# Keynote by Kamarul

- Event: NestGen ’22
- Published: March 8, 2022
- Length: 20:22
- Watch: https://nestgen.org/library/watch/akWzwpAWei4/

> 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

Dive into the world of drone autonomy. Understand why focusing on modular drone-in-a-box technology is the way ahead.

## Transcript

**[0:00]** it's a real pleasure for me to be here today um I'm hoping that you all can hear me well anyway this is a very exciting topic that uh that I've been given um personally I've been in the drone industry for more than 10 years and I've flown my drones in russia in africa uh before the drone as we know it today and aroma is a seven years old company I will be sharing a little bit about what we do and how we've been scaling our operations and our focus in the nested drone solutions as well right what you're seeing now on the screen uh is actually our footprint the kind of work that we do around the world our hq is actually here in malaysia but we have operations in almost every continent of the world right so next um I think we all are very familiar and aware of what are the use case of drone you know we've been doing this for the past seven

**[1:00]** years at aerodyne the key solutions that we do are in geospatial infrastructure inspections construction agriculture security and so on and so forth over the years we have learned that what is the most important aspect in disrupting the industry is being able to cover very large areas that are scattered around the world and today even though our drones are already able to do all those inspection but it would still require us to travel to those locations we have been dreaming for a future where we can have our drones situated on the site installed and set up on the site so I'm very happy to share that over the past two years uh together with FlytNow as well we have had our drone installed in various locations where we are operating right now to a very significant impact for us from agriculture to infrastructure and so on and so forth and I will talk a little bit as well how

**[2:01]** this has actually transformed our operations by providing real digital transformations for our customers for example when we talk about grid we have been able to reduce the cost by 30 while at the same time allowing us to run the operations by over 400 and so on and so forth and that's just not limited to just power grid we work at wind turbines around the world we have also just started uh in agriculture just over uh one year ago and within a short period of time we have now managed over 100 000 hectares of plantation in malaysia alone and we are looking at expanding these services globally what is very exciting here is that it is not just about flying those roads in these plantations and all that but also connecting the nest to all the supplies as well so we are looking at in the near future where we can operate these roads remotely not just to fly those roads but be able to reload uh the the payload with all the

**[3:05]** fertilizers and whatever that we would require to do this in a fully uh autonomous manner so that's actually where I see the future is actually very very exciting for this industry now we are now at the stage of post-pandemic rise and I'm looking at 2022 to be the rise of enterprise the drone applications for the industry is already becoming very very exciting I've already seen the last quarter at aerodyne for example is the best quarter ever for us and I'm sure the situation is also the same around the world 2024 what we have today are really drones they are in the nest but I'm looking we are professing that by 2024 we will be able to see a fast smarter drone sitting in the nest that we have around the world right so this is very much in line with what we've been looking at the industrial revolution of the parts we are in the era of industrial revolution 4.0

**[4:07]** where it is actually about connecting man and machine right we are already at the stage about we are moving towards industry 5.0 and I'm also already looking at how the next generation of technology when it comes to drone is actually becoming very very exciting we are already now at a generation eight of drone where we are also uh very close to be able to use 5g technology in fact we are at aerodyn we are already testing our drone in the nest controlling them through 5g as well this actually opened up a whole world of opportunity in terms of effectiveness of the operation itself what we have today are really not really fully autonomous what we have today are automated flight I think the world can expect to see our drones to become smarter to work together collaboratively and to have all of this driven by ai mult taking multi-function or multiple input source to optimize our operations and at aerodyne

**[5:09]** we are very deeply involved in developing this kind of technology right now so as you all know as I mentioned earlier that the future is fully autonomous what we have today I wouldn't want to call it down flying machine but in fact that's actually what it is what we have is actually smart sensors the area the era of aerial robotics is actually upon us what you can see on the screen is actually our design for our nested system right now which is already uh being tested in many locations as well right now one of the key things where the nest is enabling us is actually to move to a ai enabled swarm intelligence system so we are looking at a system where it is not just a singular drone in the singular nest operating alone but multiple nests multiple drone operating together to achieve the same mission and that's actually a very very

**[6:09]** exciting prospect moving forward we can look forward to you know a very high level of artificial intelligence that can actually run the operation by mission rather than having qualified and pilots to be operating them but having the operation itself managed from the cloud with mission optimization running as we go along right so an example of this the future of drone tech this is how it's going to look like the brain of operation will reside on the cloud where when whenever we are operating this it's actually about giving it mission objective so for example when you are running this for example for border security no longer do you then remotely operate those throats no longer will you be operating them by scheduling the patrolling but by giving it a mission objective for example if you were to take care of maybe 50

**[7:11]** kilometers of river bordering between two countries you would define what based on the knowledge that you have at that particular time the hot spots then the system by inputting the number of things the number of drones that you do the system will then looking at the terrain of the area as well would then give recommendation where you should be putting your nest right and then as it goes along the system will start doing patrolling the system will start and to understand the terrain the system will start to understand the nuances of the operation by itself this may sound like the stuff of science fiction this is what the next technology will be able to enable us and this is when the aerial robotics will come into place in my vision I see this kind of technology being enabled by the technology like uh what uh our friend is actually working on right now is actually will enable this kind of rollout in the in the industry in the near future

**[8:18]** some of the work on this for example that we are working on already right now uh ranging from security and surveillance critical assets and agriculture as I mentioned earlier let's take a look for example for security we have been running a system like this for the past one and a half years already too much to a very interesting response from the security personnel talking about how effective our system has been being able to beam all the live visuals that are flying around around the of course classified area where we are doing all of these activities and being able to actually monitor them at various common centers around the country being able to monitor event as it unfolds being able to not only schedule the patrolling most importantly in our experience we have been able to allow uh to create awareness

**[9:19]** so it's not just from us flying over there but the awareness of having those drones looking over this hot zone has been a very exciting deterrent for all the various illegal activities that are happening at the border so in our experience has been very very effective and we are actually currently already looking at extending uh the number of deaths at the border so this is already something that is very proven for aerodyne at site now how in in summary how would this autonomous and ai powered drones will affect humanity as we move forward in the future right today if you look at uh immediately we can expect increase in productivity right by having that smart uh mission-driven ai from the cloud to manage all of this drone we can expect better safety because no longer do we need to have pilots on the

**[10:24]** ground especially we are when we are working on a dangerous mission for example at the border we are looking at cost savings as well uh in our experience in some of the locations that we are working on right now we are already saving about 45 of the cost by reducing the number of personnel that will be needed to manage a certain assets that we have been working on and most importantly this system allow for very large allow for the ability to run very large operation we will be able to scale very very easily what we have in our pipeline is already to work on thousands of kilometers of network of connected nets that not only we can control from remotely but business are operating autonomously not only just by charging not only by sheltering the drone from weather and all that but actually collaborating within one to another that's why I'm very excited uh with

**[11:27]** the launch of uh FlytNow absorb all of these intelligence and use cases are additional value that will be provided on top of the drone itself or the functions of the nest itself so this is actually a very very exciting time for the industry I look at how the industry is heading this is almost like you know when the drone industry really started about 10 years ago it became into you know large-scale operation about maybe about five years ago so we are at the verge of something very very exciting uh right now you know as I mentioned earlier as well technological singularity is just some some say two years away some say is five years away some say ten years away but without a doubt singularity a near point a point in the near future where the collective intelligence of machine will surpass the collective intelligence of human so imagine a situation where the number of calculations that we can do at any given time in order to optimize

**[12:32]** any missions that we operate around the world will be better in the far more significant way as well some of the key technologies that will not only uh bring the industry to the next level not just the nest that we are talking about I'm also very excited about some future technologies that is coming in the future hydrogen and nuclear based power are also coming imagine a situation in the perhaps in the timeline of five to ten years from now we can have a nuclear battery that will extend the life of our drones there are some estimates that are talking about in the near future where even when you use consumer uh electronics you may not need to even charge them anymore because for the lifespan of the consumer electronics whether your phones or your computer you could be looking at being able to use them for four or five years without using

**[13:34]** so picture this kind of functionality coming to our drones as well I'm also very excited about sensors and power system I think one of the key areas where ai will be able to bring significant value to the next system that we are talking about is actually sensor fusion for example some of the things that we are already working on right now is actually how do we deploy those remote drones based on incident that happened that side so today we are already using gas distributed oral system that function as oral senses that detect movement detect a sound that actually give through triangulation will be able to give a clue where the sounds are coming from and based on that information it will tell us information where are the locations where this drone will be autonomously flying to check out the incidents at where it is happening so this is again the future how drones will

**[14:36]** disrupt the way we work this could also be for example when uh business are being installed throughout the the uh thousands of kilometers at strategic locations for power line based on satellite data if there are incidents they are detected with the information of the location that we need to deploy or rather where we need to go so these drones can be deployed to the necessary so we are already working on doing predictive analytics we are looking at doing prescriptive analytics that is connected to the to the nest that will allow ultimately at some point in the near future the management of assets to be fully autonomous as well so that's actually some of the most exciting future that we can all look forward I I talked a little bit already about ai and swarm intelligence point number three earlier again uh to recap the value here is actually

**[15:42]** being able to run driven by mission rather than operated by remote operator and most importantly is to be able to have those drone to collaborate within one another for example as we are flying one road could be running out of battery the the system will call upon drones from the next nest to be able to come in and continue the mission so another example for example another for example as drones are following a threat and as we know that's the drones uh the threat the target is heading towards the north the system will be able to then prom a drone uh nest is located maybe five kilometers north of the target area to then deploy the other drone to start flying and wait over there at a certain altitude so that it can actually then detect the number plate of the vehicle that is coming its way so those are the kind and coupled with ai on the drone itself will be able to rate the number plate on the vehicle and be able to again of course this there's

**[16:46]** also uh privacy issues that we have that we are talking about but this when it is deployed in the control manner to look after the security of the model would allow for a better uh control of the uh or rather better addressing the problem statement of the system of course in terms of uh motion planning and singularity in drone uh the number five I will skip number four uh I'm running out of time the number five singularity in growth is something that we can really really look forward to which is the era of really really smart drone powerful connected drones to the cloud that actually control of this uh system that are operating around the world so to me I'm fitting uh maybe for some uh this is a scary future uh to me what the industry would need to do is actually to have that control mechanism how do we control uh this situation how do we control this technology but yet at the same time how we can

**[17:49]** harness this technology to transform the way we operate but before we get there the technology that we have today are already providing significant impact to the way we at aerodyne are already operating we are saving our cost significantly by minimizing the need for us to travel to the site at every second time we are also for example not only looking after thousands of kilometers of uh power line we also have drones uh installed uh at uh warehouses of our client looking after the security of the warehouses uh some other another project that we are working on right now is to look after gas flight line again over thousands of kilometers of course we are at at least stage of all of this what we have done right now is actually to test this over 15 kilometers first to get the proof as a proof of concept to our customers all of this is done uh very closely with the civil aviation authority of the countries that we are operating to me I think the future is very very exciting for

**[18:53]** our industry and thank you FlytNow for being one of the pioneering entities that work very very strongly in providing us the uh operating system that is enabling the use of a nested drone around the world thank you very much wow we are really living in very interesting times and it is so exciting to visualize what this technology has in store for us in the near future thank you so much kamaru for sharing those insights with us drone autonomy is really going to be a game changer and through our partnership we hope to play a significant role in shaping this industry together I would really like to thank kamarul once again for joining us today I know that he has a very packed schedule and this is probably an order for him so thank you so much cameron will really appreciate

**[19:54]** my pleasure to be here with this let's get started with our speaker sessions um as you all know that we have multiple parallel tracks planned for everyone today uh please click on the sessions tab to join the session of your interest interest and make the most of nesgen thank you everyone for joining us today and I hope that you will all have a great next gen thanks