# Accelerating Drone Autonomy with Strong Partner Ecosystems

- Event: Xpress ’23
- Published: June 13, 2023
- Length: 11:03
- Watch: https://nestgen.org/library/watch/Jme8TRSxoac/

> The transcript of a recorded NestGen session, for reading or for use with an AI tool. It comes from the video's
> captions; automatic captions can mishear names and terms.

## Transcript

**[0:00]** [Music] [Applause] [Music] good morning good morning we are live welcome back to ABS I exponential 2023 we're live at Booth 3909 for NestGen express my name is Jason sassusi your host with the most and I am honored to be here with the CEO of FlytNow Mitten Gupta welcome to the show thank you so much Jason thank you for that uh really wonderful welcome and waking up everyone yes yes good morning if you didn't have coffee hopefully that helped you wake up this morning um we're gonna jump right into the questions today because I think this is going to be an amazing interview so let's get started so knitting so how important is the concept of partner ecosystems and accelerating drone autonomy and what role the different stakeholders like Hardware manufacturers software developers and Regulatory bodies play in this ecosystem tonight so Jason

**[1:04]** you can look at the history how our industry has evolved so initially we were all trying to build everything I ourselves well there were so many companies that were offering full stack Solutions right from offering the hardware the software the data processing and generating the reports everything for the customer but today if you look around on the show float there are very few of them left and why that has happened is because every layer has become so specialized when it's in the hardware is very sophisticated today the software has become very so much more reward and now you need to integrate so many different devices so many different sensors and then the needs for data processing are very different for each application so whether you are doing it for mapping or you are doing it for Public Safety or survey so everything needs very different treatment of data right now trying to do everything uh you know in under a single company is going to be extremely challenging of course right and whatever we saw in uh no computer word or the ID word or what we saw in the mobile industry so everywhere there is a concept of Partnerships and building

**[2:04]** ecosystems where different companies are focusing on different layers of the stack and then we all kind of come together all these layers are interoperable and you can mix and match things in order to create Perfect Solutions for each need right so that is where our industry is headed as well and you know as more and more applications become mature there will be need for very specific solutions for solving each problem and to do that the best way is Partnerships the best way is that you focus on one layer of the stack and then you know whatever is that need of the customer you put together or mix and match those components in order to create an ideal solution for that one customer that absolutely makes sense and we've seen so many companies fail I try to do everything so there are still some challenges though so what are some of the biggest challenges that arise when building those strong partner ecosystems for drone autonomy and how do you overcome those obstacles to ensure a successful collaboration good night so see first of all on the technical front most of

**[3:05]** basically there are challenges at different layers so let me first about talk about the technical integration and Technical how do we make these different things work together right so you need some sort of a no one layer sort of an operating system or you call it the glow or something which which provides those standards or provides the standard ways of making these devices talk to each other and not just devices it would be different systems it would be software systems the hardware systems Etc but there has to be a common bus and you have these different things connected to this bus and this bus or this glue is helping them talk to each other so evolution of these standards and making sure these standards are robust enough and they are versatile enough to cater to different needs requirements of each partner for example let me give you an example so for no ask FlytNow we are we are trying to build this flare or this blue right which which through which we are able to connect different docking stations different drones parachute systems sense and avoid systems and so on right and now each docking station could be our

**[4:07]** different uh no could have a different mechanism it would be a charging kind of a docking station or a swapping kind of frustration the way the docking station opens could be very different from each other now coming up with a common standard so that you know using that common standard you are able to give commands to a docking station and make it operate irrespective of the kind of mechanism it has the kind of you know internal systems it has that is where you know it becomes challenging and having a permanent render that caters to poor different docking station manufacturers so it took us a couple of years you know working with 15 different knocking station manufacturers to understand the nuances of no variations in this technology across you know the manufacturers and then come up with common standards now which are able to work with all of these dogs and hopefully future docs as well and we have to continue to invest in kind of no upgrade using this protocol upgrading the standard so as to continue to meet the future needs of the customers as well as the partners absolutely so as I have a ridiculously serious question to ask you so with these strong partner ecosystems helping to accelerate drone autonomy

**[5:10]** can we expect the reality TV shows featuring those dramatic relationships and alliances between these Partners we can call it the Real Housewives of drone Valley right so as I mentioned so see one one challenge is on the technology front which we are kind of able to overcome by designing these protocols and standards of making different things talk to each other work with each other of course there is a people angle as well to Partnerships right and that is where some of your question kind of you know becomes relevant and I can relate to that because they're trying to work with so many partners who often are also competitors with each other like we're working with different docking station manufacturers and of course uh you know they see right look at each other as competitors so it becomes very important to build that level of trust with each of the partners and they should understand and they should realize that having these Partnerships and having a common platform is good for the industry and what is good for the industry is good for all of us because when the industry Grows All of Us benefit from it right so no helping them understand that bigger Vision that what today we are at where we are only looking at

**[6:13]** the tip of the ice world there's such a big industry that is being unveiled as we speak uh and in next five to ten years we expect there will be millions of drones autonomous drones with docking stations and so on and there is you know the pipe the size of the pipe will be huge and there is enough for everyone to you know be content with so it's also kind of solving these problems that people live in helping them understand why it is important to have common standards and come together and work together uh to make this industry I think that's an important part of the conversation absolutely um so but how do those different regulations and standards think about that for a second how do they impact the development implementation of those partner ecosystems and particularly cross-border collaborations and how can we achieve a harmonious and interoperable ecosystem hey so we have been working with Partners across the world we today have BB loss approvals in eight plus countries and each of these BB laws approvals came through a different regulatory body who had a different way of

**[7:14]** certifying and looking at safety but what is interesting is you know as we work with you know different partners and different geographies and so on what we realized is the underlying Technologies are very similar the needs of the customers are very similar as well as the requirements of the regulatory bodies are very similar because they're all looking at safety they are all looking at ways to ensure that systems are safe their skies are safe everything works in a harmonious way they might have some nuances here and there some some regulatory bodies might ask you to send data in a certain format or to make certain things no be visible on the dashboard in a different way so there are some nuances here and there which separate them from one another but overall the basic understanding of what is safe and how to make sure that your operations are safe is pretty common across the Spectrum right so what we have realized is almost 80 to 90 percent of the systems remain same across geographies of course there are some minor nuances that are specific to heat geography and each use case and through this partner ecosystem we are able to kind of attend to those or cater to those because the entire platform has been designed

**[8:17]** in a modular way where we have apis and modules and widgets and so on and depending on the country depending on what The Regulators are asking we can quickly again modify make those no mix and match modules remove one module attach another module so in a very like within a day or so you can customize and create a system that caters to that geography and that requirement so can you share with us some of the things that you're doing that make it easier for more companies to come together in this ecosystem to offer a fully integrated drawn autonomy solution great so that's a very good question Json so as I mentioned so we are positioning ourselves as the right as a layer that helps all these partners coming together like for example you will see it on our booth we have Iris automation we have LSI we have avss parachute work but we have different docks and drones and so on so now uh it becomes very important that we Design This glow in a way where we are designing these protocols and standards for different parachutes to come in box over systems different sense

**[9:18]** and avoids of systems to come and talk to the main main group or the main bus right so basically evolution of these standards or making sure that these standards are very well documented and it is very easy for different partners to comply with those and attach their offering to that Oman bus that is one thing that we are doing the second thing we are doing is we are we are also now in the in the works for offering a sort of an app store uh so that our partners will be able to follow the standards of the App Store and make a lot of these modules compatible with our ecosystem in a very very hands-off manner so they will not be very dependent on converting to work with them and you know do one of that hand holding and Integrations which usually ends up taking several months so we are trying to reduce that time to no order of days or weeks instead of several months or whatever quarters and not that will help us accelerate uh the number of partners that we can have on the platform and thereby you know make it easier and easier for our implementation

**[10:18]** Partners to go and Implement solutions for each customer's specific need wow I mean it's basically easy but you're making it really easy for people to plug into the system which I think is going to really expand the not just the use cases but expand the use of the the glue so we can just call you Elmer's at this point it's good um well you've heard here folks this is a great way to kick off this uh day two at exponential NestGen Express going strong today uh please stop by Booth 3909 so you can check out all of the episodes and these will all be live on FlytNow TV after the events thank you so much and thank you so much for being on the show thank you Jason thank you wonderful having Pinger fine absolutely we'll see you all next time bye