Above and GLOBHE release Crowddroning - a global collaboration platform for drones doing good

GLOBHE has partnered with Above to develop its new digital platform for crowddroning. With this platform, GLOBHE connects governments, organizations, and private companies with drone pilots all over the world in order to monitor, respond to and prevent disasters on a global scale. Drone pilots can deliver 2D, 3D, Elevation, and Thermal maps of the areas of interest to survey environmental, disease, and disaster impact.

Originally developed as a "Drone Delivery on Demand" service in 2015, GLOBHE saw much stronger demand for drone data instead. Therefore, in 2019, it evolved to become the only service providing “Drone Data on Demand” at a global scale and with a social impact mission. The new digital platform, launched together with Above early 2020, is enabling GLOBHE to make drone data available in a new way and at a scale that has never been possible before.

“The greatest challenge in working with startups such as GLOBHE is to shave off everything non-essential to get to a product that solves the central problem and can be developed fast and with limited resources. The work we’ve done for GLOBHE is a model example of how design and technology can make a significant impact on future services, ” says Kristoffer Eriksson, Software and Electronics Manager at Above.

Visual and real-time data collected by drones can now help important organizations and institutions solve some of the world’s most pressing issues. "We saw that drone data could provide information valuable for our clients’ operations, as well as for people and the planet. But there was no smooth way of getting access to it, or identifying when and where it was really needed,” says Helena Samsioe, Founder and CEO of GLOBHE.

Traditional and existing means do not only pose a risk to personnel but are far too costly, time-consuming, and unsustainable. With hundreds of thousands of remote pilots certified globally, the new digital platform allows clients to request a drone map with just a few clicks. Next to this, pilots can easily sign up and become part of the gig economy as all flying missions are locally outsourced around the world.

Currently, Helena Samsioe and her team are using the platform to help combat malaria and dengue fever by identifying mosquito breeding sites early enough to prevent outbreaks. The solution has impacted 100,000 people through the intervention of governmental and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in addressing cholera and malaria epidemics in Malawi and Lake Victoria.