Robotics

Chula Vista PD

Privacy advocates are rightly concerned with the proliferation of drones in the hands of law enforcement. Can transparency help mollify concerns?That question is being put to the test in Southern California. The Chula Vista Police Department (CVPD), which has an active drone program, is teaming up with AirData UAV to transparency public drone flights. Mirroring the increased focus by police departments nationwide on effective public information campaigns, the hope for law enforcement officials is that easily accessible data, including flight and mission details, will help mollify a distrustful public.”Transparency and accountability are key components in the success of our drone program, which has been an invaluable tool in maintaining the safety of our officers and the public,” says Chief Roxana Kennedy, Chula Vista Police Department. “We pride ourselves on ensuring the public has access to our drone flight information in upholding the trust of our community.”The step toward transparency may not be enough for critics of local police departments’ increasingly sophisticated surveillance and tactical capabilities. For example, some police departments use tools like a Stingray, which mimics a cell tower to access metadata from unsuspecting cell users.Drones give police a particularly powerful tool for surveillance. According to the Brookings Institute:Drones provide what law enforcement likes to call “situational awareness”: a clear birds-eye perspective on potentially volatile situations that’s much less expensive and complex to operate than a manned helicopter. Law enforcement agencies have used this argument to justify flying drones over everything from alleged drug deals to homeless encampments to the recent protests against racist police violence. They’ve also used drone footage to make arrests: In Arizona in early July, police used drone video to justify arresting three Black Lives Matter protesters, who they say stopped traffic.The response in many cities has been tepid, and amid calls for regulation, more vocal advocates suggest outlawing police use of drones altogether.The first and most obvious course of action in regulating police use of drones is to ban the technology entirely, a proposal a number of lawmakers and activists are currently pushing in New York City. As police have rolled out drone programs, cities have received them warily. In 2013, police in Seattle were on the verge of launching a drone program but abandoned it under public pressure, a pattern that repeated itself the following year in Los Angeles. (Elsewhere, in Washington state police use of drones is widespread.)AirData believes the answer is greater transparency and trust. The company provides CVPD with a seamless and simple way to track and manage all of the flight data from their missions. It also helps the department with federal compliance, reporting, maintenance notifications, and logging are time-intensive tasks.

“We are excited to work closely with Chula Vista to provide full transparency of the police department flights to the community,” said Eran Steiner, Founder and CEO of AirData UAV. “AirData enables officers to focus on the community, while AirData performs the mundane and time-consuming work of flight data collection, federal compliance tracking, and crash prevention through tracking drone health. Chula Vista offers its residents an open AirData-driven web page, enabling the public to be well informed of drone-related law enforcement activity.”AirData is the largest online drone fleet data management and real-time flight streaming platform, serving over 210,000 users with 20 million flights uploaded to date, processing an average of 20,000 flights a day, with high-resolution data stored per each flight. Law enforcement presents a particularly lucrative market for drone fleet management given the proliferation of UAV technology in law enforcement and defense. More

FLIR
Fall is here (well, not here, I live in LA) and in some parts of the country that brings increased activity among large animals including deer, elk, and moose as they start migrating and searching for food ahead of winter. This is a cool thing to see, but it also sets up an ugly reality in densely populated areas where there’s lots of traffic.According to the 2020 State Farm annual study, nearly two million wildlife vehicle collisions (WVCs) occur every year in the United States alone, representing approximately five percent of all reported motor vehicle collisions.Thermal imaging solutions are one potential way to mitigate those collisions, which are often deadly. Thermal imaging cameras can see significantly farther than headlights to see large animals in various driving conditions. They detect and measure an entirely different wavelength of energy, known as long-wave infrared (LWIR) radiation, or heat energy, which radiates, absorbs, or is reflected by everything on earth. Therefore, detecting and classifying animals in daylight, total darkness, or blinding sun glare.Thermal cameras from companies like Teledyne FLIR are already offered on some vehicles as part of advanced warning systems. Because of their adeptness at detecting body heat, they’re seen as highly effective at giving advanced warning of some WVCs, which account for around 26,000 injuries to motorists each year. Tying in a thermal camera with an automatic braking system would be ideal given the speed at which animals often move into roadways.FLIR has been aggressive diversifying both within and beyond the consumer automotive space. Recently I wrote about FLIR’s acquisition of Endeavor Robotic Holdings, a military defense company specializing in ground robots, for a whopping $385 million. That acquisition came shortly after FLIR acquired aerial drone company Aeryon for $200 million, and just before the company announced it had made a strategic investment in DroneBase, a global drone operations company that provides businesses access to one of the largest Unmanned Aerial Surveillance (UAS) pilot networks.FLIR has also been active in traffic management systems worldwide. “FLIR traffic systems are currently installed in 75 countries, and with the addition of TrafiSense AI and TrafiCam AI, FLIR now offers a fully integrated solution that enables traffic engineers and city planners to apply AI-based learnings to continuously optimize traffic flow,” said Rickard Lindvall, General Manager, Solutions Business, FLIR Systems. “The integrated solution enables cities to improve urban roadway design to make cities safer and more livable.”

The company is quickly positioning its thermal imaging technology to become indispensable in several high stakes sensing environments.A recent FLIR thermal test vehicle recently demonstrated how adding a thermal sensor with a radar, a visible sensor, and a trained convolutional neural networks (CNNs) can improve animal detection and pedestrian detection from current automatic emergency braking systems. CNNs) are used to analyze images for certain characteristics and can be trained to detect and classify wildlife. Teledyne FLIR expanded their CNN to detect large animals in addition to its current capacity to detect pedestrians, vehicles, bikes, cars, and multiple other classes of road objects.   More

KEWAZO
Did you know there’s a $50 billion global scaffolding industry? Nearly all of it is put up manually.That makes scaffolding, the exterior structure used during building and maintenance, a prime target for automation. A company called Kewazo is finding success with a materials handling robot aimed at scaffolding installation called Liftbot. The company just closed $5 million in Series A funding and joins a growing pack of robotics developers taking aim at construction.”So many aspects of the construction industry stand to benefit immensely from robotic intelligence and RaaS offerings,” said Puneet Agarwal, partner at True Ventures, which participated in the round. “The Kewazo team has a strong track record and proven solution that addresses a significant need in a critical part of the industry. We’re excited to fund this team and help them expand to new verticals in construction and other markets.”Construction is a hot area for robotics development because it’s inefficient and hasn’t had a technology makeover in decades. The sector has not kept pace with innovation or productivity. As a result, there are massive inefficiencies in the industry. According to KPMG’s Global Construction Survey, just 25% of projects came within 10% of their original deadlines. When it comes to megaprojects, like large infrastructure projects, McKinsey found that 98% are delayed or over budget. 77% are more than 40% behind schedule.Robots, drones, and big data are considered key technology categories to address these inefficiencies. Companies like Rugged Robotics, which makes a line marking robot for the grid chalk lines used in every construction project, and Kewazo are keying in on this opportunity while wisely staying hyper focused on a particular need area. If automation in sectors like inspection and logistics serves as any guide, robots will find toeholds in the sector via extremely niche jobs that site managers see value in automating. Automation firms often stumble by developing robots for multiple use scenarios, which tends to increase price and complexity and raise the adoption threshold.Liftbot makes assembly more efficient by automating manual material transport. With minor adjustments, the technology can be applied to additional tasks such as insulation, painting and other on-site material transport. Data, of course, is behind much of the technology revolution in construction. Liftbot collects operational data and provides it to customers in the form of a data analytics platform. Those insights aid planning and improve profitability, and customers benefit from faster, more predictable projects. “Since our Seed-Investment in 2018, Kewazo has come a long way from prototype to the marketable and robust Liftbot system. Having True Ventures now leading the Series A round takes the company to the next level and we are proud to further support Kewazo’s international development”, states Matthias Guth, MIG Venture Partner and Kewazo Board member.

According to the company, the first batch of Liftbots has been successfully delivered to key customers in the EU markets. Prospective projects worldwide include scaffolding assembly at greenfield projects and maintenance jobs at construction sites, oil and gas refineries, power plants, and shipbuilding yards. More

Percepto
The alarming increase in the occurrence of wildfires isn’t going away. In fact, fire frequencies are projected to increase by approximately 27% globally by 2050. Areas such as North America, Northern Eurasia, and Australia are deemed to be most susceptible to wildfires, making finding effective methods to respond to them increasingly more important.Increasingly, fire departments across the globe have started to deploy first responder drones to ensure firefighter safety as well as enhance operational effectiveness when tackling a wide range of emergency sites including oil wells, high rises, and wildfires.In response to a recent forest fire that broke out in Athens, Defense Minister Nikolaos Panagiotopoulos said that the armed forces would strengthen their capabilities in fire prevention, deploying drones over other vulnerable sites across the country to obtain accurate data. Drone deployment in a fire emergency ensures the protection of personnel, gathers situational awareness speedily and accurately, and provides a cost-effective helicopter replacement and enables fast mapping for incident response and recovery.Having successfully helped Verizon secure the first BVLOS to fly drones into wildfires in the US through a landmark waiver, leading drone-in-a-box manufacturer Percepto is keen to raise awareness about the positive impact of quickly responding to natural disasters as a result of global warming through the deployment of drones. I caught up with Percepto CEO Dor Abuhasira to learn how.GN: How are drones being used to prevent wildfires?Dor Abuhasira: Drones can be used to prevent the occurrence of wildfires in a similar way they are used to prevent disaster at industrial sites. They can boost inspection frequency to inspect and monitor sensitive forest areas regularly, especially during times of year that wildfires are most likely to occur. As manual data reviews don’t catch all failures, drones can use AI powered solutions to collate data from all sources such as cameras, and SCADA systems. Drones can be operated remotely to help prevent a huge failure even in the midst of a pandemic or natural disaster with the ability to monitor facilities remotely. Autonomous drones ensure sites comply with local regulations, frequently monitoring refineries for gas leaks, and power plants for high water temperatures, reducing their environmental footprint. 

They respond to emergencies first, eliminating the need for first responders to go in blind to events, and providing engineers and technicians with the information they need to quickly perform repairs. By performing frequent, high-quality inspections, autonomous drones ensure faults are detected early on, preventing massive failures that can pose harm to employees and the environment. GN: Why is Percepto’s drone-in-a-box Sparrow ideally suited to fly in the most severe climate conditions?Dor Abuhasira: Percepto’s advanced autonomous drone solution is the first to pass Level 5 hurricane testing at a wind speed of up to 155mph, making it the most rugged drone-in-a-box system on the market. The industrial Percepto base allows their Sparrow drone to safely charge outdoors during the most extreme weather events. The drone itself is also highly ruggedized and can takeoff, fly and land in severe wind, rain, snow and heat.Percepto’s technology can assess their customers’ sites immediately after a storm, allowing customers like Florida Power and Light (FPL) to react immediately in the aftermath of a hurricane, assessing and fixing any damage without endangering their staff when the weather is still very challenging where the most residents per year experience outages in the state.”As soon as the storm passes, we can have this up…inspecting our plant and knowing immediately what sort of damage we have so we’re able to get our power back on that much sooner… for a utility to be able to see our infrastructure in areas where we can’t get to safely; to quickly fly over it and understand what our conditions are…the safety of our crews is paramount.” – Michael Dorr, lead pilot for Florida Power & Light’s Drone in a Box system.Last year, the FAA granted Skyward, a Verizon company, a temporary waiver that allowed company pilots to fly the Percepto Sparrow drone from their homes to inspect critical communications infrastructure near the Big Hollow wildfire in Washington. The waiver permitted operations 24 hours a day, with less than 3 miles of visibility, and no pilot or observer on site. This is the first time a Beyond the Visual Line Of Sight waiver was granted to allow pilots to control the drone from home. It was a landmark for the industry and a testament to the standard of the Percepto Sparrow. The Percepto drone was designed with the needs of an industrial site’ as the core, underlying principle. The drone is made of a composite carbon fiber, fiber-glass material, tailored to accommodate a wide range of temperatures. The extremely durable material is of the sort used in naval industries, able to withstand salt, water, dusk and direct sunlight. Our maintenance philosophy is centered around how industrial sites operate, i.e. maintenance equipment checks occuring every few weeks or months. This caters for the drone to stay unattended for a long time, on the site, ready to launch for emergency. High flight performance enables flying in strong winds with superior sealing and resilience to precipitation, dust, sand, coupled with a heavy, stable Percepto Base. This can open in one piece on an axis in a manner that avoids snow or dust falling into the pad from which the drone is launching (as opposed to the two-piece mechanisms opening sideways which most drone-in-a-box providers feature). The drone’s temperature can be monitored and controlled via air-conditioning within the weather station for further protection from the elements.GN: How will upcoming regulations significantly increase the adoption of drones?Dor Abuhasira: In June 2021, the FAA announced the new BVLOS Aviation Rulemaking Committee (ARC) – a large-scale collaboration between the drone industry and regulators, over 80 organizations including six drone manufacturers (of which Percepto is one).In the next 6 months, ARC will make their first round of recommendation to the FAA for a new BVLOS regulation, removing the current need for a drone pilot to monitor each drone that flies. Until now, the FAA has yet to fully enable commercial BVLOS flight.The new BVLOS regulation will change everything. Fully autonomous drone flights. No pilots. No human involvement. That means we will finally see drones implemented at scale as a network of robots providing various vital services for us. In the next few years, you should expect to see autonomous drones flying around delivering packages, inspecting power lines, solar farms, cell towers and bridges. The many applications enabled are demonstrated by the range of drone companies who work closest with the FAA. For Amazon, BVLOS regulation means fully autonomous consumer deliveries. For other drone delivery companies like Zipline, BVLOS regulation means fully autonomous delivery of vital medical supplies. And for industrial drones like Percepto’s, it means fully autonomous monitoring of the country’s most risky, complex facilities. On a larger scale, it offers companies responsible for our critical infrastructure the promise of employing a fleet of drones to manage and maintain all of their infrastructure from anywhere in the country. This new regulation will revolutionize industries and change lives when it comes into effect in the next few years. And in the meantime, the industry will continue to move forward within the existing regulatory framework. GN: How will the drone industry evolve over the next decade with regards to environmental issues?Dor Abuhasira: Companies traditionally thought of as not environmentally-friendly now have the tools to more carefully adhere to regulations, and prevent catastrophes, e.g. oil spills.Companies can completely change the way they approach safety and their environmental impact, working towards their ESG goals to enhance their reputation –  e.g. drones are used to monitor a power plant or solar farm.Preventing catastrophes creates significant impact to the bottom line, helps companies meet environmental and safety objectives and mitigates any reputational damage. More

Bedrock
As robots become more prevalent, demand for mechanical and computer engineers who work on autonomous systems is growing. In fact, it’s projected that the number of jobs in the field will grow 9% between 2016 and 2026, leading to a shortage of qualified engineers. That’s a real opportunity for new talent entering the workforce or for professionals looking to make a mid-career shift. Part of the allure is the broad applicability of automation, machine learning, and artificial intelligence technologies to a variety of sectors that heretofore haven’t had much automation adoption. The chance to work on the leading edge of automation technologies and problem solve how they might be adapted to new use cases can be thrilling, particularly coming from IT and engineering fields that have now become more routinized after the profound shifts of previous decades.Knowing where to look is half the battle. We’ve compiled five industries where robots are taking over —and where roboticists and computer engineers will be in high demand in years to come.
Scythe
Commercial LandscapingThe way we tend lawns is surprisingly inefficient, to say nothing of environmentally unsound. A recent study from Sweden found that cutting grass for an hour with a gas-powered mower has about the same impact as a 100-mile car ride in terms of air pollution. Add to that, the sector has been beset with labor issues globally. In fact, the $105B commercial landscaping industry has seen labor shortages for at least the decade. The technology powering commercial landscaping, meanwhile, hasn’t been updated in years, as anyone who’s recently operated a noisy, smelly 2-strike weed whacker can attest.That’s opened the door for the robots, and there’s a lot of exciting activity around automation in commercial landscaping. A firm called Scythe Robotics, for example, has set out to provide the most advanced and sustainable autonomous technology for maintaining off-road environments safely, effectively, and responsibly, including in applications like commercial landscaping via an emissions-free autonomous mower. The company is getting a lot of early support and recently announced a 13.8M series A. FarmingBeset with labor problems, climate change, and growing pressure to act more economically sustainable, agriculture is embracing automation like few other industries. Writes journalist Katrina Miller in a thoughtful piece on the subject:Robots are already starting to take off in the food sector; they are picking strawberries, harvesting lettuce, pollinating flowers, and even milking cows. Because they work more efficiently, robots can perform eco-friendly tasks that would be uneconomical if they had to be done by hand, like manual weeding, which can reduce the need for spraying chemicals.

Commercial ag companies are also swooning at the power of data-driven automation, which has prompted agriculture to embrace robots, AI, and ML like few other industries. According to Robotics Automation News, the market size for robots in agriculture was $4,082.8 million in 2018 but could reach $16,640.4 million by 2026, a compound annual growth rate of 19.2 percent. North America generated a revenue of $ 1,469.8 million in 2018 and is expected to grow at a CAGR of 18.9 percent.A $20 million federal effort known as the AgAID Institute is seeking to develop AI to tackle ag challenges like diminishing water. “It is essential to improve the robustness, efficiency and adaptability of food production,” Alan Fern, professor of computer science and the principal investigator representing OSU, which is participating in the program, told the OSU newsroom. “The institute aims to achieve this by identifying the best ways to integrate humans and AI/robotics technology.”Examples of companies developing and commercializing farm robots include Farmwise, which makes autonomous robots that utilize machine learning to provide farmers with a sustainable solution for cultivating. Bowery Farm is an indoor sustainable farm that nurtures and grows plants indoors with the use of AI to track and monitor plant growth. Iron Ox has a robotic growing solution to curtail greenhouse gasses and has secured more than $40 million in funding.ConstructionAccording to Allied Market Research, the construction robotics market is set to reach $7.88 billion globally by 2027. It would be difficult to list all the ways automation is coming for the construction industry, but some examples include drones that autonomously map spaces and deliver progress reports, heavy machinery that amplifies human power, and line chalking robots that mark out the footprint of buildings to ensure error-free projects. According to ABB Robotics, more than four out of five (81%) of the world’s construction companies say they are planning to introduce robots into their operations during the coming decade. The reasons include tight margins, which are driving efficiency, and persistent skills and labor shortages in an industry that’s subject like few others to the boom and bust cycles of the market.Construction robotics companies include DroneDeploy, Sarcos Robotics, and Rugged Robotics.MaritimeThe sea has always been a dangerous and exciting place to work, and maritime logistics, extractive industries, and science are critical to global commerce. According to Research and Markets, the global Autonomous ship and ocean surface market could see revenue of $3.48 billion by 2035, growing at a CAGR of 26.7%.Some emerging uses of robots in the maritime industry include in hazardous waste cleanup, hull cleaning and maintenance, infrastructure inspection and installation (especially in wind farms, which are embracing robotics technology), and ship inspections. Undersea robots have been used to kill invasive fish, navigate across oceans, and locate sunken treasure. One company making waves in ocean robotics is Bedrock.EducationIn China, hundreds of kindergarten classes are now using a small robot that tells stories and poses logic problems. According to Education Week, the robots are part of a big push in the country to be the world leader in the use of AI-powered technologies.Not a week goes by when I don’t see several launch announcements pertaining to STEAM-focused robots aimed at helping kids, students, and professionals in sectors like medicine learn interactively. Not surprising, then that the educational robot market is expected to grow from USD $1.3 billion in 2021 to $2.6 billion by 2026.Companies promoting the use of robots among students include Sphero, which makes a programmable robot ball, Modular Robotics, and RoboLink. More

Renu Robotics
How do you stop weeds from overtaking that multi-million dollar solar facility? Thanks to a confluence of sensor developments and automation technologies, the answer is to call in the robots.The problem is a big one, the kind of logistical strain that lives in the seams of enterprises and doesn’t get much attention. Renewable energy utilities like solar and wind farms cover massive footprints and often exist in wild places where weeds and other vegetation grows naturally. Unchecked, that vegetation can cause massive infrastructure problems. But hiring people to take care of the weeds is both expensive and potentially perilous.A company called Renu Robotics has developed a unique robotic mower for utility grounds management. The company has just announced a multi-year agreement with lidar developer Velodyne Lidar, Inc., which makes a small sensor, called the Puck, that can be used for autonomous navigation systems.”Velodyne’s Puck sensors provide an essential ingredient for our robotic autonomy and navigation,” said Michael Blanton, Renu’s Chief Technical Officer. “The power-efficient sensors enable the Renubot to deliver an automated vegetation management system that is repetitive and reliable to keep facilities operating at peak performance, while controlling costs.”This is a good illustration of the confluence happening between sensor development, autonomous systems, and renewable energy utilities, which, as I’ve covered, seem especially keen to adopt automation technologies for infrastructure inspection and maintenance tasks.”With its sophisticated, sustainable-to-operate autonomous mower, Renu Robotics is revolutionizing the way solar and energy companies conduct vegetation management,” said Laura Wrisley, VP of North America Sales, Velodyne Lidar. “The innovative Renubot demonstrates how Puck sensors power precision and safety in autonomous vehicles, operating without human intervention. Renu Robotics is a prime example of Velodyne delivering on its mission to improve safety and sustainability in communities worldwide.”The company’s robot, called the Renubot, utilizes Puck sensors for safe, efficient high-precision navigation and to avoid obstacles when conducting utility-scale vegetation management. The mower uses the lidar to navigate the site, along with real-time kinematic (RTK) GPS correction which enables vehicle positional accuracy within 2 cm. Renubot is a good example of small-form-factor autonomous robots of a kind we’re seeing more of. It leverages artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning for autonomous command and control, and to learn and assess the topography as it conducts highly precise mowing and grooming of facility grounds.  More

Piestro
A leading autonomous pizza machine developer is teaming up with an international pizza brand run by world-renowned chef Anthony Carron. 800 Degrees Pizza will be offering consumers a fully automated experience and an authentic, custom pizza recipe designed for robotic cooking technology that’s eager to move on the market in the near future.The pandemic has been a boon for autonomous dining as takeout culture and convenience remain priorities. Restaurants have struggled to adapt to the labor demands and unpredictability of the new paradigm. Delivery options open up new opportunities to meet customers where they are, but maintaining quality is paramount. At 800 Degrees the team believed they needed to do more to future-proof the brand, and Chef Carron saw the promise of automation when a trusted industry colleague, Massimo Noja De Marco, reached out to discuss Piestro, his automated pizza venture.

“When Massimo and I first connected about Piestro’s technology, I saw both the immediate and long-term impact automation could have on our business,” said Carron. “Knowing Massimo’s exceptional background and the emphasis he places on quality and consistency in his machines, I knew this was a partnership we needed to make happen. We immediately began the process of developing recipes using the same imported, fresh and flavorful ingredients that made 800 Degrees Pizza so successful, and we were off to the races.”Piestro is definitely putting technology first. It recently partnered with PopID, which develops facial recognition payment technology. As I wrote last year when Piestro launched its robotically prepared pizza concept, vending machine pizza isn’t such a far fetched concept in the age of fresh-tossed salad from a robot named Sally and a really good pull of espresso from one of Cafe X’s robotic baristas. Automation in food preparation was gaining steam even before COVID-19, although there were some telltale disappointments. Zume, an automated end-to-end pizza restaurant and delivery service that primarily used robots instead of humans, once had a $4 billion valuation but shut down its robot-powered pizza business, laid off more than half its staff, and is shifting focus to autonomous packaging. However, Zume’s model was built on delivery, a tricky logistical stack of cards. Automated vending machines, however, are a model that’s been around for more than half-a-century, and tapping into existing brands and infrastructure, which is what the Piestro and 800 Degrees partnership are all about, is a savvy growth strategy (and much easier than creating a pizza brand from scratch).”This partnership is a clear indicator of the interest and potential for automation within the pizza industry,” said De Marco, CEO of Piestro. “I’ve known Chef Carron for years, and he exemplifies the spirit of operators dedicated to their craft, committed to delivering customers an unforgettable dining experience. The contactless cooking capabilities, fresh taste, speed and consistency that our automation and breakthrough oven technology bring are perfectly aligned with the values of 800 Degrees Pizza to provide customers with an exceptional culinary experience. We can’t wait to give customers everywhere access to an international pizza brand with a robotic twist.” More

Archer
Urban air mobility developers tend to wince at the term “flying car,” but it’s going to be a tough moniker to escape in the next few years. That’s because air taxis (slightly more palatable for the air mobility set) are taking off in a real way.That point is underlined in an ambitious new agreement between Archer, a leading urban air mobility company based in California, and the operator of thousands of parking garages in an expansive network that covers more than 70% of the U.S. Archer and REEF will work together to retrofit the top floor of parking garages in dense urban areas in order to accommodate Archer’s all-electric vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) vehicle.”Archer is focused on developing urban aerial ridesharing networks that will ease the issues caused by excessive city congestion,” said Adam Goldstein, co-Founder and co-CEO of Archer. “We believe that working with REEF will allow us to accelerate our mission to transition congested urban areas to more sustainable forms of transportation. The ability to build out our early vertiports with light retrofitting of existing structures would allow us to scale operations while maintaining our focus on affordability for our customers. We’re thrilled to announce this strategic relationship as we continue to execute on our roadmap towards bringing urban air mobility to reality.”This is a smart partnership for Archer, which recognizes the value of a good logistics network. To draw a relevant comparison, much of Tesla’s brand loyalty stems from its massive network of charging stations, which are known among electric car drivers to be faster and online more of the time than many third-party providers. In order to convert transportation users to a new paradigm, convenience and multi-point support are paramount, something Tesla has taken seriously. Archer, by utilizing an existing transportation logistics network, is positioning itself to be a big player in areas like Los Angeles and Miami, two of its early markets.REEF, for its part, is also thinking outside the box. Its sites have been largely underutilized of late, a combination of pandemic-related behavior shifts and the rise of ride sharing and growing investment in public transport in many cities, including Los Angeles. By converting some of its existing inventory for VTOL, which sounds like a fairly straightforward process, it could be opening up a new revenue stream while easing its utilization woes in years to come.”One of REEF’s core areas of focus is to reduce traffic congestion and carbon emissions by supporting incredible transportation technologies like those Archer is building,” said George Fallica, REEF’s Chief Revenue Officer. “Archer’s focus on sustainability and transforming the everyday urban travel experience aligns closely with our own mission. We’re excited to be working with them on plans to reshape city landscapes and make existing infrastructure even more functional.”Of course, Archer, which has been developing high-value partnerships with major brands like United Airlines, isn’t taking chances on where it will place the takeoff and landing pads, which it calls vertiports. The company has developed a proprietary data science technology, which it calls Prime Radiant, to source optimal locations for VTOL pads to relieve congestion in high-traffic areas.  More