Linux News Today: Meet the World's First Commercial Remotely Controlled Drones, Powered by Ubuntu

UAVIA, a French company that develops inspection and surveillance drones controlled remotely without human intervention on the ground, announced the availability of the first commercial 100% remotely operable drones powered by Ubuntu.

The announcement was made during the TechCrunch Disrupt event that takes place these days at the Copper Box Theatre in Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, in London, United Kingdom, where UAVIA demonstrated its impressive Ubuntu-powered drones in the hardware alley. The drones are powered by Canonical’s Snappy Ubuntu Core operating system engineered for embedded and IoT (Internet of Things) devices.

“For drones to become mainstream, we need more of them to become autonomous and we need to facilitate their maintenance,” said Maarten Ectors, Vice President Internet of Things at UAVIA. “Ubuntu Core is key to unlocking the full drone potential. It brings  onboard intelligence to help drones progress towards autonomous flight thanks to sense and avoid technologies.”

Snappy Ubuntu Core is the perfect OS for drones

According to UAVIA, the Snappy Ubuntu Core operating system is the perfect OS for drones, as it unlocks their full potential while facilitating maintenance by providing failsafe, secure and efficient remote software deployments. UAVIA thinks that Ubuntu is the key to helping drones progress towards autonomous flight, and they’ve built their entire service on Ubuntu.

The new generation of fully remote controlled drones from UAVIA uses the company’s in-house built Cloud Control technology, allowing for remote surveillance and sensing without any human intervention. Thanks to these innovations, UAVIA believes that the drone market will soon explode and that more and more companies will buy these type of drones to do all sorts of inspection, surveillance or technical monitoring on industrial sites.

More details about UAVIA and their 100% remotely controlled drones powered by the Snappy Ubuntu Core operating system can be found on the company’s website, as well as on the press release attached below.