Features

Safe and unrivalled easy of use

Because of a unique AAHRS (Attitude and Altitude and Heading Reference System), unexperienced people can learn to fly the Microdrone within the hour.

The microdrone is guided by a standard FM radio controller (RI) as with miniature airplanes. Although the omnidirectional action radius is about 500 m, it is better practice to keep the drone within eye-contact from the radio transmitter. The drone, equipped with silent electrical rotors, is battery driven and endures a flight of 20 minutes (up to 45 min with the MD4-1000). A set of batteries comes with the drone and are replaced within a minute. The noise emission is very low thanks to a highly efficient propulsion system: less than 65 dBA on a hoverpoint on 3 meter distance.

Flying with the microdrone is very easy, in relation to flying a mini-helicopter. This is caused by the inertial sensors inside the microdrone. These sensors log continuously the attitude of the microdrone during the flight. Thanks to these sensors the microcontrollers and software inside the microdrone are able to keep the UAV perfectly horizontal and stable. This is why anybody can easily learn to fly the microdrone.

GPS Position Hold

The UAV is equipped with GPS. This means that, on the moment you don’t use the radio transmitter, the microdrone will automatically try to keep its position using GPS. This autonomous functionality is smoothly interrupted once you make again contact using the radio transmitter, and guide the microdrone further manually. This feature is unique for UAVs and make the Microdrone a perfect partner in observation and surveillance tasks.

Live video monitoring and recording

The microdrone is equipped with a video downlink that takes care of showing you on a laptop or in goggles, what the mounted camera is looking at. The video downlink is part of the base station that comes with the drone. This is a real help for focusing the microdrone’s camera to a certain object on the ground, or a building, roof, etc… or anything else you want to monitor or photograph.

On your base station laptop, you can record any live feed from the airborne cameras. All cameras can be tilted in any direction from straight forward to straight down.

Camera’s

A choice of cameras can be mounted under the Microdrone to suit every need. Currently, 3 video cameras are available: daylight camera, near infrared or dawn b/w camera, and an infrared camera. Each camera is carefully selected to fit the requirements of this drone: weight, resolution, controllable from the ground.

Pictures

You can fit a quality photocamera on the Microdrone, and insert a flash card to take sharp pictures and video recordings. Using the flash card, you retain the quality of the camera, instead of the downlink video quality. During operation with the photocamera, you still have your video downlink available for live monitoring. Thanks to the GPS and inertial sensors, you are able to take nice images from the air with the microdrone.

Fields of Applications

Application fields and use cases are limitless:

Photography * Journalism * TV * Police * Fire Brigade * Army * Security Services * Environmental Protection * Public Works and Construction monitoring * Documentation * Reporting * Observation * Exploration * Surveillance * Surveying and Mapping * Communication * Real Estate * Video Broadcasting * Inspection …

Surveillance and Inspection

The Microdrone is the perfect solution for airborn surveillance and inspection. In many disciplines, ariborn observation can give extra insigtht and ad hoc interpretation. Application fields can be as diverse as construction engineering, environmental observation and controls, forest management to roof inspection.

Safety and Security services

Due to it’s compact size, silent operation and live video feed, the Microdrone is an ideal tool for all safety and security organization, be it public services such as Fire brigades, army and police forces, or private security organizations.

Microdrone for Airborne Mapping and Surveying

As the Microdrone is GPS controlled, and registers the attitude of the vehicle, this hi-tech piece of engineering is fit for mapping tasks. Orbit Geospatial Technologies has developed an extension to their core Orbit GIS desktop system that covers just that.

The Microdrone Airborne Mapping extension to Orbit GIS provides the tools required for automated flight and high precision mapping. It contains a Waypoint Generator, a Microdrone in-flight tracker, and a captation tool. Further image-, stereoprocessing and orthorectification can be executed using the Strabo Photogrammetry extension to Orbit GIS.

Install the Orbit GIS system and the Microdrone Airborne Mapping extension on your base station laptop.

The Waypoint Generator

The Waypoint Generator creates an automated photo coverage task for the Microdrone, by defining a route on your map. The tool automatically calculates the required waypoints to create a full mono or stereo image coverage of any area. Just draw the area on your map and indicate the main flight axis. You can also define a free path, a coverage along a vector, an ellipsoid flight focussed to a point of interest.

The waypoint list is uploaded to the Microdrone that will fly, take the vertical or oblique images and return home fully autonomous.

The In-Flight Tracker

Wether you have commanded an automated flight, or control the Microdrone manually, the In-Flight tracker shows the Microdrone position instantly on your map. You can choose to view and/or register the flight track.

Recover Images for processing

Send out the Microdrone to take the images set forth in your Waypoint list. The drone flies to the waypoints at set height, stabilizes and takes the pictures. On its return, download the pictures. The pictures are automatically identified and associated with the programmed waypoints. The attitude is extracted and a Strabo Photogrammetry-project is created. You can now continue with mapping or image processing. When images do not satisfy your requirements, just send the Microdrone up again to have a second take.

Mapping

Based on the stereo-images taken by the Microdrone, you now have a stereoscopic coverage of a small area in high resolution. Using traditional photogrammetric techniques, you can easily map this area and extract quality vector data. The Orbit GIS photogrammetry extension Strabo allows direct creation of vector data integrated in your current GIS project, even in client-server setup and over internet. A monoscopic coverage of the area is sufficient to let Strabo generate an ultra detailed orthomosaic from the covered area..

Using a straight forward camera orientation, the Microdrone can be used for terrestrial photogrammetry, helping the surveyor with a faster capture of the area, allowing to register and check more details back in the office.

What is included in the Microdrone case ?

The Microdrone is delivered in a very strong plastic travel case, in which the microdrone and the base station find their place, and in which it can be transported easy and safely. The case is equipped for air transport and contains segments for optional storage for extra equipment and spare parts. The base station can operate on the power supply of any vehicle, which makes it operational in the field.