UAVs are increasingly common and independent in the skies, being used for more complex tasks and with increasing autonomy. While early traction in the market for UAVs has been applications that address public safety services such as law enforcement, search and rescue and humanitarian missions, they are now proving to be a cornerstone of future mobility and last-mile operations; an estimated 500,000 new vehicles are set to be deployed in the next 5 years.
UAV platforms need to be optimised for their use case, with appropriate levels of hardware and autonomy without compromising on cost or safety. The distribution of compute, especially, must consider the needs of both the payload and safety subsystems that can facilitate safe UAV operation. Safe operation, in turn, requires a multitude of approaches, from safe avionics, strategic deconfliction during flight planning, and tactical deconfliction during flight.
A good solution for tactical deconfliction has proven challenging, due to the complexity of detecting and avoiding non-cooperative actors within the tight SWaP-C constraints of UAV hardware.
This is set to change. With TTP’s Detect And Avoid (DAA) solution we have built a radar-led sensor fusion platform that uses a combination of low-cost cameras and forward-facing radar to detect potential hazards. The fusion of data from multiple sensors allows us to combine the strengths of both technologies and achieve greater performance than is possible with individual sensors. This approach minimises SWaP-C without compromising on efficacy.
Qualcomm Dragonwing™ products and solutions enable low-power embedded compute to provide leading edge on-device AI, computing and connectivity. The combination of high performance and low power consumption makes them an ideal platform for on-board situational awareness for the medium take-off weight (MTOW) UAV market sector.
The fact that Dragonwing is already present on many UAV platforms makes it a great fit to our low-cost, low SWAP DAA solution – it promises to enable still greater integration between the avionics and the sensor platform and to unlock new opportunities with a highly affordable compute solution.
Vidhya Sridhar, Head of Autonomy at TTP
Our collaboration with TTP is pivotal in addressing the BVLoS use-case economically & safely. The Dragonwing hardware is already the trusted bedrock of several UAV public safety use-cases. Together with TTP's innovative DAA system we can equip a UAV ecosystem that enables UAV operators to meet their concept of operations (CONOPs) easily.
Suri Maddhula, Vice President, IoT Solutions Product Management, Qualcomm Technologies, Inc.
We'll be showing our cutting-edge Detect and Avoid (DAA) solution at XPONENTIAL 2025. Find us at the Qualcomm booth located in the Public Safety Pavilion on booth 2215.
Enabling scalable UAV safety with advanced sensor fusion for seamless airspace integration
The key to unlocking scalable UAV safety lies in a detect and avoid system (DAA) that achieves optimal performance without adding bulk or cost. By leveraging radar and off-the-shelf cameras through advanced sensor fusion, the UAV team here at TTP are poised to bridge this gap, ensuring safety standards are met without compromise; discover more information about our detect and avoid technology solution for small UAVs.
Qualcomm branded products are products of Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. And/or its subsidiaries. For more information; visit: www.qualcomm.com.
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