Tokyo, Nov. 10th, 2022 / VFR Inc.
VFR and Blue Innovation Sign MOU to Provide One-Stop Drone Solutions
On Tuesday, November 1, VFR Inc. (Headquarters: Shibuya-ku, Tokyo; President and CEO: Koichiro Yuasa) and Blue Innovation Co., Ltd. (Headquarters: Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo; President and CEO: Takayuki Kumada) concluded an MOU in order to establish a one-stop system for providing a series of services related to the introduction of drone solutions. With this, the companies will aim to launch new businesses using drones and further expand the use of drones to solve problems.
■ Background of the collaboration
In order to introduce solutions that utilize drones for inspection, logistics, or security, there are three important factors: “Hardware” such as drones and mounted devices, “systems” that control the aircraft and acquire and manage data, and “pilot training” to manage and operate them.
Currently, it is difficult for companies considering the introduction of drones to find services that provide a bird’s-eye view of the entire solution (for example, from proposal of introduction plan to model selection and operation) since they are provided by different companies. VFR is a hardware platform maker who optimally designs, manufactures, develop mass production systems for each purposes and applications, while Blue Innovation is a software platform maker whose “Blue Earth Platform” (BEP) enables multiple drones, robots or various devices to be remotely controlled and linked even out of sight and based on their missions. Blue Innovation is also well known for their training of specialized pilots. Combining their strengths under the agreement allows the companies to develop new solutions and provide a series of services related to the introduction of drone solutions in a one-stop manner.
■ Specific initiatives
VFR is responsible for quality assurance by managing aircraft information with ERP systems and drone configurators, and Blue Innovation is in charge of the consulting field and pilot training by utilizing many problem-solving know-how and systems using BEP, as well as human resource development methods. By collaborating with each other in their specialized fields, the business efficiency of the two companies will dramatically increase, enabling the speedy market development of drones, peripheral equipment, and related services.
As the first phase of this agreement, the “Drone Configurator” is under development and is scheduled to go into operation in January 2023.
[Drone Configurator]
Drone configurator is a sales tool that can customize industrial drones according to customers’ requests and create quotations on the spot. The lead-time from an order to delivery can be dramatically shortened by the system checking the inventory in real time. Configuring products with only safety-guaranteed parts achieves traceability at the component level.
■ Comments from the companies
Comment from Mr. Koichiro Yuasa, President and CEO of VFR
Through years of demonstration experiments, the usefulness of drones has been assured. In future, hardware, software, and services need to be integrated and guaranteed as a system since social implementation becomes a precondition. Through our partnership with Blue Innovation, we promise to our customers to implement drones in society with safety and security.
Comment from Mr. Takayuki Kumada, President and CEO of Blue Innovation
As an integrator of drones and robots, we have been considering the use of drone systems for various customer operations. Under such circumstances, it was necessary to cooperate with various hardware manufacturers in order to provide the optimal hardware for their business. We expect that this alliance with VFR will further accelerate this provision system.
<About VFR>
Company name: VFR Inc.
Location: Yebisu Garden place Tower 31F, 4-20-3 Ebisu Shibuya-ku, Tokyo, Japan
Representative: President & CEO Koichiro Yuasa
Establishment: March 12, 2020
URL: https://vfr.co.jp
Business overview: Plan, design, manufacture, sale, repair, maintenance, inspection, import and export of small unmanned aerial vehicles (drones, etc.) and accompanying software, and contracting of design, manufacture and repair. Incidental to these, technical support, design support, operational support for production and sales, and planning support, etc.
＜About Blue innovation Co., Ltd.>
Company name: Blue innovation Co., Ltd.
Location: Ichigo Hongo Building 4F, 5-33-10 Hongo, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo, Japan
Representative: President and CEO Takayuki Kumada
Establishment: June 10th, 1998
URL: https://www.blue-i.co.jp
Business Overview: Blue Innovation develops and provides the following solutions based on Blue Earth Platform (BEP), a unique device integration platform that enables DX and automation of various operations by automatically controlling and linking multiple drones, robots, and various devices remotely and out of sight.
・Inspection solutions (smart inspection of plants, factories, public infrastructure and others, 3D modeling, etc.)
・Distribution solutions (warehouse inventory management, logistics, etc.)
・Office solutions (security/crime prevention, surveillance, etc.)
・Education solutions (in-house human resource development, programming education for children, etc.)
*A device integration platform “Blue Earth Platform® (BEP)”
It is Blue Innovation’s unique device integration platform that enables automatic control and coordination of multiple drones, robots, and/or various devices remotely and out-of-sight based on a mission. Multiple missions can be carried out simultaneously by integrating and managing multiple drones and robots remotely and at once with BEP, and by linking them with various OS and other
systems. Inspections, logistics, transportation, disaster prevention, security, cleaning, etc – by selecting the functions and devices necessary for a given business or application in advance, Blue Innovation realizes implementation, automation, and DX of drones and robots in various business operations.
For more information, please visit https://www.blue-i.co.jp/technology/bep/
Source: VFR Inc. and Blue Innovation Co., Ltd.