Qualcomm Announces Flight Platform For 5G Capable Drones

Qualcomm has just unveiled the world’s first drone and reference design that offers both 5G and AI-capabilities. The company calls it the Flight RB5 5G Platform, its a product of condensing multiple technologies into a single integrated drone system. This new solution will help accelerate development for commercial, enterprise, and industrial drones.

Powered by the Qualcomm QRB5165 processor, the device will serve applications for film and entertainment, security and emergency response, delivery, defense, inspection, and mapping. This new platform will also drive the next generation of high-performance, low-power, and 5G drones as well as a catalyst for the robotics and drone industry.

Credit: Qualcomm

“We have continued to engage many leading drone companies, enabling 200+ global robotics and drone ecosystem members in addition to consistently driving and promoting worldwide drone standardization and transformative 5G capabilities in organizations such as 3GPP, GSMA, the Global UTM Alliance, the Aerial Connectivity Joint Initiative (ACJA) and ASTM,” said Dev Singh, senior director, business development and general manager of autonomous robotics, drones and intelligent machines, Qualcomm Technologies, Inc.

He added, “We are proud to continue our momentum of enabling the digital transformation of global industries by unveiling the Qualcomm Flight RB5 5G Platform, a solution that is purpose-built for drone development with enhanced autonomy and intelligence features, bringing premium connected flight capabilities to industrial, enterprise and commercial segments.”

The Flight RB5 5G Platform uses Qualcomm’s Secure Processing Unit, which offers cybersecurity protections needed for data-protection and adhere to safety requirements. The computing performance and low power consumption allows the RB5 5G to use AI and machine learning that will pave the way for fully autonomous drones.

Support for 5G and Wi-Fi 6 will improve the critical flying abilities of drones beyond the visual line-of-sight BVLOS). This will make drones more reliable and safer to fly in most conditions. The Qualcomm Flight RB5 5G drone reference design is available for pre-sale now through ModalAI. The development kit will be available in Q4 of 2021. Click here for the product page.