Based in the United Kingdom, Altitude Angel is an award-winning startup dedicated to solving one of the most complex problems facing the aviation industry – drone safety. The company aims keeps the skies safe with their next generation cloud application Guardian. The app . provides drones with situational awareness capabilities so they can safely operate in local airspaces. Completely customizable and modular, Guardian provides drone users, and their drones, with a large cache of relevant data for local and regional drone operations including: aeronautical charts, real-time airspace alerts, weather maps, and telemetry data from manned aircraft and regional radar systems.
Although there are other drone management apps currently available, Altitude Angel is truly in a class of its own. According to Founder and CEO Richard Parker, Guardian is the only application on the market that supports both recreational and professional operators, while utilizing internet-scale operations. Unlike other services, Guardian issues its directives straight to the software that controls the drone allowing the aircraft to move independently and avoid potential collisions, no-fly zones, or environmental hazards without human intervention. With the ability to automatically detect and avoid dangerous incidents, drones can temporarily forgo the traditional 1-1 sight requirement that has been the mainstay of traditional operation.
Parker says that Guardian was created to fill a noticeable gap in the aviation market that, left unfilled, could lead to dangerous accidents: “As drones exploded in popularity, both for personal and commercial use, they have begun to wreak havoc on local aviation systems and increased the potential for in-air incidents. Our mission is to ensure the safety of our skies by providing data and services that drones can use to automatically comply with local aviation laws.”
So, how does Guardian work? According to Parker, the app utilizes a live Geo-Fencing database of ground and aerial hazards, environmental data, and compliance API to supplement drone operators normal due-diligence activities. This allows drone manufacturers, drone users, and other aviation community stakeholders to use a central service that shares their drone operations data communally and enables users to operate without filing advanced flight plans.
A member of the Microsoft Accelerator program, Altitude Angel currently counts over two thousand customers around the globe. After receiving recognition at several prestigious events, the company recently announced a partnership with the aviation navigation giant NATS Holdings (formerly National Air Traffic Services), the leading air navigation service provider in the United Kingdom.
“We feel very lucky to be part of the Microsoft Accelerator Program,” Parker continues, “it has given us the opportunity to adopt more advanced technological capabilities that have really improved our data analysis. It has also helped us to expand our service and secure customers that otherwise may have been out of reach.”
Altitude Angel uses a variety of Azure features and several open source solutions to deliver their internet of things (IoT) application. In fact, the company’s decision to develop with Azure was based, in part, on its seamless incorporation of Redis and Linux VM’s. Guardian uses Linux VM’s to enable complex networking and peering solutions, while leveraging Redis for its advanced caching solution.
On the Azure side, Guardian uses Visual Studio’s Application Insights to log, monitor, and improve their data analytics, while deploying SQL Database to adaptively tune performance to identified trends. The application also utilizes a number of other Azure features including: Hockey App — for usage stats and crash reporting — DocumentDB, Azure Websites, and Xamarin Forms.
“Azure is an excellent product,” concludes Parker, “it has allowed us to take our solution to heights that previously seemed insurmountable for our startup. The technology has helped us secure additional funding, land new clients, and develop additional drone management solutions. We have certainly been pleased.”
Check out Altitude Angel to improve your drone experience and improve the safety of our skies.
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About BizSpark: Microsoft BizSpark is a global program that helps startups succeed by giving free access to Microsoft Azure cloud services, software and support. BizSpark members receive up to $750 per month of free Microsoft Azure cloud services for 3 years: that’s $150 per month each for up to 5 developers. Azure works with Linux and open-source technologies such as Linux, Ruby, Python, Java and PHP. BizSpark is available to startups that are privately held, less than 5-years-old and earn less than $1M in annual revenue.