Beyond the Line of Sight: The Company That Is Redefining the Internet of Drones

Yoav Amitai, Elsight's CEO: "Elsight provides and continues to develop technological tools to improve productivity, efficiency and connectivity in the field of unmanned aerial vehicles to help them reach their full potential. Today, the world of critical communications affects many fields and we have just started to scratch the surface of the military industry."

Roee Kashi, Elsight's founder and CTO: "The system enables unmanned vehicles to operate beyond the operator's field of vision. Flying drones in a safe and efficient manner, requires complete control and monitoring their condition and location beyond the line of sight continuously, without any interruptions, even on the battlefield, and that is exactly what we do."

Until 2019, Elsight provided real-time video streaming solutions via drones. That year, the company's management decided to change its focus by directing their efforts towards developing advanced communication systems for the unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) market.

"We realized that the field of communications for UAVs is a growing market and doesn't have a clear-cut market leader. That was exactly the positioning we were looking for," said Yoav Amitai, the company's CEO. "Communication systems are a critical component for UAVs, whether they are controlled from a distance or are autonomous, and we predicted that we could bring value to the market with our AI-based technology."

This prediction turned out to be correct. In 2020, Elsight developed the communication module called Halo, which knows how to aggregate cellular networks, non-cellular technologies such as RF, and satellite communications available in the vehicle's surrounding area to create a bonded channel that is robust and secure. By doing so, there is optimized use of all available networks for the strongest link.

The company's communication algorithm monitors all available communication channels, checks their strength and quality in real time, and shares the traffic among them according to each channel's properties. "Actually, we aggregate all the channels of communication and combine the various paths into a single secure broadband channel," Amitai explains. "Our system is unique in that it is entirely designed as a survival solution for UAVs, which require low latency and high bandwidth, fast adaptation to changes while in movement, forecasting and reporting indices for the line's quality, and all this in a lean system that can run on platforms that are sensitive to weight, size and energy usage. That's a huge advantage in the drone industry."

"We operate in the field of secure communications and our system offers critical connectivity for all drone applications. The main concept is to optimize the communication infrastructure in the region and to ensure that the UAV won't lose connectivity," clarifies Roee Kashi, one of the company's co-founders and its current CTO. "Essentially, we devised a technological package that provides a comprehensive solution for all of a UAV's communication needs, including the required hardware, cellular and satellite data for all the operators, cloud and VPN services, and our professional services to recommend the optimal work methods."

Sales all over the world

Elsight was founded in 2009 by Nir Gabay and Roee Kashi. In 2017, the company launched a successful IPO on the Australian stock exchange.

Who are the clients?

Kashi: "These days, drones have a long list of commercial uses related to logistics, inspection, medicine, tracking and monitoring, commerce and critical infrastructure, and more recently, for military and defense requirements. Accordingly, we have a wide range of clients and points of sale all over the world – in Europe, the U.S., Brazil, Japan, Dubai, Australia and everywhere in between."

Amitai: "Our clients are divided into two types: the first are drone manufacturers (OEMs) that sometimes also provide the flight services. They buy the system's components that are attached to the drones directly from us and connect them to the cloud that manages all the communication. The second category is service providers that don't necessarily manufacture UAVs but provide various services and, in some cases, serve as integrators."

"Today, our clients are spread out geographically as well as in terms of their applications, with dozens of different companies that base their solutions on our products. Believe it or not, our system already has more than 200,000 flight and travel hours of various sorts and we play a significant role in regulatory agencies around the world."

Can you give examples of clients?

"For example, the American company DroneUp, that performs drone delivery services for the retail chain Walmart, delivering merchandise in six different states and more than four million households in the United States. All of the company's drones are equipped with Elsight's communication solutions and use our cloud networks. Another example is a Brazilian company called Speedbird, which delivers equipment and recently even signed an agreement with the company Skyports for a project on behalf of the British Royal Mail. Another example is the Israeli company Airobotics, which developed advanced autonomous drones and recently received a type certificate from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) in the U.S., which is considered the 'holy grail' in the field of registering and certifying industrial drones around the world."

A wide range of uses

Since October 7th, there has been a surge in demand for Elsight's systems from various entities in the defense establishment, but the company's management prefers not to share much information on this subject. They are only willing to say that the high demand has caused their sales mix to change, increasing the military and defense component – a trend that will apparently continue in the future.

"Armies around the world understood that it's a good idea to integrate cellular infrastructure and to use it for different applications," Kashi explains the growth in demand. "In the past, it was usually assumed that whatever was related to secure communications had to be completely independent so that it could function in a range of challenging locations – such as the middle of a desert or of an ocean. Since the outbreak of the Russia-Ukraine war, which is also playing out in urban areas, the approach has changed. It is now clear that military organizations don't have the privilege to ignore the available communication networks, and to forego transmission of critical data when any child can pass on through TikTok."

"Since our expertise was well-known in the civilian market of creating reliable and secure communications by taking advantage of public communication infrastructure, we were approached and we supplied off-the-shelf products," adds Amitai. "They understood the value of our systems, including redundancy, survivability and data protection, since all the data is encrypted at the highest level."

But with all due respect to Elsight's success in the military industry, the real promise lies in the civilian UAV market. Amitai and Kashi point to a wide range of applications, such as UAVs serving logistic needs and for last-mile deliveries, as well as for monitoring oil tankers or gas pipelines, surveying electricity lines and railroad tracks to avoid accidents, tracking progress at building sites and mines, securing perimeters, and many more.

What are the relative advantages of your system for civilian applications?

Kashi: "The system enables UAVs, including drones, to operate beyond the visual line of sight (BVLOS) of its operator. In order to operate drones safely and efficiently, it's important to control drone fleets – not just one per operator - and the ability to receive updates at every second about the drone's condition and location – and that is exactly what we do. Moreover, this is an Israeli product that is entirely developed and manufactured in Israel. We are proud of that."

What is your vision? What are your goals?

Amitai: "In addition to regulatory challenges and public acceptance, expanding the use of UAVs and maximizing their economic potential depends achieving the goals of top efficiency and security with the least amount of human power, as humans not only costs the most money but are also the biggest security risk. Elsight provides and continues to develop technological tools to improve productivity, efficiency and security in the field of unmanned aerial vehicles to reach their full potential. Today, the world of critical communications affects many fields and we have just started to scratch the surface of the iceberg on which we're standing."

Partnered with Elsight.