Microdrones MD4-200 & MD4-1000 is a very user friendly UAV system that personnel in the field can operate within 1 or 2 days of training, even for people that have no previous RC experience. The quadrocopter design with four brushless electric motors is light weight and highly dependable. There is no gear or transmission system, and the system has no servos aiding the navigation. The speed of each rotor determines the flight. The electric motors and the relatively slow speed of the rotors ensure low vibrations and the system operates at very low noise level.

Even at an amazing empty weight of 585 grams (md4-200), the system has autonomous flight mode. Microdrones are equipped with all the needed sensors and computer power to control the flight and carry out complicated missions and tasks without a human operator. The system is also equipped with many safety features that both prevent the operator to make grave mistakes, and secure a safe landing if there should be a technical problem. The system construction, with low weight and flexible parts, makes this system possible to operate in populated places without danger of seriously harming people or infrastructure. The system needs no prepared take-off and landing site, and can be in the air within a few minutes after arrival at a site.Microdrone system can be geo-referenced. Regardless if this is video or still pictures, we have solutions that secure easy geo-referencing of the images. 

The downlink from the drone includes both real time video and telemetry data. The information is displayed on a laptop computer connected to the Base station. Manual flight and sensor control from the ground is carried out with an RC radio in the 35 or 40MHz band.The standard downlink is an analogue link that operates in the S-band at 2,4 GHz. The Base station has a directional antenna that increase the range and quality of the link. Optionally, the system can be fitted with a digital link system with longer range and encryption possibility.This offers the possibility to have real time full HD 1080P video downstream making this perfect for live sports television.

Through partners, Orbit can tailor other communication solutions depending on the customer needs and can offer fully stabilized camera mounts for aerial video or photography.

The system includes a comprehensive software, mdCockpit, for waypoint editing, a down link decoder for use when carrying out missions, a special terminal dialog for communicating with the drone and a flight recorder and data analyzing tool. The Software is translated to 17 languages among them, English, French and Spanish.

The waypoint editing system is very user friendly. The basis for the system is built with a close integration to Google maps. If the user has access to internet, then he do not need any other maps for editing waypoint lists for autonomous flight operations. If the user want to use other map sources, is it possible to import these and geo-reference these as basis for mission planning. The waypoint planning tool is very comprehensive and has many automated routines like making flight plan for rapid mapping projects. This routine starts with sensor settings and incorporates percentage overlap settings, area and so on. Then the system calculates a waypoint list with the commands for both camera control and the flight. The project is uploaded to the drone and you are ready to fly. The input for the rapid mapping software then consist of a list of pictures and positions, this can be imported into many different software packages for rapid mapping.

The mdCockpit downlink decoder is also a comprehensive tool with many options for mission control, monitoring sensor data, battery status, GPS accuracy, quality of down link and RC signal quality, flight time, altitude attitude, wind speed and other important data for safe operations. The system gives the operator possibility to see the video stream from the air in realtime. This enables the operator to secure the right picture coverage or doing the monitoring directly. The system can be delivered with flight goggles where the operator gets the videostream on his eyes to better be able to fly by the camera instead of seeing the drone or autonomous flight mode. It is also possible to monitor the drone where it is on the map in realtime. 

The mdCockpit system also makes it easy to monitor technical issues and analyze flights during and after flight. These tools give the user a great tool to learn and understand the system operations. The tool is also great for detect technical issues. The recorded flight logs inside the black box can easily be sent by mail to the first line support personnel. This will make this helpdesk personnel able to understand status and give instructions on how to fix issues online.

The system can run on any normal PC with minimum Windows XP and upward. 

The md4-1000 is the larger alternative to the md4-200, with considerably higher performance.

Wind tolerance (up to 12m/sec), endurance and maximum payload(1.2kg) are key aspects of the higher performance. MD4-1000 is fully compatible with the MD4-200 system. The two systems operates on the same software, same RC – links, down links and even all sensors available to MD4-200 can be used directly on the MD4-1000.