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Chad Sweet of ModalAI Named Future of Tech Honoree in 2021 Top Tech Awards

Chad Sweet of ModalAI Named Future of Tech Honoree in 2021 Top Tech Awards

ModalAI CEO Recognized for His Work on VOXL Flight® – A Simplified Drone Development Platform

Chad Sweet, CEO and co-founder of ModalAI, was recognized yesterday as a Future of Tech honoree in the 2021 Top Tech Awards. Chad led the ModalAI team in the creation of the VOXL Flight, the first open-development platform for autonomous drone navigation that fuses a companion computer with a PX4 flight controller on one printed circuit board (PCB).

Chad was awarded for his work on VOXL Flight because the technology supports and simplifies the development of drone-based solutions and has significant impact on the growth of the robotics sector. Equipped with GPS-denied navigation and obstacle avoidance, VOXL Flight offers an integrated solution that allows developers to create drones that can fly autonomously on 4G and 5G networks. Sweet most notably spearheaded the Qualcomm Flight, the predecessor to VOXL Flight, that is powering NASA’s Ingenuity helicopter – the first drone to fly on Mars.

“ModalAI’s mission is to accelerate autonomy for smaller, smarter and safer drones by providing innovators with robot and drone perception and communications systems that utilize the latest technology. I appreciate being recognized for our efforts to set new standards for innovation and growth in the U.S. drone industry with the Top Tech Awards,” said Chad Sweet, CEO, ModalAI.

The Top Tech Awards honor outstanding technology leaders who work in the San Diego Region. They celebrate the unsung heroes of information technology, as these brilliant leaders and their teams serve as the behind-the-scenes forces that keep companies running.

In August 2021, ModalAI was named the manufacturer and distributor of Qualcomm Technologies’ world first 5G and AI-enabled drone platform and reference design, the Qualcomm Flight™ RB5 5G Platform. ModalAI worked with Qualcomm to design and develop the platform and reference design and will distribute and support it through its lifecycle with open-source software and applications.

About ModalAI
ModalAI accelerates autonomy by providing innovators with robot and drone perception and communications systems that are manufactured in the U.S.A. Offering both start-to-finish custom design services and computing platforms, ModalAI helps manufacturers and independent builders get to market quickly and affordably.

Based in San Diego, California, ModalAI spun out of Qualcomm® in 2018 and leverages more than five years of prior research and development in the drone and robotic markets. For more information visit http://www.modalai.com.

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