Sony is entering the autonomous UAV (Unmanned Aerial Vehicles) segment, and it is teaming up with robot manufacturer from its hometurf, ZMP to build drones for enterprises. The tywo companies announced the same via a joint statement on Sony’s blog.
Both the companies have agreed to collaborate on the development and launch of enterprise solutions using autonomous unmanned aerial vehicles for image capture combined with cloud-based data processing. Sony Mobile and ZMP will jointly found “Aerosense Inc.,” a new company slated to be incorporated in early August of this year.
Sony’s camera, sensing, telecommunications network, and robotics technologies will be leveraged alongside ZMP’s automated driving and robotics technologies together with their business experience in industrial fields.
Aerosense Inc. will combine these assets and develop comprehensive solutions that meet needs including measuring, surveying, observing, and inspecting. It will aim to roll out these services for enterprise customers beginning in 2016.
Sony says that its mobile division is “proactively” engaging in new business creation initiatives, with a particular focus on the Internet of Things (IoT) sector. This joint venture represents a part of this push into IoT, as Sony strives to provide its customers with additional value by developing and managing total package cloud solutions.
