Qualcomms SnapDragon Flight Board:

Could Swarming technology be in its future?Anyone building their own UAV/Drone/Quadcopter should seriously take a look at the new Qualcomm SnapDragon Flight development board, available from Intrinsyc now.Qualcomm has built on top of their increasingly popular DragonBoard 410c, and specially built this board with makers in mind.

Based on the Qualcomm Snapdragon 801 Processor, the board comes packed with drone friendly features such as:A Quad-core 2. 26GHz processor2GB of onboard memory and 32GB of eMMC Flash memoryA 4K camera capable of a capture resolution of 3840 x 2160, as well as video at both 1080P/60Hz and 720P.Bluetooth 4.

0 and 802.11N WiFi (both 2.5 & 5GHz)Onboard GPS, a barometric pressure sensor (for altitude) and a 9-Axis gyroscopic sensorSD card slotDrone specific connectors (Gimbal and ESC)A 60-pin expansion connector and an I2C interfaceSupport for Linaro Linux and the PX4 Open source flight control softwareThe kit sells for $675 and includes: The Snapdragon Flight Board Power Adapter 5V DC power supply USB to Serial cable and a serial console adapterOf course this is targeted towards experienced drone builders as it does not include a ready to fly drone.

Although Qualcomm has shown a ready to fly Drone in the past, it has yet to release this for sale. One exciting, potential feature I believe may be coming the Snapdragon Flight is the ability to enable swarming, enabling multiple drones to coordinate among themselves. This is a highly sought after feature for everything from land surveying, insurance & inspections, and security.

Back in 2015 Qualcomm acquired a company called KMel Robotics, based in Philadelphia and was the result of research spun out of the GRASP Lab at University of Pennsylvania. Many of the founding team at KMel Robotics are currently Qualcomm employees located in Pennsylvania and working on robotics.One unique feature of the solutions KMel had been working on is that their drone swarms can perform inside a building, whereas most swarm solutions rely on GPS and can only be deployed outdoors.

Check out some of the really impressive videos at this link and this link, along with the Amazing in Motion SWARM video produced for the automobile manufacturer Lexus, which features KMels technology. If interested in this technology, check out this article on the Popular Science website Inside the Swarming Quadrotor Lab of KMel Robotics.As an Advocate for the Qualcomm Developer Network, I do not have any knowledge as to if or when this technology will become available, however Id love to hear from the Qualcomm Developer Community if they have been working on their own solutions, or if they have found any additional information on this exciting technology