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The list honors the businesses that have not only found a way to be resilient in the past year, but also turned those challenges into impact-making processes. These companies did more than survive, they thrived—making an impact on their industries and culture as a whole. This year’s MIC list features 463 businesses from 29 countries.

The Skydio X2 has received the CES® 2021 Best of Innovation Award for Drones and Unmanned Systems. The announcement was made ahead of the first-ever, all-digital CES 2021, the world’s most influential technology event, happening Jan. 11–14, 2021.

Skydio is working to bring about “the age of AI-driven autonomy,” where drones are no longer powered by manual operations but are defined by software and AI with native obstacle avoidance. Manually piloted drones are so easily crashed, they require a hefty investment in qualified pilots and visual observers, as well as pilot training to try to lower the risk of pilot error that would lead to loss of equipment, property damage, or worse.

Skydio is partnering with a silicon valley neighbor, Arris Composites, to bring a world’s-first technology to the drone industry. Arris' Additive Molding™ technology is an industry-leading process that allows the manufacture of composite parts that are stronger than titanium with region-specific property optimization while offering the geometry and design flexibility of an injection molded part.

Professional drone pilots understand the difficulties of operating manual drones for enterprise applications: the ever-present risk of crashing, having to turn down drone applications that are lucrative but just too risky, and a steep learning curve requiring heavy self-teaching.

In the first episode, an Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD) team uses Skydio X2D to assess the risk, survey the damage, secure the area, and search for survivors of a vehicle borne improvised explosive device (VBIED). With Skydio’s AI-based obstacle avoidance reducing the cognitive load on the pilot, the team is able to fly confidently at low altitude and between obstacles to detect any oncoming threats.

Solving the challenge of bringing drone operations to scale has been the holy grail for many in the industry. A lot goes into this process to get buy-in and funding from executives and regulatory institutions with a lot of that revolving around being able to demonstrate multiple levels of safety and security, value, and performance metrics. And all of this usually has to happen before a program even gets started.

Skydio appoints Industry and Military Veterans Trent Hall as VP of Channel & Alliances, and Federal Sales team additions Sai Williams and Ron Bellavia as Federal Account Managers, and Dylan Hamm as Solution Engineer