Digital Nasional Berhad (DNB) and Aerodyne Technology Sdn Bhd (Aerodyne) recently entered into a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to explore the development of 5G, with a particular focus on drone and data technologies.
According to a joint statement, the collaboration leverages the parties’ respective strengths in 5G technology and infrastructure, as well as drone and data analytics capabilities. It presents an opportunity to evaluate and co-develop innovative 5G use cases, with a view to identifying strategic market needs for those use cases.
DNB and Aerodyne said that drones and its associated technologies have compelling potential use cases across a host of industries. The availability of ultrafast 5G speeds as well as a supportive cloud computing infrastructure could enable next-generation, AI-powered “swarm intelligence systems” – a host of drones working in unison to collect multiple datapoints at a time. Applications include precision agriculture, with drones working to increase crop yields and profitability for farmers.
“5G will take Industry 4.0 to the next level by facilitating unprecedented levels of flexibility, productivity and efficiency. By enabling Aerodyne to deploy their drones in a 5G environment, more innovative use cases can be further developed and showcased to multiple industries. This would encourage faster adoption of Internet of Things (IoT) and A.I. solutions while building an inclusive digital ecosystem,” said Prem Kumar Menon, Head of Enterprise Strategy at DNB.
Drones have gained popularity in recent years as viable tools for both commercial and governmental applications in agriculture, construction, energy, mining, logistics and many other industrial sectors. Having both pilot and drone connected to an underlying 5G network will see drones being able to serve as precision tools in these verticals, operating with unprecedented levels of accuracy and near imperceptible delays, both companies claimed.
Founder and Group CEO of Aerodyne, Kamarul A. Muhamed said, “5G is a game-changer in the world of connected drones. Our low-latency 4G-connected drones will be elevated to new heights on the 5G network. This opens up a virtually unlimited range of industrial applications and will contribute to the accelerated digitalisation of Malaysia’s industries.”
Aerodyne has been developing unmanned aerial drone solutions along with software-as-aservice (SaaS) offerings for a number of fields including aerial data intelligence gathering, emergency response and surveillance, natural resource management, intelligent resource management among others. It currently employs over 800 drone professionals, managed more than 560,000 infrastructure assets with 458,058 flight operations across 35 countries.
