As we move into the drone-enabled society, it’s important to develop technologies that will operate in tandem with the physical drones moving through the air. One critical area of these peripheral and drone-enabling technologies is drone detection.
As the level of use cases for drones increases, as well as the number of drones performing those operations, it is critical to have the ability to safely integrate and monitor those drones throughout the airspace.
Drone Fund recently had the opportunity to sit down with Jeff Cole, CEO of Hidden Level. Hidden Level develops cost-effective and scalable solutions for drone detection and is excelling in this space at a critical point in the evolution of drone development.

Hidden Level’s Solutions
“Hidden Level’s mission is to enable the safe integration of drones into the world’s airspace systems by providing actionable airspace monitoring data.
“With drones already beginning to flood the airspace and use cases such as drone delivery and urban air mobility becoming closer to reality, urban centers present the greatest challenge for ensuring security and enabling safe commercial drone operations.
“Current technologies offered today do not scale for the large area coverage needed for major cities, which is problematic to ensure long term viability and safety of the airspace
“Hidden Level solves this problem with an advanced sensor technology network, called the Airspace Monitoring Service. Our sensors are installed on existing infrastructure (cell towers, building rooftops, etc.) and owned, operated, and maintained by Hidden Level – eliminating the burden on entities to purchase and accommodate expensive and rapidly changing technology. We give our customers only what they need – the data produced by our monitoring service.”

Opportunities, Applications, and Use Cases
“Hidden Level provides Safety Through Sensing. At our core, the safety of the world’s low-altitude airspace is our top priority. From drone delivery and urban air mobility programs to the security of the public, Hidden Level intends to ensure safety of low-altitude airspace.”

Public Acceptance of Drones and Drone Tech
“The use of drones to increase efficiencies, such as Wing’s delivery trials in Virginia (link), and reduce putting people in harm’s way (link) are going a long way to show the public the good. The innovation and growth shown with these early trial programs are great, now comes the need for supporting technologies and regulations to scale them.
“There have also been plenty of examples (link) where drones are seen as a growing concern, with the need for technology to help prevent and reduce the likelihood of similar events becoming paramount.”

Societal Benefits of Hidden Level’s Tech
“Our goal is to help strengthen the productive use case for drones while providing the necessary tools for security personnel to mitigate the malicious and disruptive uses. The assurance of safety and ability to provide accountability for those using drones is our goal.”

One Highlight on Hidden Level’s Company & Vision
“Hidden Level is a specialized team of remote sensing, radar, and wireless communications experts. Most of our team has been working together over a decade with a proven history of success developing state of the art technology solutions for both military and commercial markets. We will continue to innovate to provide world-class solutions to our customers!”

Upcoming News in 2020
“Stay tuned for announcements later this summer about our launch cities.”

Final Message
“We are always looking to partner and work with other innovative companies to provide comprehensive solutions for customers. Please reach out at hiddenlevel.com – we look forward to working with you!”

Edited by Tavis Sartin