Although we do not generally sell drones, we do develop our own drone / UAS platforms for internal use. These drones are test beds primarily to allow us to test and refine a technology before delivering to others, though we also have used these platforms to perform demonstrations as well as perform field testing of a sensor technology. Building and flying our own drones also give us practical insights that we would not obtain otherwise.
Most of our drones are either modified versions of hackable platforms (such as the Crazyflie) or are built using commonly available parts (FCUs, motors, speed controllers, etc.) with additional parts of our own.
Below are photographs and a video of the operational hardware we used for in-house work and have provided to our partners. This nano “drone” is based on the Crazyflie 2.0 platform and is designed for “supervised autonomy” applications in which the operator provides high level commands and the drone safely implements them. With no human input, the drone defaults to full autonomy. The system is small- it will rest in your hand, and it weighs about 38 grams total. Yes, that’s 38 grams for the quadrotor, battery, and all sensing and control electronics!
Centeye nano unmanned aircraft system (UAS) with 360-degree stereo vision (2016)
- 360-degree optical flow and obstacle perception
- Operation from daylight to no light
- Automatic launch to hover
- Moves in direction commanded by human operator
- Holds a position when control sticks released
- Detects and avoids approaching obstacles, including textureless walls
- 100% GPS-denied
- Built on a Crazyflie platform
- Size: Rotors form 6 cm square
- Mass: 38 g including battery
Acknowledgement of Support
“This research was developed in part with funding from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) under contract D15PC00165. The views, opinions, and/or findings expressed are those of the author and should not be interpreted as representing the official views or policies of the Department of Defense or the U.S. Government.”
Distribution Statement “A” (Approved for Public Release, Distribution Unlimited)