Adam Bry’s Post

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Co-founder & CEO at Skydio

Skydio X10 has been in customers’ hands for 8 months and we’re seeing hundreds of organizations do incredible things. But we’ve also seen too many instances where our existing connectivity solutions could better support the mission. Historically, drone connectivity has depended on point-to-point radio links, and DJI Ocusync has set the gold standard for years. It draws on an ecosystem of radio silicon in the LTE family that unfortunately is unparalleled outside of China. But it is also fundamentally point-to-point in nature, and even the best point-to-point radios won’t cover everything needed for the next chapter of drone usage - scaled DFR in major cities, autonomous, remote, BVLOS operations, and more. But the world of connectivity is also changing. Cellular networks now cover 99% of the American population and are continually increasing in speed and reliability. Skydio is working hand in hand with mobile carriers to optimize their networks for drones. Starlink is a paradigm-shifting network that provides global connectivity that we increasingly see our customers adopting. Reliability is our number one product priority this year, and within that wireless is our top focus. We are making major investments to both improve our existing connectivity solutions, but also open up new architectures that go beyond point-to-point. Today we’re announcing a suite of improvements that will be rolling out over the second half of this year. I’m especially excited about Skydio Connect Fusion which seamlessly blends point-to-point connectivity with onboard 5G connectivity to get the best of both. This will be available to all customers who already have purchased Skydio Connect 5G + Remote Flight Deck, and we will be offering a free trial of range extension via Fusion to all customers with 5G-enabled drones when it becomes available. You can read about these products, improvements, and more in this blog by Ryan Reading and Kevin Kirn: https://lnkd.in/gtB4dbyf

  • Left: Results from recent testing of Skydio Connect Fusion using X10 flights of approximately 4 miles roundtrip from a central launch point in a building-dense urban environment.

Right: Skydio Connect Access Points are already in testing, including in Ukraine, and will be generally available early next year.
Adam Bry

Co-founder & CEO at Skydio

4mo

If wireless systems and product design engineering are your thing, we are hiring: https://www.skydio.com/careers

François Bertrand, MBA

PDG et Cofondateur Drones Express Inc.

4mo

Great news for us as a Canadian X10 owner…The only piece missing to the puzzle for Canadian owner is connectivity with Canadian cellular provider in order to be able to use 5G and all new products available in USA… Adam Bry we admire your vision and your products are fantastic for many specialized aerial missions, we can’t wait to benefit all products in Canada as well using 5G!

Wes Simmons 🟢🔵

Chief of Innovation | LSSBB, Test & Evaluation, Program Management

4mo

Will this work with the X10D, also? How do we throw our names in the mix once to test it out? Benjamin, Josh

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Aaron Chamberlin

Senior Transportation Engineer (Specialist) at Caltrans

4mo

As a user of Skydio for the past 4 years, Im thrilled with the progress on X10. Range has not been an issue with any of our Part 107 operations to date like we have with 2+ and X2. Very happy so far with performance. With multiple visual observers we have seen range out past 10,000' in range tests. Well beyond what is needed for VLOS operations. Looking forward to testing Remote Flight deck and 5g here over the next few months, and what is in store for us over the next year with future products. Bravo to the Skydio team for continuing to improve product that customers need to do our work better, cheaper, and faster. Thanks Adam Bry and team and keep up the good work!

Don Gilbreath

BD & Product Development

4mo

Is your platform finally open enough for other radios. We are on many other platforms for swarm work..

Chris Leatherman

Owner at Aerial Solutions of Wyomin

3mo

Will this address the radio connection issues of the X10? Our organization has had multiple instances where the radio link broke. Last week I was flying over an apartment building at 150 AGL and line of sight. The radio link broke and thankfully the X10 did what it was supposed to do and returned to the home point. This is one of many cases where radio link broke in low radio and WiFi environments. This has been an ongoing issue since we deployed our X10. I would prefer to have this basic issue addressed before other updates are rolled out.

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David Dibert

Leader in SaaS Technical Support, Web3, & User Experience. Serve in Civil Air Patrol as an aerial photographer/sUAS Instructor Pilot, and for YouVersion Support. Let's chat about innovative ideas and our vision!

3mo

The X10 seems truly impressive, but I have yet to have the opportunity to fly one first-hand. I'm eager to see the Civil Air Patrol do even more to harness this cutting-edge technology to enhance our photography and search and rescue capabilities. As a CAP sUAS Mission Pilot, I aspire to fly and achieve the CAPF 5U evaluation for the X10D so I can one day leverage its amazing potential.

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The Skydio team does awesome work!

Jeremy Faulk

Strategy@Arrow | ex-McKinsey | U.S. Marine

4mo

Love it! Looking forward to seeing it in action

Bob Rietveld

FLOAT 360 Operational Authorisation certified Drone operator in de Specific category - RPA-L pilot - Video producer

4mo

Does these connectivity improvements also work when using a X10 drone for bridge inspections? I am doing a feasibility study for the provincial government in the Netherlands, on the even safer inspection of hard-to-reach (steel) bridges. We are therefore looking with great interest at the possibilities/capacities of the Skydio X10 drone. Losing your GPS signal is one of the problems we have experienced when inspecting bridges.

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