Alexei Yankelevich, Head of Software Development at SPH Engineering

We last spoke in early 2021. What updates can you give us about your company and products?

Alexei Yankelevich (SPH Engineering): SPH Engineering is growing with the market and is even faster than the market. As of today, we have 4 product lines in our portfolio: 1) UgCS – a ground control software for drones, 2) UgCS Integrated Systems - airborne integrated systems with sensors from diverse manufacturers, 3) Drone Show Software - a commercially available software to manage drone swarm flights, and 4) ATLAS - a modern spatial data sharing platform for drone teams. Each product line grows on itself. However, the most interesting thing is that we ship more and more combined solutions consisting of several products.

When people think about drones, they think first of hardware, yet software is key to a drone’s functioning. What makes your solution unique in the market? What would you say is your Unique Selling Point?

Alexei Yankelevich (SPH Engineering): I would say people no longer think about drone hardware or software. People think about solutions for their problems. And SPH Engineering does not behave like a software or hardware vendor only. We offer expertise in AEC, agriculture, energy, geophysics, etc. Last year, we were the first to introduce LiDAR flight planning tools, and we are working on industry-specific workflows to help pilots minimise mistakes during data acquisition. Another interesting trend is that “one-man army” pilots are becoming part of larger teams. This happens with small drone service providers and drone enthusiasts in GIS departments in large organisations. We think it’s time to focus not just on individual pilots' needs but also on the needs of a distributed team. This is why we developed ATLAS, a scalable spatial data sharing and collaboration platform for modern GIS teams.

Every year, we hear more and more about Artificial Intelligence (AI) in general. What can you tell us about the use of AI for drones?

Alexei Yankelevich (SPH Engineering): It is difficult to speak about AI in general. Benefits heavily depend on the industry. Agriculture and various inspection services are growing rapidly in terms of AI. The reason is apparent—large areas and many objects for detection make manual processes very time-consuming and error-prone. However, I would add that even though many organisations look towards AI, they still have not solved a more essential problem—how to store terabytes of surveying data in a structured manner and how to provide access to this data to all interested parties: field engineers, design engineers, data scientists, and clients.

What can you tell us about the role of regulation in software? Are there particular things you need to consider when developing your software? Or are there specific things you cannot do yet because the necessary regulations are not in place?

Alexei Yankelevich (SPH Engineering): Regulations do not directly impact how we implement the software. We care about convenience, reliability, and scalability, which are more or less regulation-agnostic. Regulations may slightly limit pilots during their operations. For example, our software UgCS is completely ready to control multiple drones simultaneously and to perform BVLOS flights; however, this is not allowed in most countries without special permission.

Two topics that made headlines last year were drone delivery and passenger drones. Do you foresee your flight-planning software getting involved with these topics, or what is your general outlook regarding those markets?

Alexei Yankelevich (SPH Engineering): I think that, from the technological point of view, software solutions are ready to become a backbone for a drone delivery operator. However, I expect a long journey for these industries due to regulatory issues.