Parrot to ship first 4G connected robotic UAV

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Parrot, the European drone company, is to start shipping its ANAFI Ai drone in January.

The first 4G connected robotic UAV, the Parrot ANAFI Ai will enable its professional users to gain speed and efficiency for their photogrammetry, mapping, inspection and surveying missions.

Verizon 4G LTE connectivity provides a connection to the flight controller that avoids interferences and paves the way for real-time data transfer and Beyond Visual Line of Sight flight operations.

Designed with cybersecurity at its core, the link between the drone and the user’s device is secured by Parrot ANAFI Ai’s embedded Secure Element offering each drone a unique ID. The Secure Element also assures the privacy of data transferred and protects the integrity of the drone software.

ANAFI Ai features an omni-directional obstacle avoidance system, 48 MP camera, 4K 60fps videos, and 32 minutes of flight time in an airframe that weighs less than 2 pounds.

Pilots will be able to create a specific flight plan by clicking on the land registry of the building they want to "3D map". The drone works autonomously using obstacle avoidance to adapt its flight in a complex environment. 4D images are shared in-flight with Pix4Dcloud to display, 2 hours after the flight, the 3D model of the inspected building on users' Pix4D accounts.

The core of the mobile App is open-source, however, developers will be able to execute custom code in the ANAFI Ai itself. The SDK gives access to all flight sensors, including obstacle avoidance sensors, occupancy grid and internet access.