Sony’s mobile division has just teamed up with a robotics company called ZMP to work on new drone technology.
ZMP, which Sony already invests in, has been developing autonomous driving technology for a while now, but this marks the company’s first attempt to ‘lift off’.
The company’s mission statement reads as follows: “Robot of Everything: To create a safe, fun and comfortable lifestyle with robotics technology”.
Sony’s statement reads as follows: “Sony Mobile Communications and ZMP Inc. have agreed to collaborate on the development and launch of enterprise solutions using autonomous unmanned aerial vehicles for image captured combined with cloud-based data processing.”
The rough outline of the plan suggests Sony will provide camera, sensor, and communications technology to ZMP.
ZMP will then handle the robotics side of things, in an effort to create drones that can take images and beam them to the cloud.
Related: 11 jawdropping videos that will make you want a drone
Unfortunately, the big caveat here is the word “enterprise” – Sony is targeting business clients with its drone efforts.
The drones will begin their journey “to the skies” with business customers in 2016.
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Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
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We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.