# Hextronics - Atlas & Universal

- Event: NestGen ’23
- Published: March 25, 2023
- Length: 27:43
- Watch: https://nestgen.org/library/watch/Q94X2FD7c1E/

> 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.

## About this session

Take a deep-dive into the Hextronics Dock series, including their latest Universal drone station, which is compatible with 4+ drone models.

## Transcript

**[0:08]** thank you all right so hello everyone welcome to an informative session of national 23 with the global emergence of docking stations this session will take a deep dive into the hextronics dog series including the atlas designed for the DJI m300 the newly launched hextronics Universal and the most versatile docking station compatible with four plus drone models interruptions due to battery depletion or technical issues can cause significant downtime which can be costly and even dangerous in certain situations additionally some drones may be used in remote locations making it challenging to retrieve them for battery Replacements or even maintenance therefore having a battery swapping mechanism that allows for uninterrupted operations can greatly improve the efficiency and the reliability of drone operations making them more effective and safer so today we to shed light on this topic we have cut founder and CEO of hextronix

**[1:09]** joining us today extronics is an engineering company that manufactures drone docking stations equipped with a cutting-edge robotic battery swapping mechanism allowing for uninterrupted drone operations a mechanical engineer from Miami got a study at the Georgia Institute of Technology with a burning passion for Robotics and product development got started Electronics in early 2020 and has come up with additional products ever since along the way the hextronics team has won the engineering Capstone design competition at Kurt's Alma Mata graduated from the GT createx startup accelerator received recognition from the largest tech journal in South Florida and listed at mayamino's top 25 under 25 companies so before ramay's Olaf wander by chilling by the beach in Miami I have to share a few housekeeping rules and let curd conduct the session so here there are first please type in your questions in the Q a tab of the session and it'll be answered after the presentation the session is getting recorded and will be published soon we

**[2:11]** also have a hextronic booth in the Expo section so make sure you please visit during the networking sessions and last but not least there's an ongoing poll so we please request you to participate finally please remember to capture your favorite moments of the session and share it on Twitter on LinkedIn by using the hashtag measure a few lucky people who might share it might have a surprise in store so before we jump in I would like to thank our sponsors DJI Enterprise who is our title sponsor and um volatile Aerospace was our Platinum sponsor so with that cut over to you okay thank you Natasha for the intro yep let's see are we ready to go I can't really hear you I'm not sure if you if if uh if you can hear me yeah yeah yeah okay all right I'm just gonna start sharing my screen okay I'm just gonna gonna go for it thank you all for for joining I appreciate to be

**[3:11]** here at NestGen thank you Natasha for the intro and uh thank you to the team at uh at uh at FlytBase and especially with with FlytNow to uh to get the party started with drone autonomy in 2023 uh let's go for it uh speaking of 2023 I'd just like to to touch base back on where we've come uh since the beginning basically from the from the lab from a little lab that I slept in uh in in Georgia Tech where we made some of the first prototypes uh and then really getting getting started back in my garage in Miami uh with uh just a group of of interns and and guys that I convinced to to join on this Mission and then we really started to to to gain some traction across the world made Miami our home by expanding it to the the hex quarters or hex q and now we're currently running full scale production in HEX Q you with our Atlas system and and it's seen seemed quite a few Paces from the global and

**[4:13]** we're excited to to tell you a lot about uh where we where we're going today and would like to show you a a brief snippet of of everything we've done uh in the past few years you all might remember this intro but let's just go for it so you all remember the global and you've probably seen that intro before this is our initial startup video for the global you all might have seen uh opening your your nest and it seems like not too long ago but really it's uh it's been quite some time

**[5:31]** and so Nano and uh and micro are systems for the the peritonephe Drone and hex truck is the the mobile option that we've pioneered with the with the global initially and have uh pushed forward with the atlas and seeing you'll see what we're working on [Music] and now bringing us to the atlas

**[6:38]** and finally the universal that we launched uh late last year at Art Basel right here in Miami you'll see as well hex Vision the tool that we're already starting to use to provide detailed reports and mapping for select clients and then one thing we're excited about as well the hex cargo a full service delivery system built for any drone and configured for the m300 all right all right so that's kind of a brief overview of what we've been working on let's dive into the details in each of the uh individual Industries so let's explore really why aerial autonomy is necessary in each of these different uh different

**[7:42]** locations and and different uh service providers really First Response Public Safety improving emergency time to response as well as we know with construction and infrastructure inspection of which we've got countless case studies using today on one that will overview right now and so for Real Construction and asset monitoring over time inspection of the of the location is paramounts and as you all understand uh swapping out batteries is not the the most automatic use case so what we've designed is essentially the battery swapping system for uh the mavic 2 initially and then we'll dive deeper into what you can produce from this many of these are shots captured from the from the mavic and the m300 that we've done through our fleets of autonomy

**[8:46]** okay and then further into energy maintenance and into agricultural monitoring uh really these uh these are some of the key industry segments that we are extremely proud to be to be working on today with our our partners and that we see a wide variety of solutions being able to be brought to Market with groups working really together to create Solutions based on uh open open Hardware that is really accessible to everyone and so in this use case you'll see the atlas taking off from the nest and in uh livestock Agriculture and a wide variety of different uh farming use cases definitely were a drone is necessary and here again showing just how powerful the atlas system is when it completely

**[9:47]** enables remote Automation and inspection while providing battery swapping okay and also mining analysis is one that we'll we'll talk about very soon furthermore these are the solutions that we've provided from uh 2021 and 22 the Global Micro and the Nano and uh then moving forward the atlas throughout 2023 and Beyond initially configured for the m300 is battery swapping machine is is uh quite the Beast and really is a Powerhouse and a Workforce to automate many of your current methods of m300 flight

**[10:47]** and so through FlytNow many existing payloads uh even beyond the capabilities of something like H20 or h20t are able to be integrated into your automatic workflows and have the data downloaded seamlessly and so we house all eight batteries that come with the m300 and in doing so we use the standard DJI battery charger mounted within the unit ready for another mission all automated and powered by FlytNow

**[11:52]** and so we we went forward with the atlas starting uh design and production in 2022 built to be the most rugged and reliable drone nests in the world I initially focused on that DJI m300 which is with its wide payload capacity and it's a full service weight that it can carry uh really we wanted to Target the most powerful drones in the industry that will be able to provide a wide variety of services moving forward m300 is a very powerful Workhorse and especially the the method of of swapping its batteries through the through the back has enabled quite uh quite an ability for our engineering and design team to create such a compatible machine and in doing so right now the the down time is six minutes between swaps uh however we're we're going to be able to provide uh just just under four minutes um in a in about a month or so

**[12:56]** right now these systems are deployed in over 20 countries across the world six of the seven continents I always say this until it's true but Antarctica we're coming for you and we're excited to work with all of our partners worldwide and really uh really think that this this industry of of of drone autonomy is one that the world is taking on together it's really uh binding a lot of groups having everyone come together as actually right now I'm in a in a hotel room in Malaysia I've been all over the world uh with this uh with this business and it's uh it's it's it's very powerful to meet meet the groups that are really making a difference and see how they're integrating uh automated drones into their operations so in doing this from across the world we've really been able to have boots on the ground and see what uh what clients and users are really finding powerful about our

**[13:57]** systems and showing what it enables them to do uh for their use cases and end customers and from that we've been able to hear a lot of feedback in creating uh an even better system one thing we've heard is hey these drone companies change their drone every year what the heck am I going to need a new nest every year uh what's the deal uh we need a we need a nest that's going to be built and deployed for the next 10 years something that really we can count on and ensure that hey if there's a better drone that comes out we're not stuck with this uh with this machine for the long term but we want an investment that really stays at the test of time and on top of that there's a wide variety of different providers of uh powerful analysis software tools that go on top of the automation that really enables for uh Deep dive analysis of 3D visuals and 2D analytics that can uh can really make a difference and

**[14:57]** deliver the best outcome to the user and so we we see this as as being applicable to platforms such as as FlytNow that enable open open apis for direct integration and on top of that a comprehensive warranty and save and uh beyond that future proof Hardware more more more than anything it needs to be Plug and Play needs to work it needs to get there it needs to fly across the world needs to be easy to install easy to uh easy to to maintain and then on top of that easy to be modular so really modular system Integrations one that we've heard where hey I need a cellular modem or no I really just need a ethernet and so I don't need that that whole that whole integrated system or hey I'm moving my Nest to a more heated environment I need the HVAC and and a wide variety of different use cases that can enable uh a

**[15:57]** singular system to provide value for a multitude of different use cases based off the modular components that reside within it on that here's the universal oh God we can't hear your audio from the presentation so designed to fit a wide variety of drones the two that we see uh being the most demanded for are the uh the mavic 3 and the anaphi USA which are right now in uh in hands of some of our beta testers and users and we're excited to be able to start deliveries uh near the end of Q2 okay

**[16:59]** on top of that uh stated again the the universal built for 2023 and Beyond is really compatible with some of the most variety of drones existing on the market that goes from uh mavic anaphi autel skydio many of the the drones that you're familiar with today are all going to be integrated for the suite of autonomy that's to come in the next few years and with this with the design of the shell and the integrated components within we're able to really bring down our costs that then bring down the cost for the end user that's going to enable all of your operations to scale much quicker on a much faster track to a higher return on investment and with this all of our systems we're offering five-year structural warranty for the system so you can be sure that your your nests will always be able to handle whatever gets thrown at it and uh on top of this we've got more than 10 different configurations with all of

**[18:01]** the modular capabilities within the universal is able to charge and swap uh many of the Drone types that I listed I just listed and all of which is completely selectable at checkout and configurable after sale as well on top of this I'm I'm pleased to talk about hex Vision which is a system that we've been building uh alongside our partners at Anvil Labs another startup down here in in South Florida uh we're we're really excited about the tools that we're bringing and uh as we discussed our our our beta users are right now testing it out giving us feedback really understanding the most critical aspects that uh it brings to their organization and uh there there is something different about hex Vision that we have not found in any other uh visual analysis tool uh it is something that we're very

**[19:03]** proud to to show a little bit more of today but if you really want to see what's uh behind the curtain join us for the uh for the public release and the open uh the open registration for the hex Vision uh hex Vision platform at the end of Q2 more details to come very soon let's see how it's working now for one of our our partners at Cemex in South Florida so Cemex is one of the the largest manufacturers of cement and they are using hex Vision right now to analyze their uh analyze their stockpiles of material and so through using FlytNow and our partners at Anvil we're able to schedule completely Auto grid missions and even control multiple drones at time at the same time able to cover more ground and able to map areas extremely quickly

**[20:11]** okay that is our uh that is our presentation for NestGen very excited for what's to come follow us on uh on all of the all of the socials we're making big pushes this year and if you would like to be a part of our our uh our Universal uh initial user user program please do not hesitate to reach out to to us uh at Kurt hextronix.tech or just straight through our contact form on the website and we'll get straight to you and really excited to see what we can bring this year 2023 thank you all and let me see if there's any q a thank you thank you Kurt for this session it was really insightful uh we've got a lot of questions from the audience so let's open the house for a round of q a okay can you hear me Kurt

**[21:19]** um okay Natasha I think you are muted can you hear me I can't hear you now okay can you hear me yes yeah so um there are a lot of questions um all right let's go Brandon is asking what industries are utilizing baby loss operations using your technology globally and what industries do you see moving baby laws forward and faster in the US um I can't hear you Natasha uh let's if we can just ask in Q a I'll just pull questions from there if that's all right okay okay all right so I'm seeing a question from alagan I'm not sure if I'm pronouncing your name correctly but uh what is maximum practical uh time the system is operated without people Interruption uh and so right now we've got uh systems tracked across the world um we've got systems

**[22:21]** that have been on for over 280 days continuously uh without without intervention and then we have uh Nest that we have been operating uh the The Nest that we've uh We've demoed for Ken Herron on his podcast um and that Nest has not had human interaction for the past uh four months uh until and and we fly it on a recurring basis essentially mapping out the Farmland uh or giving just giving uh General demos and so then uh from Brandon I think uh yeah Brandon I just saw you not too long ago uh I'll I'll answer his question now what industries are utilizing BVLOS and using technology globally and what industries are moving bvls forward the fastest in the US and so what I'd like to say is is globally we have BVLOS operations for high intensity energy inspection throughout southeast Asia and we also have uh recurring

**[23:26]** uh missions for construction in some of the most advanced cities currently being built in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and both of those are are advancing very quickly the uh the the growth of BVLOS and their specific region and countries and in U.S really I see uh um drone as a first responder as well as many agricultural applications in uh in in relatively remote areas to be ones that can very quickly uh push the boundaries of BV loss flight across the U.S and right now we are in in discussion with many uh many groups across the world and in the US we have already integrated the full um uh detect and avoid solution from Iris through our our software providers that integrate with our nest okay and then let's see we've got a message from Mike interesting control multiple drones same time do you have a waiver for a BVLOS or an observer yeah so for this

**[24:28]** application we had uh we had the drones on site and we did have an observer that uh that was just uh someone who could see the drones as they were in operation but uh the team at hagstronics controlled the drones uh completely remotely uh from our our facility and so it was BVLOS mission conducted however there's just someone on site that could verify uh drones are are in uh improper proper flight orientation and they're they're uh they're operating safely okay and then we've got another question how can we operate with a dock in harsh weather conditions and so uh hextronics is proud to say that we operate in some of the harshest weather conditions across the world and that's due to our HVAC integrated uh cooling system that enables operation in uh up to even 130 degree Fahrenheit uh temperatures and we found many of this to be necessary in locations such as uh as Saudi Arabia

**[25:30]** because man it gets hot out there the sun is is blazing um and really if you want longevity for the system um and you want the uh the Computing components within the nest to function at maximum capacity you need a way to to do Cooling in the system and then with heating heating has not posed too much of an issue with with our Nest granted we're not in Antarctica yet um but we do have integrated heating within the within the nest that that does satisfy the need for for many uh any use cases however for some that do get extremely uh extremely cold we do provide an additional heating element however within the the universal Nest many of those problems have been solved and we will be able to operate in a much well below sub uh Sub-Zero temperatures and well above 120

**[26:31]** Fahrenheit uh with uh with the design of the universal okay and then we've got uh Anonymous how many drones can be in the docking station right now it's a single drone um how many drones uh yeah same question and then another question can we use Electronics with a custom drone talk to us reach out to uh hexatronics go to our website uh fill out our contact form and uh we'll be in touch with you if if you haven't already sent something uh then we'll follow up shortly okay sounds good Natasha I know I can't hear you I don't know what's going on it's probably my my system but I heard you earlier um but I think that's all for for the uh for the event today do we how do we do oh you did good good thank you so much this definitely helps us set up for the adoption of baby loss with hextronics let's hope um right so thank you all for joining us today uh coming up is a networking session so hop on to the sessions

**[27:36]** window uh to uh for your discussions over there thank you thank you everyone for joining we can close now thank you as well