Teledyne Technologies Inc. (NYSE:TDY) is one of the holdings in the AdvisorShares Drone Technology ETF [NYSE ARCA:UAV], the only ETF dedicated to the drone economy. The AdvisorShares Drone Technology ETF is a thematic investment strategy seeking to capture the growth opportunities in drones and autonomous vehicles (AV). AdvisorShares is a DRONELIFE sponsor." Teledyne FLIR is a global name in thermal and visible imaging. With SIRAS, Teledyne FLIR has equipped a reliable, user-friendly drone with their world-class imaging solutions, including visible and thermal cameras; and features designed to meet the security needs of public safety and government agencies – all with U.S.-based service and support. Product Manager Kelly Brodbeck explains that SIRAS was developed around the end user. "We maintain focus groups with end users all the time," he says. "We benefit from all of our contacts – we're constantly talking to people and looking for consistencies across their areas of expertise: public safety, oil and gas, industry." The decision not to use geofencing was the direct result of user feedback. "This is about giving the pilot control: for public safety in particular, users really don't want geofencing – that's just unacceptable.

Teledyne FLIR has announced the release of Prism AI, a software framework that provides classification, object detection, and object tracking, enabling perception engineers to quickly start integrating thermal cameras for Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS) and Autonomous Vehicle (AV) systems. Built for automotive perception system developers, Prism includes features such as visible-and-thermal image fusion and advanced thermal image processing capabilities that provide superior pedestrian and animal detection in challenging lighting conditions, especially at night. "The Prism AI software model has performed successfully in third-party, NCAP Automatic Emergency Braking (AEB) tests and will now help perception engineers create more effective systems," said Michael Walters, vice president product management, Teledyne FLIR. "Combining the Prism AI development tools, plugins, and dataset development offers integrators a route to quickly test and decrease development cost for thermal-enabled ADAS or AV that will help save lives." Developers can use Prism AI as the primary perception software or as reference software during in-house development.

As rescue teams continue to search for survivors amid the rubble of the collapsed condo in Surfside, Florida, they have increasingly high-tech tools at their disposal. Massachusetts-based robotics company Teledyne Flir sent the Miami-Dade Fire Department the Flir FirstLook, a rugged but lightweight drone that'investigates dangerous and hazardous material while keeping its operator out of harm's way.' Unlike human responders, FirstLook doesn't have to worry about smoke inhalation, can reach into cramped areas, and won't risk destabilizing the structure further. 'In a collapse situation like this, the pile is structurally unsound and constantly vulnerable to shifting,' Teledyne Flir vice president Tom Frost told The Washington Post. 'It's much safer to have a robot crawl deeper into a void than to have a person crawling into that void,' Frost said. About the size of a brick, FirstLook can even be thrown from a distance--if it lands upside down, it has the capability to right itself.