ZH / Questions
Questions and answers.
Plain answers about the drone dock, the data and working with us.
001 / The dock and its drones
What it is and how it works.
What is the Zohardi Station?
A Zohardi Station is our customized dock and data center, a drone dock that lives on your property. It houses, charges and launches drones with no one on site, processes every flight after landing, and sends results over the site network or Starlink, with LTE as a fallback. It comes in two sizes, Standard and Mini, in a weatherproof, climate-controlled dome, on solar or shore power, and it's built in the US. We know of no one else who puts the dock, the computing, the models and the aircraft on the property as one system.
How is it different from satellite imagery?
It sees more detail, more often, from below the clouds. The best commercial satellites stop at about 30 cm per pixel, and our color imagery is under 1 cm per pixel at about 120 ft. Imaging satellites pass mid-morning, when the coastal marine layer peaks, and the dock flies its drones under the cloud deck and reschedules by the hour.
How often does it fly?
Every day, weather permitting, and any time you call a drone from your phone. You get a report every morning.
What sensors do the drones carry?
Visual, multispectral, thermal and gas sensors. Color imagery is under 1 cm per pixel at about 120 ft, every multispectral image is corrected to true reflectance, thermal records a temperature for every pixel, and the dock carries its own weather sensors. Our models read them together, and that combination, more than any single sensor, is what makes our findings reliable.
Which drones do you fly?
Proven commercial aircraft today. The dock is aircraft agnostic and works with leading commercial aircraft. Our own aircraft, the Kite and the Aura, are in development. They use NDAA-compliant airframes and flight systems with Blue UAS Framework core electronics, and join the fleet after acceptance testing.
Does it fly in bad weather?
Only when it's safe to. The dock's weather sensors record wind, rain, temperature, humidity, sunlight and lightning around the clock, and that record decides when it's safe to fly. Flights are daily, weather permitting.
Do I need to buy drones or hire a pilot?
No. No drones to buy, no data to manage, no models to run and no FAA paperwork to file. We own and operate every dock and aircraft and provide the remote pilots.
002 / What you get
Answers in the tools you already use.
What do I get, and in which tools?
Findings, layers and tables in the tools you already use. Results land in Esri ArcGIS and Databricks, as Esri layers, Databricks tables and exports, or through an API, and we're an Esri partner and a Databricks partner. Every flight, finding and dataset joins a living digital twin of your property, and once flights begin you can ask it questions in plain language. Every flight leaves a dated record for your land trust or your insurer.
How sure is each finding?
Every finding carries its confidence and the evidence behind it. Each comes with a photo, its location and how sure it is, every output carries its uncertainty, and our scientists review what the models can't settle. Results are reported, good or bad.
Who owns the data?
You do. You own your data and every output about your properties, and you decide who sees it. Data is encrypted on the dock, in transit and in the cloud, in a US region on Azure and Databricks, whose platforms hold SOC 2 and ISO 27001 certifications.
Can you use the drone imagery we already have?
Yes. If you already have aerial or drone imagery, send it with your existing records, and we'll run our change detection over that history and show you what it finds. Nothing requires it.
Does it work on any kind of land?
Yes. The dock, the drones and the Zohardi Learning Engine stay the same, and only what the models look for changes. A new kind of land is a retrain, not a redesign, and each site trains the Learning Engine, so the next site starts smarter.
003 / Working with us
From the first call to day 60.
How does the free pilot work?
Try Zohardi free for 60 days. We install the dock, handle the FAA approvals and run every flight. You own your data, and you can stop anytime. It starts with an hour on the phone and a walk of the property to set your priorities and pick a spot for the dock, then daily flights and on-demand checks, a morning report, and alerts when something changes.
What happens at the end of the pilot?
You decide. At day 60 we go over what it caught, what it saved and what it added. Keep going, or we take the dock away and you keep the record.
Where do you work?
California first. We're starting in California, then expanding across the western United States and nationally.
Who handles the FAA approvals to fly beyond visual line of sight?
We do. As operator of record, we obtain and maintain the FAA approvals to fly beyond visual line of sight at each property.
Maxar and WorldView Legion resolution listings; Clemesha et al. 2016