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Tech: Mobilicom’s new project addresses problems with drone delivery
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Remote communications company Mobilicom (ASX:MOB) reckons the COVID-19 pandemic will accelerate demand for drone delivery systems.
The company has been exploring opportunities in the market, and this morning it announced funding for a new research project in Florida.
Together with US drone company Censys Technologies, MOB will undertake a two-year project to build an advanced communication platform which allows drones to be effective while also meeting aviation safety regulations for civilian airspace.
The company said regulatory restrictions currently pose the biggest hurdle to the sector’s development.
MOB will receive $770,000 in funding for the first year of research, as part of a joint spending initiative between Space Florida and the Israel Innovation Authority.
The aim is to develop a solution targeting “civilian drone and unmanned aerial system (UAS) operations in three areas — delivery, inspection security and law enforcement”, MOB said.
It will develop an Autonomous Platforms Dual Datalink, allowing for the automatic selection of the best communication channel for a given range or location, which will be embedded in the Censys drones for flight-testing.
MOB said if the project is successful Censys may look to purchase the resulting technology for use in its drone fleet.
“There is further potential for uptake by other drone operators and manufacturers,” MOB added.
Shares in the company rose in morning trade, and the stock has now climbed off its COVID-19 lows after getting slammed at the peak of the selloff in March.
In other ASX tech news today
Shares in security-tech platform archTIS (ASX:AR9) continued their run after posting a 48 per cent gain on Friday, up 20 per cent in morning trade.
That increase followed news of a material contract with defence major Northrop Grumman, which announced it would acquire 50 licenses of archTIS’ Kojensi platform, a cloud-based service for secure file sharing.
On the corporate side, archTIS director Daniel Lai added to his shareholding in the company with a small $2,000 acquisition comprising 36,364 shares. Lai has a further 7,284,252 shares held in escrow until September 2020.
