Jio-Subsidiary Asteria Aerospace Launches Drone Software Platform SkyDeck

Jio Platforms' subsidiary Asteria Aerospace, a drone manufacturer and solution provider in India, has launched its drone operations platform SkyDeck. SkyDeck is a cloud-based software platform to deliver a Drone-as-a-Service (DaaS) solution for various industry verticals, such as agriculture, surveying, industrial inspections, and surveillance and security, according to a company release.

SkyDeck provides a unified dashboard and services for drone fleet management, scheduling, and executing drone flights, data processing, and visualisation and AI-based analysis of aerial data captured using drones.

Elaborating on the features of SkyDeck, the statement said the platform ensures operational transparency, improves collaboration between stakeholders, and provides secure and centralised management for scaling drone programmes across multiple applications. Neel Mehta, co-founder and Director, Asteria Aerospace, noted that the recent liberalisation of regulations for drone operations and the promotion of DaaS by the government have increased the demand for drones across industry sectors.

"With the launch of SkyDeck, we are addressing the need of the hour with integrated drone hardware, software, and operations solution. SkyDeck simplifies the use of drones to generate aerial data and turns that digital data into business insights to power drone applications at scale," Mehta added.

For the agriculture sector, SkyDeck provides data and insights that can be used to accurately measure crop traits, assess crop health, and optimise Agri inputs. For construction and mining industries, SkyDeck uses drone-based aerial data to create accurate site surveys for monitoring progress and maintaining inventory records. In critical infrastructure sectors such as oil and gas, telecom, and power and utilities, SkyDeck harnesses the power of drones to digitise and inspect assets for preventive maintenance, identifying threats, and recording changes. SkyDeck can also help in the successful implementation of fleets of drones in various government programmes and initiatives.

Asteria Aerospace is a subsidiary of Jio, which is a majority-owned subsidiary of Reliance Industries.