Qualcomm eyes AI drone flight

Time of India

28-07-2025

NEW DELHI:
Qualcomm
, an American wireless technology provider is looking at the
drone industry
as a next big focus area, following making a dent in the automotive sector with Snapdragon powered
artificial intelligence
(AI)-driven connected and smart cars.
'It (drone) is one of the very big areas like we have industrial IoT business units. There are examples which I am even seeing here in India. Drone has been of interest in a lot of our meetings, and has become a common theme,' John Smee, senior vice president (engineering) & global head of wireless research at Qualcomm, told ETTelecom.
Smee said that the country's drone landscape is promising, offering multiple use cases.
'This is interesting. The fact that you have this wide geographic area and a large population. Drones could be part of inspecting critical infrastructure for damage. It can be used in agriculture,' the top executive said, adding that the multinational is doing technology collaboration through Qualcomm-developed platform.
In 2021, the San Diego-based company debuted the industry's first 5G and AI drone platform, and reference design with heterogeneous computing and Wi-Fi 6 connectivity.
Last year, Qualcomm together with Swedish telecom gear maker Ericsson and autonomous drone solution provider Dronus demonstrated a 5G use case with mmWave spectrum-backed drone at a 5G smart factory, showcasing integration of 5G wireless technology with industrial processes. The proof-of-concept uses a Qualcomm QRB5165 processor-powered drone.
The US chipset maker is also working closely with the Indian academic institutions such as the Indian Institute of Science (IISc), and other universities, as a part of its broad initiatives such as the 5G University Program and the Qualcomm Innovation Fellowship (QIF).
"There is a future of physical AI, and that involves a lot of drones, sensors, and the cellular network. So, those are examples even when we are talking with universities here in India. These include digital twin and RF sensing."
The executive further said that Qualcomm has a very large engineering presence in India, and is collaborating with the workforce worldwide.
'So, India for us is obviously an incredibly important location in terms of creativity of the engineering teams here. So we have a large footprint of different types of engineers on topics like 5G, some of the 6G aspects delivering the wireless part, and even on the compute part - the CPU, GPU and neural processing.'
Cristiano Amon-headed wireless technology giant has a significant research and development (R&D) presence in India's Chennai that includes a newly-unveiled design center focussing on wireless connectivity solutions and Wi-Fi technologies, augmenting the company's global R&D efforts.
The executive also said that the US multinational is excited to work with the Indian government and domestic companies in their aspiration for widespread digital connectivity.
In a bid to make India a global drone hub by 2030, the Indian government aims to boost ease of doing business by abolishing multiple approvals through a policy roadmap, that also includes the creation of drone corridors, permission-free drone operation in green zones, and the development of digital sky platform as a user-friendly online single-window system.
Separately in 2021, Prime Minister Narendra Modi government also notified a production linked incentive (PLI) scheme to boost domestic manufacturing of drones and associated components. The program mandates a minimum value addition of 40% of net sales for drones and drone components.
India's ban on imported drones coupled with the PLI scheme-backed domestic manufacturing, has catalysed rapid innovation in autonomous drones with AI-driven capabilities.