Episode 8: Scaling DFR - Multi-drone BVLOS implementation
In this webinar, Jakee and Sujoy shared that multi-drone operations are now live and rolling out to agencies, enabling one pilot to operate up to four drones and fundamentally changing how DFR programs scale. The focus wasn’t just the feature, but the impact: reducing pilot staffing needs, lowering program costs, and increasing flexibility to handle overlapping or simultaneous incidents. They walked through how it works in Remote Flight Deck, how autonomy and deconfliction make it manageable, and the real-world ways agencies are using it today, from transitioning between calls to maintaining continuous coverage. They also covered the FAA path, which requires a new but familiar agency-level waiver, supported by documentation to streamline approval.
- All right. Good afternoon
- and, uh, or good morning, I suppose, potentially, depending on where you are.
- Um,
- but, uh, glad to have you here for another, uh,
- regulatory webinar for
- public safety.
- Uh, today I'm joined, uh, by Sujoy again on our product team, uh,
- becoming a bit of a regular himself.
- Uh, and we're gonna be talking multi-drone
- operations.
- So, uh, and this has been, I think, uh, a question
- in almost every webinar for probably the last couple months at least.
- When's it coming, and what's the status, and are you talking about it, and so
- on. So, uh, here we are. We're, we're gonna talk multi-drone.
- We've got some, some, uh, great announcements, and, uh,
- we'll do some
- demos, and show you guys all about it.
- So,
- um, so rewinding a little bit first, uh, uh, just kind of
- some, some context for this. So,
- uh, about six months ago now,
- uh, at our Ascend event, um, we, we did have, uh, Las
- Vegas Metropolitan Police Department, uh, with us as a guest, and
- they announced at that time, uh, they had just received a Part 107
- multi-drone waiver. Um, so that was kind of a, a, you know,
- first step, pathfinder effort for us. We were super excited for them.
- Uh, but we, we hadn't quite, uh, figured out yet how to scale this with the
- FAA. Um, and product kind of was still under development at that time.
- So, um, but yeah, still, still a great
- milestone and, uh, kind of got everybody excited for this.
- Um, so what have we been up to since then?
- Uh, this is kind of my, my awesome meme for the day, but, um,
- but yeah, I think, uh, we're here to kind of say that, you know,
- the area of
- multi-drone operations for public safety is here.
- Uh, just a couple of weeks ago, uh, what kind of kicked this all off
- is we had 12
- additional agencies, uh, that received approvals.
- Um, these are Part 91 approvals this time, so, um, kind of the same
- type of approval that a lot of you are operating under today with the,
- the 200 and
- 400 foot waivers. Um, now there's a path forward to multi-drone
- operations under that. So, uh, congratulations to, to these 12
- agencies here, uh, to start, and, and we've al-already been
- working with them to kind of get them enabled and spun up and, and kind of ease
- into this, uh, new mode of operations and, and we're really excited
- to, uh, get this capability out to, to everybody else here.
- So we're actually gonna kinda, uh, flip the order here a little bit today.
- Normally, I, like, launch right into, like, how to get waivers.
- We are gonna cover that, but it's gonna be at, at,
- towards the end of the, the
- webinar. Um, wanted to talk a little bit about, like,
- why.
- So why is this multi-drone operations, you know,
- important? H-how does it impact your operations?
- Like, how should you be thinking about it
- besides just being, like, super
- cool and you know, this ability for, for one pilot to fly up to four
- drones.
- Um, so we, we've been looking at kind of some,
- some staffing modeling,
- uh, in the last couple months. Um, and we wanna give you guys an
- example, just kind of a, um, a sort of case study in how
- this could impact your operations.
- Um, so a- as many of you already probably know,
- if you're starting a
- program or looking at starting a program, you know, buying drones is, is just kind
- of the start of it. So there's a cost associated with those,
- but there's also
- other costs. There's pilot costs, uh, getting sites ready,
- getting these things deployed, connectivity, et cetera.
- Um,
- and pilots can actually be a, a pretty significant part of that,
- that total cost of a program. Um, so we'll kind of focus in on
- that here with how multi-drones, um, can impact that.
- So, uh, i- if you've worked with us or, or are kind of in the process, um,
- we've probably done this kind of call for service analysis for you.
- And, and if you haven't, this is a, um, a thing we can do with you as
- part of the process. So,
- um, so we'll, we'll kind of look at, like, what is your total call for service
- volume, and then this, uh, simulation we have
- can kind of tell you, like, what is the number of docks you might need,
- how many
- hives, uh, where should these hives be located
- throughout your, your
- jurisdictions. And one part of this analysis is
- actually kind of looking at the staffing. Like, what, what would it take?
- How many pilots would you need, uh, to staff, uh,
- the program at the size that you're looking at?
- And so the example here, this is just kind of a mid-sized city and,
- uh, we chose to look at an 18-drone
- deployment,
- uh, across five hives. And this kind of represents just, like,
- almost a full
- deployment, kind of citywide coverage in a,
- in a mid-sized city.
- Uh, so looking at, you know, what does it take then to staff, you know,
- 18 drones
- and docks, essentially 24/7? Like, how do you fully staff this?
- Um, you'd need kind of on average, like, three pilots,
- um,
- per, per hour. So the... and it kind of ebbs and flows
- just like calls for service do. So in peak hours you may need a few more,
- up to
- four. In kind of the off hours when things are a little slower, it may
- drop down to two. But, uh, you kind of get this average of, of about
- three, three operators per hour.
- And that's just one-to-one. Sorry, so kind of without multi-drone,
- that's sort of
- what it looks like. So then what do you, what, what does that mean in terms
- of, uh, kind of like your total staff?
- If you just need, like, three pilots per hour,
- um, if we kind of just do some math of, you know, 24/7, so how
- many hours in a week, and you divide that by how many hours, like, a
- pilot can, can put towards this in any given week,
- um, you end up with about 15 pilots.
- So you'd have to, to, to fully staff this program,
- in other words,
- to have kind of these five hives, these 18 docks, you'd need, uh, a
- cadre of, like, 15 pilots,
- um, to be spun up.
- And again, this is kind of just one example,
- but e-essentially drone
- pilots kind of scale, uh, with your program.
- So the more docks you have, the more pilots you're gonna need.
- Just kind of this linear relationship, unfortunately, and
- that can really drive up,
- uh, the cost of a program. So again, in this example, uh,
- those 15 pilots, that could represent about forty percent
- of your, your total
- program cost. So it's a, a pretty big, big chunk.
- So then what is, what does Multidrone do that?
- So what, what happens if one pilot can actually fly mul-
- more drones,
- um, more than one drone at a time, uh, during these calls?
- So,
- um, you're, you're gonna kind of see this live here in
- a minute.
- Um, but essentially this, uh, the, the product we have now
- will kind of automate and start to reduce the, the
- workload for the pilot in some of these key phases of flight.
- So we can start to launch drones very simply based on CAD
- integrations. You know, it's essentially like a one-click button
- instead of,
- uh, different screens and typing in addresses and so on.
- Uh, features like Pathfinder can, can get the drone from point A to point B,
- uh, autonomously and with really, with minimal pilot oversight at this
- point.
- So just right-clicking on a map or clicking on that marker, uh,
- to, to dispatch a drone there. The drone will just automatically go
- there.
- It'll avoid obstacles. It'll terrain follow.
- Um, it'll do all that just kind of automatically.
- So the pilot can really then just start to focus on, like, the call itself, um,
- you know, where, where their attention matters most.
- And then likewise, once, once the drone is finished, y- the, the pilot can return
- it. Uh, it'll autonomously fly it back and land and, and that can be done with
- minimal pilot oversight as well.
- Um,
- so yeah, we, we believe that really kind of like owning the full
- stack here really
- unlocks this for agencies, um, and makes Multidrone operations
- safe and simple, and you can really kind of bring these,
- these
- benefits, uh, to your agency. So we have the hardware, we have all this
- software. Pathfinder is one feature, but there's many other things that are,
- that
- we're, we're building or we've already built,
- and we're really just kind of
- leveraging into Multidrone operations now, uh, again, to make this
- safe. Uh, and then finally we can, we can help you get the waivers now
- for that.
- Okay, so back to the, the analysis then to kind of bring this
- full circle.
- Uh, this is that, that same agency example,
- same kind of mid-city with
- eighteen, eighteen drones and docks.
- Um, but now on the right side you can see, uh, the, the bars have
- really kind of across the board, they've dropped down.
- Uh, one thing that's, uh, kind of important to note here is actually
- Multidrone can be most impact-impactful at your peak hours.
- So you kind of get the most bang for the buck when it's busier, uh,
- when those pilots can really, uh, get, get responding to calls and just kind of
- transit to and from things. So in peak hours, we see like
- a reduction of maybe at least one operator per hour,
- uh, potentially more. And even in the off hours,
- you might see a slight reduction,
- but you're already maybe kind of minimally staffed at that point, so there's just a
- smaller impact.
- Um, so yeah, we, we see that average from basically three pilots
- down to two
- pilots an hour.
- And then in terms of cost savings, just that alone represents a ten
- percent cost, uh, reduction across the program.
- So,
- um, so again, just an example. Um, we would, we would help work this
- analysis with you, and you may see more or different kinds of
- savings, um, and how Mul-Multidrone impact,
- operations can impact
- you. But, um, but yeah, just kind of at, at a sort of high
- level overview kind of analysis level, uh, there's basically
- like instant, you know, savings here with Multidrone.
- Um, and we've already had some, some agencies kind of starting to operate
- with
- this, Las Vegas in particular, since they've had their, uh,
- their approval for a
- while and, um, have kind of been partnered with us on
- some, some early,
- uh, deployments. So, uh, I'm gonna pass over to Sujay.
- Just, like, do you have any kind of final comments on,
- on how folks are starting to
- use this or, or benefits?
- Yeah. I think, um, [clears throat] you know, peop-people
- are in general are pretty
- early in their, um, in this, in the, in building out their DFR programs.
- Um, and so while cost reductions are very interesting,
- I think the other thing that
- we're seeing is that, you know, once you start scaling beyond three,
- five, seven docks, um, questions like how do you use them
- all? Like, how do you make sure that you're actually getting the most
- value out of
- these docks? Um, and so an organization like Vegas,
- you know, we have, we have
- a handful of organizations that are now over ten docks. Uh, Vegas
- is over thirty.
- Um, and, uh, the, the problem that they came to us was, with
- was, um, they had two pilots who were doing the night shift,
- and they had over
- thirty docks. Um, and so that math just doesn't make any sense.
- Like, all these docks are just gonna be sitting, uh, unused.
- Um, and so the only way they could really make
- that work even
- on slightly more was basically using Multidrone to, to
- start using more of those docks. Um, and I'll call out like three major use
- cases that we're seeing right now in the wild.
- The one that I think everyone [clears throat] in the drone space has
- talked a lot
- about is on station relief, right?
- So you've got a hive of docks, and with three dock, three dock, docks,
- you can basically keep continuous operations going for a long time.
- If you need to k- maintain oversight on the house
- or you're tracking some
- individual, um, you can kind of keep sending new drones
- and replacing the
- old drones, and they charge, and you can kind, kind of keep doing that.
- The second thing is, um, as you're wrapping up a
- previous incident, uh, you can start responding to the second
- incident.
- So a lot of times at the end of an incident,
- you've got the drone there just sort
- of keeping an eye on things, but, you know, it's mostly nothing particularly
- active is happening. Uh, you can start responding to a second call
- at that point.
- It'll take a little while for your drone to get up in the air
- and get over to the
- second incident. By the time the second drone gets there,
- the first one call's
- wrapping up, you can just hit return, and you're able to now have this
- operational
- flexibility, um,
- for how you do this. And I think this is really cool because this also allows
- you-
- Um, I've talked to some agencies who don't
- wanna respond to, uh, lower
- priority calls because they're, they wanna wait to make sure they can
- respond as
- fast as possible to the high priority calls.
- Um, and that's great, but really we want, we want drones to be responding to all of
- these calls, right? Um, and so with multi-drone,
- you actually don't have to
- choose. Uh, the opportunity cost drops a lot.
- Like, you can start responding to a low priority
- call, and if a high priority
- call comes in right then, you can actually start responding to high
- priority and
- just hit return on the, on the first drone and, like,
- not really worry about it.
- Uh, which you couldn't do in just a one-to-one
- situation.
- Um, and the third thing that we- we've actually seen, which
- is super cool to see,
- um, is, uh, the ability to respond to two calls
- simultaneously.
- And you might be like, "Hey, that sounds crazy. Like,
- how do you keep...
- How do you, uh, how do you do that?" Um, and it, it really depends on the calls,
- right? If, if you're... I, I probably wouldn't respond to, like,
- two stolen vehicle
- calls where you're trying to chase two stolen vehicles around the [chuckles]
- city.
- That's probably not gonna work super well.
- Um, but there are calls where, like, you know, there's a suspect in a house, we
- gotta get a drone over there to keep an eye on it, and if the suspect leaves,
- we're
- gonna do something. And on this other side, you know,
- something else has happened,
- and, uh, that's a high priority call. There's someone with a weapon.
- So you could imagine balancing sort of one high priority with one where, like,
- you've got oversight or things like that.
- Um, and we are seeing examples of that where basically, like, people
- are taking off
- two different drones from two completely different locations, and then they're
- flying to two more different locations, um, and they're,
- uh, doing two operations basically
- simultaneously.
- Um, so those are all the ways that you can start using multi-drone.
- Um, and, you know, I haven't even talked about the fact
- that you can start using
- two, three or four drones on a single
- operation.
- Imagine, you know, I think at Ascend last year,
- we showed like, oh, there's a
- suspect in the hotel. We don't know which exit he's gonna leave from.
- Let's position drones all around the, the property to, to keep an eye on.
- So, um, I think it just opens up all sorts of, uh,
- operational
- flexibility, uh, for your organization.
- Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. I mean, yeah, I think, uh, I think you hit it.
- It's like, this is still new. Uh, and we obviously have some,
- some ideas on how agencies are gonna use this,
- but we're also just kind of
- interested in, in what you all are, are gonna do with it.
- Um, and I, I, I was actually, uh, I was talking to, like, a smaller agency,
- you know, the other day, and it, this may be, this may appear to be,
- like a,
- a, a big agency problem. I've got 30 docks, like,
- how do I fly 'em all now?
- But this was an agency that only had three docks, um, but they
- could only find one pilot. Like, they were basically staffed with one person.
- Um, and so, like, that, that's applicable too.
- Like, this isn't just for big agencies.
- If you're a smaller agency with a couple docks, but, um, you
- know, you're, you're having a hard time kind of finding
- that full staffing,
- um, this can also help to, to alleviate some of that.
- So,
- um,
- cool. Well, should we get into a demo then, or any,
- any final thoughts?
- Uh, no, yeah, let's do it.
- Okay. Right on.
- Yeah. So, um, I'm just gonna show off,
- uh, basically how multi-drone looks, uh, in our remote flight deck.
- So this is our remote flight deck. Um, and, uh, we
- basically have, we've split up the screen typically into
- three parts.
- Right now it's just two, which is you've got the sidebar,
- which kind of is your
- information panel. This has my list of drones.
- It also has my list of incidents, so this is where if I, uh,
- was integrated with
- CAD, I would have, like, all my CAD calls just flowing through the
- system.
- Um, and I can basically look at them right
- here.
- I've got another tab for body cameras. Uh, looks like Joe's online.
- Um, and then I can actually have pre-planned
- missions.
- So, uh, I'm not gonna demo this, but I can show you if I click on this,
- for example, this is like a patrol of, of our, our Skydio
- headquarters that we've set up. So I could have a drone run this,
- and actually I
- could do this with multi-drone. I could have one drone doing a perimeter
- patrol
- while a, a second drone is flying around manually.
- Um, so I could combine all those types of
- things.
- Again, right, operational flexibility, as I mentioned.
- So what I'm gonna do is, uh, we're gonna respond to a call.
- Uh, so I'm gonna hit respond here.
- Um, all right, I'm gonna take this one. I'm gonna enter the cockpit.
- And so I'm gonna get one drone flying.
- It's a nice view of our rooftop.
- And, and in case it's not clear, like, this is essentially the one-to-one
- experience today.
- Yes. Correct.
- Yeah. So there's kind of-
- Yeah
- ... no different at, no difference at this point from what you
- see every day.
- That's correct.
- Yeah.
- And so, and you can see over here that the drone is automatically,
- once I hit
- launch, it's basically flying to that, to that location and looking at where
- that marker's base is, right? So it's looking at the, at this location.
- Now, uh, this is obviously very tight.
- Our property's not that big, uh, so the flights are gonna be less
- interesting.
- But you can, uh, imag- imagine that, um, this is happening in a, in a larger
- city as well. I can take over control of the drone.
- Um, and, um, and we have pathfinders, so you can just
- imagine that the, the drone just flew over here, um,
- uh, all by itself avoiding buildi- buildings and things like that.
- Um, now, uh, so now I'm on this operation, you know, let's say that
- we're, like, looking for a missing person or, like,
- we're waiting to see if someone
- comes out here or something like that.
- Um, and let's just pretend that our battery's starting to get low.
- Um, I have a, a few different ways that I can actually call a second drone.
- I can go back to my drone list and I can pick a drone,
- but what I'm actually gonna
- do here is I'm gonna hit deploy here, and I'm gonna hit deploy new drone.
- Um, and I'm gonna pick
- drone 55.
- Or is it the 44?
- Uh, and now I've got two video feeds on the
- right.
- Right now, yeah. And you'll see that this drone
- is now opening up.
- And in general, what we've tried to do is make multi-drone feel pretty
- seamless, uh, as far as, like, how it feels compared to other
- experiences,
- um, in Skydio already. So, um,
- yeah.
- Um, and so all the d- all the controls
- that you might learn for flying a
- single drone basically apply to flying multi-drone.
- So what you might have noticed is, is that there's a white border around this
- video
- feed. I can... That's basically the drone
- that I've selected.
- So if I, if I now wanna use the, use my controls
- to, to move the drone around, uh, I can look around, I can look down,
- and then if I, if I wanna switch, all I have to do is click on the other
- drone.
- I can click on the other drone on the map, I can switch between the different video
- feeds, um, I can go back here if I want to. I can close this if I want.
- Um, I can also just s- switch, switch between my drones over here as
- well.
- Um, so I'm just gonna click on this image, and I'm gonna look around,
- and now I've, I have two drones in the air.
- I can also see all the information I need.
- So for example, both my drones are at around 100 feet,
- so I don't like that, so I'm
- gonna move one of them up a little bit to make sure that they're in different,
- different, um, bands of airspace.
- [clears throat] I can tell this drone to go over here to cover one
- area. I can tell this drone to go, go over here.
- Hey, Sujay, would it be okay to grab a, a Ready link?
- Share that out, maybe.
- Uh, so the Ready links are per, per, uh, drone.
- So, um, you could take a look at that.
- If you, uh, if you scan this, you should be able to see this drone,
- uh,
- on your phone.
- Um, and then we've, uh, we've also implemented...
- We know that at some point, at some times there's gonna be some,
- some kind of
- emergency situations, so we've actually implemented some
- controls for that you can
- use for all of your drones. So I just actually paused my drones, um,
- so if both of them are flying, uh, they would pause.
- Uh, there's a descend button that will take them down to 100 feet AGL,
- uh, which is
- basically, you know,
- that's a way to, uh, avoid air traffic.
- If you're, if you, you know, don't wanna have to manage each one
- individually, just
- hit, uh, descend all. They'll all go down to 100 feet,
- and then you can return all
- of them as well, um, in case that's, that's helpful for you.
- Uh, you can kind of try... I think in general,
- one of the things we're thinking
- about is as you have more drones in the air, the map becomes, uh, even more
- important, 'cause tha- that's where a lot of your action
- is gonna happen now.
- Um, and so you, our, our goal over time is to actually make it so
- that you can do a lot of flexible things like drag a lookout point and things like
- that. Um, those are, those are features that we're thinking about for
- the future.
- Um,
- cool. And then let's say I was wrapping up this, uh, this call,
- and another urgent call came up. Let's say this one over here,
- I wanna respond
- there. Um, so I'm gonna get a third drone in the air.
- And so now you're, probably got the idea here,
- but you can imagine basically having
- four drones, having to split into four panels.
- Um, and, and this is, this is what gives me the flexibility.
- Now I can also,
- um, I don't have to actually be flying all the
- drones that I'm watching here.
- If another pilot was flying a drone in this org, I could actually have
- their drone, uh, like for example, down here and then my drone video feed up
- here.
- I can't control their drone, but I can watch their video feed, so
- that might be
- helpful for me if we're, like, working on a joint operation, for example.
- Yeah, so this is the example of, uh, basically starting to fly.
- Uh, having to fly to a, a second incident at the same time.
- All right.
- I'm gonna send the first drone home.
- Uh, one of the things I didn't mention is that we have a, a,
- a deconfliction solution. So one of the most important things that,
- uh, we wanted
- to start doing multi-drone operations was enable, uh,
- deconfliction. We started off with site deconfliction,
- so the, all the drones that
- are, are being here are the same site. They deconflict with each other.
- Um, we are about to roll out glo- global Skydio deconfliction in the next
- few months, um, that no Skydio drone will ever collide
- with another Skydio
- drone. Um, and so basically the drones pause for each
- other, and they
- alert their pilots that there's drone traffic in the area.
- Um,
- uh, so basically this balance of reliability
- and deconfliction,
- uh, autonomy, and this pretty intuitive user interface
- for controlling the
- drones, um, makes multi-drone very possible and is,
- is,
- um, what we've been rolling out to our
- customers.
- Jakey, anything else I should show?
- Awesome. No, I think that was great.
- Um,
- yeah, and we'll kind of keep out for, keep an eye on for, uh, questions from the
- audience, but-
- Yeah, sure
- ... um,
- there are maybe two of them. They're not kind of directly related to
- the demo
- though, so, um-
- Sure.
- Yeah, but maybe, maybe as that kind of wraps up, uh, let me,
- let me hit the two
- questions so far, and then,
- uh, we'll get onto how to get a waiver.
- So, um, well, there's one kind of question
- that came in about,
- um, if, if there's any agencies or cities doing multi-drone
- in South Florida. Um, I would maybe just call
- out Sunny Isles Beach Police Department.
- They're,
- um, South Florida to me, I guess. I, I'm not a Floridian, but, uh, I
- think they're kind of down there,
- um, as, uh, one of the agencies that, that got approval a couple weeks ago.
- Um, there'll be more coming, so, you know, this is kind of the initial, uh,
- initial group, um, that got approval.
- But, uh, but yeah, Sunny Isles Beach Police Department
- is the one that comes to mind there.
- Um, and then the, the other question was, uh, are
- multi-drone authora- authorizations granted to an agency,
- or does
- each individual pilot,
- uh, require one? So,
- um, so yeah, that's actually a good just kind of
- transition into the
- next part. Um,
- these waivers
- are actually just kind of new. Uh, let me get to slides here.
- Yeah, so we can help you get in. So, um, these are effectively like new
- waivers. So, um, depending on if you've been through
- the waiver process to date, like if you have a 200-foot waiver,
- for example,
- today,
- uh, the process is gonna be very similar to
- that, and it will be a, a
- new kind of second approval that you'll get.
- So these don't really, um ... They don't impact, like,
- your current approval.
- It, it doesn't get canceled or anything like that.
- Um, so yeah, you'll get a new approval.
- And if you haven't done this yet with us, if you, if you don't have, like, the
- 200-foot approval today, um, then this would just be kind of
- a new waiver process for you. But it is for the agency.
- It's not per pilot.
- Um,
- yeah. And then, uh, another question just came in on a cheat
- sheet for the waiver.
- So yeah, let's, let's talk about it here. I'll, I'll get through the slides.
- I think that'll hit some of the questions here.
- Um, so yeah, this, this is the, uh, this is the process.
- It's, again, if you've been through the, the 200-foot or the 400-foot
- waiver process for Part 91, this is gonna look very, very, very similar.
- It's almost identical. There's just one new document.
- Um, but if you haven't gone through this yet,
- um, you c- you
- can. We're gonna be updating, uh, some of the, uh, website material we
- have on this, but this is effectively the process for you.
- So,
- um, so for Part 91, um, I didn't put it on here, but there is
- just a reminder that you have to be a public aircraft operator and a public
- safety organization to be eligible for this Part 91 waiver.
- Uh, if you're not those things, there are some other options for you.
- You know, reach out, we can help you.
- But I'll just kind of focus on the, the public safety Part 91 version of
- this for now.
- So there, there's gonna be, uh, four documents, two of them
- that you're gonna be responsible for signing and initialling and, and kind of
- reading through,
- um, to make sure you understand all the
- requirements.
- We are gonna provide then two of the other documents for you, a concept of
- operation that kind of explains how, uh, some of our system works,
- uh, some of the recommended training and so on.
- And then there's a new document on multi-drone operations.
- Um, but you, you basically take these four documents,
- you email them to the
- FAA, and then they do their review process,
- and they'll
- issue a waiver back via email. So it's a pretty, pretty streamlined,
- uh, straightforward process.
- Um, a bit more about the documents here.
- So,
- uh, three of the, the four documents are identical to the
- existing kind of 200-foot single drone waiver.
- So there's a Form 7711. Uh, that's one of the documents that the
- responsible person's gonna have to sign. There's an FAA checklist.
- That's another document that the responsible person's gonna have
- to sign.
- And then the concept of operation document.
- That's something we provide, um, as an example for agencies.
- So really no change to these, uh, compared to the existing processes
- today. Um, and again, if you haven't been through this,
- this will be new to
- you, but you can find these documents.
- Uh, some of them are on the FAA's website, and then we can provide that
- ConOp.
- This is the fourth document. So, uh, this is the new one for multi-drone
- operations. Um, and so effectively what
- happened here is there, there's actually been a set of multi-drone
- questions that
- the FAA generated, um, for, for a number of years now.
- This is part of their Part 107 waiver process.
- Um, but they have this set of questions
- that asks things like, "How does the
- system control multiple UAS?" And, "How do you prevent them from hitting each
- other?" "How does the system keep the drones in the intended area?"
- "How does the pilot avoid aircraft?" And so on.
- So there's kind of these quest- set of questions.
- Um, and this document that we'll, we'll provide you upon request,
- it basically answers all these questions.
- So it kind of goes through each FAA question and provides an answer.
- And really, like, Skydio Autonomy is, is like a huge part
- of this, uh, waiver and, and kinda what makes this safe,
- um, and easy for our pilot to use. So, you know, s- things like
- the, the Pathfinder, our, our geofences, our site feature,
- the drone deconfliction that Sujoy talked about.
- Like, we just automatically keep Skydio drones
- from hitting Skydio drones.
- So pilots don't really have to, like, dedicate a lot of, you know,
- bandwidth to thinking about that. Uh, we just take care of it.
- Um, so the, the, the document will kind of go through each
- question and, and just provide answers,
- um, just kind of in line. So,
- um, so we'll provide this document as well.
- And this is kind of the, the document in particular that, uh,
- you know, tells the FAA, "I want multi-drone operations," and,
- and then it's up to
- them to review it as a, a multi-drone request.
- Um, okay. So,
- uh, one, one note on the, the RP, so this responsible
- person. Um, I'll just, I'll kinda hit this.
- Th- this is talked about in the FAA's
- checklist, um, but I'll just kinda give a few
- thoughts as well. So, um, who is this person?
- Uh, so this person is, is... It's just like it sounds, but, uh,
- it's the person
- that accepts direct responsibility for safety of the operations.
- So they're kind of the one accountable to the FAA for, uh, this, this drone
- program and operations under it. Um, the FAA will say in the checklist, you
- know, this is kind of typically the chief, assistant chief, chief pilot, et cetera.
- But I, I tend to focus on the text kind of in
- gold and yellow there.
- So senior level person who will be accountable to the FAA.
- Um, really, it, it is up to you, to your agency to decide
- who
- is, is putting their name on this. But my recommendation on
- kind of the right side here is it's a person
- that has a working knowledge.
- So-
- Um, you know, if your, if your chief knows kind of day-to-day
- about the drone
- program, that's great, but a lot of chiefs don't.
- They got other things to do.
- So, um, maybe the chief isn't, like, the best person to be
- signing this. Um, but you also don't want it at, at just,
- like,
- the lowest level so that the person doesn't kind of have any,
- um,
- authority to, to actually execute and, uh, kind of direct this
- program. So you wanna, you wanna kind of find somebody in the
- middle, uh, who knows
- the program, who, who could sort of answer questions about
- it, has the authority
- to, um, you know, make staffing decisions and training
- and so
- on. Uh, they don't need a remote pilot
- certificate. That's kind of one note.
- Um, that wouldn't hurt, but it's, it's not a requirement to be this person.
- So couple thoughts on that.
- Um, and that person again would be signing,
- uh, two of these documents.
- Okay. And then what is, like, different in the waiver?
- So assuming you, you get one of these waivers,
- it's actually
- again gonna look very, very similar to your existing 200-foot
- waiver, if you
- have one of those. So a lot of the...
- You know, it's still 200-foot operations. It still requires ADSB.
- Um, just a lot of those provisions are gonna stay the same.
- Uh, but here's kind of the three that, that are new then.
- So you're gonna get this provision that talks about multiple UAS operations,
- up
- to four,
- um, and there's kind of some requirements
- within that.
- Uh, these requirements all kind of relate back
- to different features and
- capabilities that our product has, um, so that they're a bit
- kind of up-leveled and, up-leveled and abstracted in here, but, um, but yeah,
- our product is designed to meet these requirements.
- Um, one nice thing too, this is actually kind of irrelevant to
- multi-drone operations, but we were also able to get the weather
- requirements
- reduced in these weather, uh, multi-drone waivers.
- So instead of three statute miles,
- uh, the FAA is reducing that down to one.
- And then instead of 500 below clouds, 500 feet, uh, you just have to
- remain clear of clouds. So one other just kind of nice enhancement
- to allow you to, uh, fly in a bit more inclement weather
- conditions.
- All right.
- So that's all we got for slides at least today and, and kind of
- prepared content. Um, we'll take a look at the questions here,
- but,
- um, and then we'll kind of do a wrap up.
- So, um, so there's a question here of, uh, what if we have our own concept of
- operation?
- Um, yeah, you're, you're definitely welcome to, uh,
- create that concept
- of operation yourself. Um, you know, our, ours is just one
- example. There's kind of different ways to do it.
- So if, if that is you, if you, if you have your own ConOp, I would
- still recommend reaching out to get that, that multi-drone document,
- um, because that's really, like, the key document that helps f-
- answer those
- FAA questions. And the FAA, as they're doing their safety review,
- they're gonna be
- looking for, you know, those things.
- How does, how does the Skydio system keep drones
- from hitting each other, and so
- on. And so unless you have that document, it might be hard for you as,
- uh, just, like, a customer to know kind of what the FAA
- is looking for and what our
- capabilities are. So I would just recommend reaching out
- and we can,
- can get you that document.
- All right.
- We're gonna be...
- We've got lots of time for questions and no questions this time,
- which is okay too. Um, so if you've got any final questions,
- feel free to throw them in. Um,
- uh, yeah, maybe, maybe one question here.
- So, like, kind of a question of, is this a future thing or are agencies
- actually starting to do this? Like, is this live?
- In other words, can I, can I start doing this today or is,
- are you talking, like,
- months away? So, um, so yeah, this is live and,
- um, you know, Sujoy too kind of, uh, get your thoughts on this one.
- But, but yeah, we do have Las Vegas in particular who's
- actually been using it a
- couple months as kind of an early, uh, access customer of ours.
- Um, but we are starting to get some of those
- other 12 enabled.
- So, um, yeah, anything-
- Yeah
- ... to add on that, Sujoy? Yeah.
- No. I would say it's, it's very live.
- Um, I think if you, if you get a waiver, we're willing to turn this on.
- Um, we basically have offered all the, all the customers who have gotten a waiver
- recently,
- um, have at least been offered, uh, and I think almost all of them have turned
- it
- on already. Um,
- what... In general, I've seen-- What I've seen is that even at Vegas,
- I think,
- um, it was very clear to the, the, the leader of the drone program
- that we needed this. Um, I think to the pilots it was not
- that clear.
- They were like, "What?" Like, "That's crazy." Like, "I,
- I'm not gonna be using a
- multi-drone very often." Um, but I think then reality
- hits, right, where, um, you know, you've
- got... You, you have two pilots up on the night shift,
- like I mentioned.
- Maybe one of them is actually out sick or something like that, or is on vacation.
- So it's really just one pilot, and they're trying to do their best to
- support
- their, the officers on the ground.
- Um, and, you know, crime doesn't come in, like, smooth waves.
- Like, it'll bunch up and you'll have, you know, three high priority incidents at
- one time, and what are you gonna do?
- Um, so I think
- that's the kind of stuff that I think made it become pretty obvious
- to Vegas that
- they needed this. Um,
- and, um, and over time their, their pilots have, have gotten
- used to it, and I think, like, now it's just part of their default, um,
- SOPs. Um, and I think the other thing I would say
- is that,
- um, when we talk about multi-drone, I feel like we're often it...
- You know, we show these pictures of, like, four drones in the air at once and
- you're, like, doing some complex...
- Most of multi-drone is just, like, there's a minute overlap or two minutes of
- overlap because one drone is returning and the other one is taking off to go to
- another location or, um, you know, your one drone is just hovering
- and the other
- drone is, you know, going to replace it because its battery
- is starting to run low,
- right? Like, it's not the sexy stuff.
- Uh, it's the stuff that is just a couple minutes here
- and there that gives you that
- flexibility to respond a little bit faster and to respond to a few more calls a
- day, um, and get, get more use of these docks that,
- that you've
- purchased.
- Yeah.
- Yeah. Uh, one, one other thing I'd add too is, um,
- we can actually,
- uh, turn this on in the simulator for you.
- So-
- Yeah
- ... if you're, if you're just interested, but, you know, you don't wanna, uh, quite
- go live yet, you can, we can basically turn on the sim
- and you can,
- uh, practice, you can fly, you can get comfortable with it.
- You can test it out,
- uh, with one drone, four drones, whatever it is.
- Um, so that, that's a great tool to, to just kind of get some reps in
- without the risk, um, and see if this is right.
- And I would say too, like ki- kind of the process we're work- we're
- starting to work here today is like, so I'll, I'll kind of help get the waiver,
- but
- then there's this handoff to Sujoy and our mission success team as well.
- So, you know, this isn't just like, turn on the feature and, you know, have
- at it. We're, we're gonna work with you.
- We have some enablement material, some training material.
- Uh, we're developing more training material,
- uh, based on some of the feedback
- from, from agencies doing it now. So, um, so yeah, we're,
- we're gonna support you and, and kind of, uh, work with you at whatever comfort
- level you have with this to, till you are good. So.
- Yeah. One other thing I wanted to add, um, I, I showed you X10
- Multidrone today. Um, we can also fly
- R10s, uh, through, through Remote Flight Deck.
- So for those of you who are not familiar, X10 is our, is our kind of all
- multipurpose DFR drone. Um, R10 is our indoor tactical drone, though,
- the one
- that's shown there on the right. Um, and, uh,
- you can then start imagining really flexible operations where a pilot
- has a, you know, has a drone. We're trying to find the person.
- We find a person, they go inside of a house,
- an officer on the ground shows up
- and puts an R10 down, and the pilot, you know, who's back at the re-
- real time crime center, is now flying the R10 [clears throat] to
- try to help clear the, the house and find the, the suspect while
- keeping the X10 hovering above for oversight in case the
- perp runs from the house or something like that.
- Um, and then you can imagine a future with
- like F10 in the future where like,
- you know, you start the operation with an X10,
- you find someone, they hop into a
- vehicle, they jump onto the highway, and now you've gotta get the F10 over
- there
- and you've got kind of like multi...
- You know, you're sending the X10 back and you're taking the F10 out.
- And the point is basically with Multidrone and the family of robots
- coming, like basically anything is possible, right?
- You, you can now basically respond to, to pretty much any type of incident.
- Yep. That was perfect. I think that, that question actually just came in,
- "Can you
- use this-
- [laughs]
- ... with the interior drone?" So-
- Yes
- ... nailed it. Uh-
- Yeah. Actually, our, our friend, uh, over at Brookhaven, Captain, uh,
- Abram Ayana,
- just posted about using R10 with Multidrone.
- He tr- he tried it out while he was here for the DFR Summit, uh,
- earlier this week.
- Yeah.
- Uh, or last week. And then, uh, and then he's,
- he's been trying it at home now.
- Um, so yeah, that's definitely by design.
- Our, our whole, whole goal here is to have one interface that basically
- helps you control the entire family of robots.
- Yep.
- Spot on.
- All right. Um,
- so one question here. This is
- maybe not specific to Multidrone.
- We, we have time-
- Sure
- ... we'll, we'll kind of just chat about it.
- So the que- question is, are, are docks able to be set up for mobile
- command
- stations, sort of like impromptu,
- um,
- you know, limited power supply, connectivity, et cetera?
- So,
- um, yeah, I don't know if you wanna s- speak to that one, Sujoy.
- We don't quite have the right, you know, product manager on for kind of mobile
- dock.
- Yeah.
- But do you have any just kinda initial thoughts on that?
- Yeah. So, um, we, we hear this use case and, uh, we
- know for certain customers this is an important use case.
- Um, we are not supporting it ourselves, uh, currently,
- uh, but we are working with some partners who
- do support this use case.
- So they basically have ways of mounting the dock on a trailer and getting it set
- up pretty quickly. Um, so it is possible, it's just not something that like
- Skydio is doing as like a first party solution, if that makes sense.
- Yep.
- Yeah. And even if it's not mobile, like a dock can be installed
- relatively quickly. So maybe not just in time
- of as like a mobile command truck rolls and like a dock on it, but,
- you know, a dock can be installed, um,
- in, in a day or two, honestly. So if it maybe not
- mobile, but our-
- Mm-hmm
- ... our ability to kind of deploy and get a dock operational is,
- is getting pretty
- good these days.
- Yeah. I think, I think if you need it for like a week in a
- location, like that's-
- Right
- ... that's pretty doable. Yeah.
- Right. Yep. That's more of a kind of semi,
- uh, permanent install.
- Mm-hmm.
- Yeah.
- Yep.
- Okay.
- I think-
- Yeah. Hap- happy to take non Multidrone, just broader Skydio DFR
- questions. Um-
- Yeah,
- I think we've actually got 'em all covered here.
- So-
- All right
- ... um,
- yeah, I'm just kind of giving it a second in
- case any last more trickle in.
- But, um,
- yeah, I think we'll just, we can give folks some time back.
- Um,
- so yeah, let's just wrap it up and,
- uh, feel free of course to, to send questions after the webinar as
- well.
- Uh, it doesn't have to be live here.
- So,
- um, I think, uh, the way to reach me is gonna be put in the chat,
- uh, aviation_regulatory@skydio.com.
- Um, that will come to me. That's like where you could request, uh,
- the, the
- Multidrone document and other things.
- Um, so I'm monitoring that inbox. Reach out with questions if you have 'em.
- Um,
- and yeah. So, uh, again, yeah, thanks for everybody,
- everybody's time today.
- Thanks for joining. We'll just kinda wrap up a few minutes
- early.
- So,
- um, so yeah, we're super excited for Multidrone though.
- Um, and if you're interested, uh, just reach out and we'll, we'll talk about
- getting set up.
- So with that, uh, enjoy the rest of your days everybody.
- We'll see you on the next one.
- Thank you everyone.
Watch Time
42 Mins 44 Secs
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