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Spartacus, the Alexa of the drone industry, is set to get bigger brains with new deal

Connecticut-based Aquiline Drones (AD) is on a buying spree. Last month, the company decided to get a 50% stake in the Netherlands-based AI drone manufacturing firm AerialTronics. And now, AD has acquired ElluminAI Labs to support the development of its in-house artificial intelligence framework called Spartacus.

What is Spartacus?

Spartacus acts as an AI assistant across AD’s drone technology ecosystem that includes drone pilot training, drone manufacturing, commercial drone operations, and cloud solutions.

Supporting voice recognition and voice command, the deep learning assistant is being integrated into AD’s drone pilot training program, Flight-to-the-Future. There, it will answer questions and intervene with precise suggestions based on how students interact with the course curriculum.

In the meantime, Spartacus is also equipped with what AD calls “Machine Vision” skills to analyze drone data in real-time. AD explains that this data analysis is highly specialized by use case. For example, a commercial orchard is leveraging AD’s AI tech for applications like fruit counting and fruit analysis. In another use case, its AI applications are deciphering thermal images from firefighting drones.

The company further says Spartacus will play a crucial role in solutions focused on inspection, public safety, and drone delivery services. As part of AD’s Command and Control (AD C2) framework, Spartacus will optimize flight planning and execution, and also be used for dynamic scheduling and dispatching of fully autonomous solutions.

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Barry Alexander, founder and chairman of Aquiline Drones, notes that the main difference between Spartacus and other digital agents is its advanced architecture, based on artificial neural networks, which provide the ability to get smarter and more efficient over time, especially with increasing amounts of data. Alexander quips:

This is not only ground-breaking technology but sky-breaking technology as well. What’s more is the superior and scientific architecture that ElluminAI brings to the table that will monitor and manage the AD ecosystem more accurately, skillfully, and successfully.

Scott Martin, the cofounder of ElluminAI Labs and professor at George Mason University, adds:

Joining AD to build the next-gen AI solutions together to advance the global drone, aviation, and training markets is indeed transformative, and we can’t wait to help launch tomorrow’s ground-breaking AI-driven societies.

Using Spartacus beyond drones

Interestingly, Spartacus is powerful enough to have wider applications beyond drones, too. AD says Spartacus can seamlessly traverse activities at work and in the home; especially while traveling. Such activities include managing home security, energy usage, vehicle maintenance, personal schedules, and other connected devices while offering options for anticipated activities based on “habit recognition.”

Similarly, Spartacus can be enhanced for different IoT (Internet of Things) settings, such as factory management, logistics, construction site surveillance, precision farming, facility management, and maintenance adviser. And this could have interesting implications, with both drones and IoT devices becoming increasingly popular in such environments.

As Alexander concludes:

From intuitive instructor and mission guide to personal assistant and business coach, Spartacus is the perfect amalgamation of both AD and ElluminAI Labs, offering maximum versatility, reliability, innovation and safety for all drone solutions. We are now poised to usher in paradigm-shifting and disruptive technology by providing a full lifecycle approach to all drone industry missions capable of helping businesses and individuals around the world.

Read more: Autel EVO III leak reveals specs, appearance. Release before DJI Mavic 3?

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Author

Avatar for Ishveena Singh Ishveena Singh

Ishveena Singh is a versatile journalist and writer with a passion for drones and location technologies. She has been named as one of the 50 Rising Stars of the geospatial industry for the year 2021 by Geospatial World magazine.


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