© Asio Technologies

Military services are so ingrained in the culture of the country, it comes as no surprise that Israel is also home to some of the most influential corporations that support the military industry. In 2002 former IDF (Israel Defense Forces) officers and commanders Yaniv and Tomer Malchi founded Asio Technologies to serve parliamentary and defensive services in Israel.

The brothers both have an extensive background in technology which they applied to their military experiences. Based a few miles west of Tel Aviv in Rosh Ha’ayin, Asio specializes “in geo-spatial position acquisition systems encompassing navigation, positioning, mission planning, mission management, and system integration,” as explained on the company website. Companies like Asio have been making it possible for the IDF and its allies to have access to emerging technology, like drones, that make all the difference in today’s warfare market.

One of the key elements for the IDF when it comes to operating drones is having control of them in all situations. There are many areas where the IDF uses drones that are GPS denied. Other times, the signal can be spoofed or jammed, compromising missions. Asio developed NavGuard to overcome this obstacle. NavGuard relies on a visual computing program to bypass a drone ever needing to rely on GPS. The system is about the size of a credit card, making it lightweight and compact. “NavGuard’s compact architecture is ideal for tactical UAVs, such as small drones and quadcopters, where payload capacity and flight time are very limited and size, weight, and power consumption are key success parameters,” the website goes on to explain. “NavGuard’s solution is housed in a completely self-sustained system incorporating both a computing module and cameras in a single small size, lightweight and low power system. This architecture makes the system very simple to integrate and highly resistant to external interferences.”

NavGuard’s downward facing camera allows a drone to interpret its environment and translate that into executing a safe mission. This also means that a drone can be flown out of an operator’s line of sight. With NavGuard, the IDF can securely operate drones in any environment, a technological advantage that has now caught the attention of nonmilitary drone manufacturers. Though the military still represents the largest contributor to the drone market, the commercial drone industry is expanding rapidly. With this expansion, comes the need for commercial drones to have GPS redundancy.

“We very quickly learned that civilian market is our main market,” said Asio CEO David Harel. “There are much larger quantities of drones here. The need is real, and the market is endless. We are just at this stage where we are breaking through to it.” These drones will likely be in situations where GPS is denied at some point. Hackers could intercept a drone’s GPS. With multiple drones in one area, the signals can also become entangled. NavGuard eliminates these concerns, making each drone able to fly safely regardless of a signal.

Asio’s NavGuard can provide companies with the technology needed to incorporate drones in shared airspace. “It’s expected that drone growth will occur across a number of main segments, including retail delivery, agriculture, construction, insurance, media/telecom, and law enforcement. The arrival of an airborne traffic jam is hard to ignore, but unlike 20th century traffic, you can’t just pull off to the side of the road if you have an accident,” Harel says. “The system solves one of the more acute problems of massive drone operations.”