NTT Docomo invests in drone tech company PrecisionHawk

NTT Docomo Ventures has made an investment through the investment fund it operates in Canada-headquartered PrecisionHawk, a provider of services for data collection using drones, a data analysis system and a safety platform for drones. No financial details related to thefunding have been released.

PrecisionHawk provides data collection and analysis services using drones with all tools necessary for a drone’s flight, including the vehicle of a drone that automatically calculates its path by using AI, a high-precision camera that is exchangeable depending on the object of observation, and software that automatically creates its own flight path. Collected data can be immediately reviewed on the spot by a data analysis service dubbed ‘Data Mapper’, and then processed and shared on cloud services. The company also develops and provides the ‘Low-Altitude Traffic and Airspace Safety Platform (Latas)’, designed to support airspace information and collision avoidance for safe operation of drones.

PrecisionHawk is participating in the Pathfinder program promoted by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and the Unmanned aircraft system Traffic Management (UTM) program promoted by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) for sophistication of drone operation.

NTT Docomo Ventures expects that these initiatives by PrecisionHawk will contribute to the creation of various business in NTT Group’s and NTT Docomo Group’s fields using drones in the future. US operator Verizon is also a recent investor in PrecisionHawk.