Parrot officially launches the Parrot SDK Partner Program and announces its first major partner Kittyhawk.
Its new SDK Partner program expands its offerings to help both enterprise and start ups create new applications, software and hardware to seamlessly integrate with Parrot ANAFI and ANAFI Thermal drones.
Parrot’s SDK program currently allows developers to create their own iOS and Android applications and service programs for ANAFI and ANAFI Thermal drones. Now, industry partners will gain access to both hardware and software support, along with go-to-market strategy support to business partners across the globe.
As the drone industry landscape continues to change rapidly, Parrot’s SDK Partner Program seeks to support the development of an ecosystem of solutions specifically developed for the unique needs of Parrot’s professional users in first response.
Parrot’s first partner in the program, Kittyhawk, will pair its new enterprise platform, Air Control, with Parrot’s ANAFI hardware to provide an enhanced and compliant flying experience to businesses with complete functionality across iOS, Android and web. Kittyhawk Air Control offers thermal camera controls, live streaming, compliance controls and fleet management for enterprise flight operations managers and operators. It’s one integrated platform that connects enterprise workflows and safety controls to in-field drone operations.
Kittyhawk’s platform also provides authorizations to fly in controlled U.S. airspace near airports through the Low Altitude Authorization and Notification Capability (LAANC), a collaboration between the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and private industry partners. LAANC provides near real-time processing of airspace authorizations in approved altitudes – directly supporting the integration of unmanned aircraft systems into the national airspace.
Kittyhawk will support ANAFI and ANAFI Thermal drones beginning in early 2020.
“We are excited to see the advanced level of functionality and control our support for Parrot will deliver to our customers,” said Jon Hegranes, CEO and Founder at Kittyhawk. “ANAFI’s impressive form factor, user experience, and camera capabilities made it an obvious enterprise-ready hardware partner for us to integrate with.”
Since the launch of Parrot’s SDK program in April 2019, Parrot has added several new features to further aid its partners including MAVLink support, Windows libraries, and a comprehensive tutorial to help anyone produce a working application for ANAFI in minutes.
“Our clients always expect to work with top-quality hardware and the best solutions and services. Kittyhawk’s platform brings immense capabilities to our professional ANAFI customers,” said Jerome Bouvard, Parrot Director of Strategic Partnership. “We launched the SDK Partner Program to create a global drone ecosystem of apps and services— capable of serving the unique and ever-evolving needs of our enterprise partners.”
It’s nice to see Parrot with a future. It wasn’t looking so good for a while. An excellent product but service fell off dramatically the last couple of years. I hope this brings them back and things improve for them? I fly there products in the most adverse conditions you could imagine and they are strong and almost infallible. I would like to think they will still be in business for say an Anafi 0.3?