in California

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