Sony technology in a joint venture with robotics company ZMP has just established “Aerosense”. This new formation will leverage Sony and Sony Mobile’s camera, sensing, telecommunications network, and robotics technologies together with ZMP’s automated driving and robotics expertise, to provide a new offering for enterprise customers.

Aerosense will provide enterprise solutions to a broad industry spectrum including: construction, logistics, agriculture, forestry and fishery. The company will also platformise an end-to-end workflow featuring an operational support cycle, with automated UAVs that take measurements and real-time monitoring and subsequent analysis of data uploaded to the cloud.

Last month Aerosense had its official unveiling at a press event in Tokyo, showcasing a new in-development prototype – a multicopter UAV. It’s unique in the way it aims to combine Sony’s highly sensitive, advanced image sensors and SmartAR integrated augmented reality technology with ZMP’s automated driving and environment recognition.

The new model will allow Aerosense to achieve autonomous UAV flight, which up to this point has been impossible without relying on GPS. It sits alongside Aerosense’s experimental UAV that boasts vertical takeoff and faster flight for longer time, an advancement which holds real potential for the future of business.