Egor Folley: AI Company With Focus on Computer Vision and Aerial Robotics

Artial is an AI company with focus on Computer Vision and Aerial Robotics.

Artial’s objective is to build AI-driven technology with dynamic obstacle avoidance for safe urban navigation. Our focus is on implementing AI and Drones for Smart City technologies. We are building autonomous sense-and-avoid technology based on visual sensors for safe flights at low-altitude environments.

In short, it is a self-navigation system for complex densed-obstacle environments that eliminates the fear of crashing. The technology is capable of beyond visual line-of-sight (BVLOS) functionality and bringing the new revolutionized way for today’s drones by leveraging AI for advanced solutions.

Our vision is to make AI capable of maintaining compounded tasks for more automation for smart drones. We believe in safety and security for urban aerial flights and we stand for a new revolutionary way in building innovative technology.

Tell us about yourself?

Experienced AI tech-lead in RnD robotics, deep learning, and computer vision. AI Nanobiotech PhD (IBEC) researcher dropout.

If you could go back in time a year or two, what piece of advice would you give yourself?

Fear less and do more, stay focused on your goals, dream more, make a detailed plan, and be persistent

What problem does your business solve?

There are 5 levels of autonomy: from full pilot control to no user input. Full autonomy does not exist right now and 95% of the market of UAV vendors has no solution for autonomous flights. Flying across urban areas is dangerous and unpredictable, hence, lack of safety. Drones have no understanding of surroundings and it can cause accidents.

Many jobs are highly risky for people and manually-operated UAVs are facing major challenges to provide substantial solutions with the same precision. Manually controlled drones are hard to fly and easy to crash, and require highly-trained and certified pilots.

Crashes in the drone industry are so common, the fear of crashing prevents the industry from scaling up. Traditional drones have limited usage due to their hardware-centric approaches. GPS navigation is incorrect or absent for urban on low-attitudes.

Drones use high-cost sensors with poor functionality in extreme weather conditions. There are a lot of uncertainties in the urban environment as unknown environments conjugate with high unpredictability. Drones have no obstacle sensing uncertainty and smart obstacle avoidance.

Artial provides cutting-edge “Autonomy Engine” that capable of: Safe flight, AI-driven navigation, Native obstacle avoidance, Self-awareness We built a system based on Deep Learning and Computer Vision, capable of flexible integration with UAV and autopilots.

The “Autonomy Engine” for drones that has next “core” package features: * Dynamic Obstacle Avoidance – Collision avoidance algorithms based on computer vision for urban environments using predictive AI decision making system * Visual Positioning – Orientation based on visual information for navigation in GPS-independent and unknown environments * Motion Planning – Intelligent and robust path planning algorithms for accurate flight * 3D Mapping – 3D real-time map for drone to see and understand the surroundings The fully automated workflow solution will supply the drone with the power of autonomous navigation in complex environments of urban and unknown areas avoiding both static and dynamic objects along the way.

Smart enough to navigate without GPS but only by using cameras on board. We leverage visual perception for safe navigation using Beyond Visual Line of Sight (BVLOS) features that brings a new level of autonomy for the drone intelligence for safe flights for less crashes and making better results.

What is the inspiration behind your business?

Building autonomous safe systems, grow as an AI company, scale up for innovation and create new frontiers in robotics and vision technologies

What is your magic sauce?

Top notch founder team of experienced engineers in academia and enterprise, and all of us are complete each other building a great team

What is the plan for the next 5 years? What do you want to achieve?

Build 3 produts for autonomous drone navigation, scale up to other areas of aerial robotics and computer vision, become a unicorn

What is the biggest challenge you’ve faced so far?

The bureaucracy and documentation issues, regulations, and finding passioned people for your team

How do people get involved/buy into your vision?

Artial is interesting in building an ecosystem of partners, ranging from strategic partners, for building new ​opportunities for their markets using our computer vision algorithms, to technology partners, focused on making their products around autonomous robotics and artificial intelligence, to solution providers, who are planning to integrate our software.