Airbus’ UP42 partners with Indian startup HyperVerge for AI-based satellite imagery analytics

UP42, a geospatial developer platform and marketplace wholly owned by Airbus, has partnered with Indian startup HyperVerge Inc. to offer satellite imagery services using Artificial Intelligence (AI)-based change detection algorithms. 

This is the 11th successful partnership industrialised by Airbus Bizlab in India and the second partnership between HyperVerge and an Airbus entity.

HyperVerge’s automated algorithms will help detect small structural changes to homes and properties for local government tax assessment and code enforcement. They will also help monitor legal and unauthorised construction of roads, buildings and artificial islands in remote regions by federal or defence agencies, and keep GIS maps updated in rapidly growing urban areas. The automated algorithms will detect these changes with a high degree of accuracy by comparing two images acquired on different dates. 

“UP42 is excited to launch this partnership with HyperVerge, a company at the forefront of innovation around deep learning and satellite imagery. The sheer volume of satellite imagery makes manual interpretation difficult or even impossible. Algorithms like those developed by HyperVerge that automatically and accurately detect change are of utmost importance for applications ranging from infrastructure monitoring to urban planning,” said Sean Wiid, CEO, UP42. 

Users of the UP42 platform will gain affordable access to SPOT and Pléiades archives where they can purchase the image data required to cover their area of interest. Leveraging the power of cloud computing, users can then apply HyperVerge algorithms that join more than 130 data and analytics capabilities, to find features, count objects, detect change, uncover patterns, classify land use, and derive vegetative indices.

“HyperVerge is very excited for this partnership with UP42, which is changing the way satellite imagery-based applications are built and consumed. Combining the ease of use of the UP42 platform with HyperVerge’s AI algorithms can help enterprises, defense agencies, and governments track changes in assets of interest with a high accuracy in tactically relevant timelines,” said Kedar Kulkarni, CEO, HyperVerge.