Known for its key role in the smartphone industry, Qualcomm is now looking to expand their horizons by making a new chip reference design aimed at making drones cheaper for everyone.
Qualcomm’s SoC (system on a chip) design will also be used for future drones. SoCs are efficient and cheaper than having to produce separate chips. In just one tiny chip, the processor, graphics processing unit and other components are all squeezed in. By doing this, the available space is larger. Batteries can be made bigger for longer life and additional tech can be installed. The company is hoping that the advantage can also be demonstrated in drones.
The company, which has several SoCs used by Samsung and other smartphone giants, has the new Qualcomm Snapdragon Flight reference platform. It will have Qualcomm’s own Snapdragon 801 SoC, which will include a quad-core 2.26GHz processor, 4K video processing, a Global Navigation Satellite System receiver, real-time flight control systems, Bluetooth connectivity and of course dual-band WI-Fi.
Squeezed Processing Power
Despite all the crunched in tech and features, the SoC will not exceed the size of a business card, according to WIRED. The first drone to use the said platform will be a UAV which will be manufactured by Yuneec and is scheduled to be launched next year. If things look up for Qualcomm’s product and it meets the expectations of the drone market, there could be more drones that will use the Snapdragon Flight platform.
Qualcomm’s Snapdragon Flight reference platform is aimed to help drone makers build models that will not only be cheaper, but also more energy efficient as well. Such drones could also have advanced capabilities compared to the drones already available in the market. The board’s complex tech and processing power can help these drones to finally have automated obstacle-avoidance features, which will prove useful for both amateur and experienced drone flyers.
Raj Talluri, the senior vice president of product management over at Qualcomm, told WIRED: “The board, including the Snapdragon 801, is combined with advanced drone software and development tools, making Snapdragon Flight more like a reference design than anything else. Drone or robotic developers and OEMs using Snapdragon Flight can create more innovative designs with advanced features in faster time-to-market and with reduced development costs. This is achieved because Snapdragon Flight integrates virtually all the key elements developers need, and they’re already optimized to work together.”
Considering that most drones are too expensive for mainstream buyers, Qualcomm’s solution is a sound one. The company already did wonders for smartphones. By using their tech, smartphones cost less and became more efficient in using batteries. Such phones now use smaller batteries which leads to a cheaper price in overall.
The Power of System on Chips
SoCs also proved to be a big push in tech miniaturization. Phones in the past were very bulky. Some even have antennas that needed to be extended as the receiver wasn’t powerful enough. The batteries were also bigger because the materials and chips were still power-hungry. As technology progressed, chips became smaller and used less power. With SoCs, chips did not necessarily shrink more. However, more tech and features were squeezed in just one chip.
What was Qualcomm’s inspiration in expanding to the drone industry? Talluri told Fortune that they want to help people take better selfies using the drones. Qualcomm believes that it’s a strong developing market to get into. Yes, drones also have other more useful purposes but Talluri believes that people want to see a flying GoPro that follows the user all around.
In theory, the GoPro idea could work. Almost all videos taken by the camera have very similar, if not all the same, angles. It’s always attached to a helmet or the vehicle used by the user. This results in mostly first-person views with several exceptions for those who direct the camera to the user’s reaction.
If drones were able to fly around and follow its user/s, it would change the dynamic of using GoPros. It could result to more third-person view types of videos, which could be a lot better as the whole action can now be seen.
There is already a drone that could follow its user, and its name is Lily. This drone can also take several types of camera angles while following the user around. It uses GPS for tracking and the user has to wear a tracking bracelet. It’s not yet perfect. It can only fly for about 20 minutes and is expensive with a price tag of $499.
Cheaper and More Advanced
Qualcomm’s Snapdragon Flight reference platform could make cheaper and more advanced drones. The obstacle detection feature would also serve to be a bigger advantage as the user wouldn’t need to worry about the drone. Perhaps one of the largest advantages, however, is that it could result to sub-$300 drones. It’s not only cheaper, it could also be better than the currently available drones.
Interested drone users are often faced with a dilemma of choosing between the highly advanced but expensive drones or the cheaper ones which have less tech and are heavier. It’s one of the problems of the drone market. The user needs to be either largely rich or content of flying a toy-like drone. With Qualcomm’s new flight reference platform, it might actually bridge the gap between the two.
Drone Market Getting Stronger
Qualcomm is hoping that the board will attract many drone makers to use the design. Who wouldn’t want to? It’ll lessen the cost of the materials and it could add more features for their models. The company’s expansion is also in good timing as the market has been gaining momentum for some time now. According to WIRED, the Consumer Electronics Association is estimating that the global drone market will eventually reach $1 billion in just three years. That’s a lot more than the $105 million projected revenue for 2015.
There are still hindrances to the drone market’s transition to the mainstream. Governments are trying their best to make rules regarding such drones for the safety of the public, but it’s inevitable that one or two of the future legislation may hurt the drone market in the long run.
Talluri believes that its Snapdragon Flight reference platform will be a driving force in pushing drones into the “next level.” Considering that they already have a drone manufacturer on board, Qualcomm might be on the right track. Cheaper and more advanced drones may equal to more demand which translates to more profit.
Source: BizTek Mojo