In recent years, the advancement in 5G technology has been tremendous as it enables a wide range of capabilities and products. On similar lines, Qualcomm today has announced its Flight RB5 5G platform for the next generation 5G drones.
The Flight RB5 5G Platform is powered by the Qualcomm QRB5165 processor and is the world’s first drone platform and reference design with 5G and AI capabilities. This platform has been announced to help accelerate development for enterprise, industrial, and commercial drones.
It supports Wi-Fi 6, 5G, and is equipped with a Qualcomm Secure Processing Unit to support modern drone demands. This platform also supports the faster 5G mmWave band and the company is working with Verizon to complete network testing and expects the platform will be offered via the Verizon Thingspace Marketplace.
The drone reference design is available for pre-sale now through ModalAI and the development kit is expected to be available in Q4 2021. With this platform, it accelerates and scales development for Drone Manufacturers to deliver powerful and purpose-built industrial and enterprise 5G Drones.
Commenting on this, Dev Singh, senior director, business development, and general manager of autonomous robotics, drones, and intelligent machines, Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. said:
We have continued to engage many leading drone companies, enabling 200+ global robotics and drone ecosystem members in addition to consistently driving and promoting worldwide drone standardization and transformative 5G capabilities in organizations such as 3GPP, GSMA, the Global UTM Alliance, the Aerial Connectivity Joint Initiative (ACJA) and ASTM. We are proud to continue our momentum of enabling the digital transformation of global industries by unveiling the Qualcomm Flight RB5 5G Platform, a solution that is purpose-built for drone development with enhanced autonomy and intelligence features, bringing premium connected flight capabilities to industrial, enterprise and commercial segments.