Many commercial drone operations rely on several people in the field: usually a pilot, a payload/camera operator and sometimes additional domain experts depending on the mission type. In times of a pandemic - as we have it with Covid-19 at the moment - you want to avoid people being outside or travel as much as possible. But some drone operations can't be postponed - for example inspection of critical infrastructure, Search & Rescue or curfew enforcement. In this situations staff in the field should be reduced as much as possible to protect them and the entire population.

Sky Drone technology allows you to fully remote-operate a drone and its payload over a 4G / 5G cellular network. Even if your payload operator is in home quarantine - productive work for a mission critical project is still possible. He will be able to control the camera and gimbal from hundreds of kilometers away using low latency streaming technology, capture images and inspect them immediately from home.

Using Sky Drone technology we can help you to implement all of the following scenarios, minimizing or eliminating the need to send people to a target operating area.

Scenario 1: Pilot in the field, Payload Operator and Domain Experts operate remotely

The easiest way to get started is to reduce the staff in the field to the drone pilot only.
Both payload/camera operator and other Stakeholders can watch a low latency life stream from anywhere in the world, operate the camera and take still images for instant review.

Scenario 2: Safety pilot in close distance - Drone and payload operated remotely

The next step is to only have a safety pilot that can take over control of the drone in an emergency situation and to comply with relevant Line-of-Sight regulations. Both drone and payload are operated remotely via 4G/5G connection.

Scenario 3: Full remote operation - nobody needs to leave the house

Full Beyond Visual Line of Sight (BVLOS) operation via the 4G/5G network. This depends on local regulations and possible BVLOS licenses in your jurisdiction but allows you to execute your drone mission fully remotely without leaving your house.

One of the common questions regarding the use of 4G/LTE on drones is if the connection still works at high speeds. Especially in regard to fast flying fixed wings UAVs.

In particular the Doppler Effect is often stated as the main concern.
Ericsson actually tested this - not on a drone but on a jet!

The results showed that the PCs were able to connect to the internet with a maximum downlink speed of 19 megabits per second while flying at 700km/h and with the force of 4G.

A seamless handover from one radio base station to the next was possible while flying at a speed of 500km/h, without any visible disturbances to a video stream used to monitor the stability of the internet connection.

Sky Drone FPV and Sky Drone Link allow you to get Full HD / UHD low latency video streams and command & control of your drone ove LTE - even at 700km/h.

Source: Ericsson tests LTE in extreme conditions

Optimizing our supply chain allowed us to make our Sky Drone FPV 2 system available at a dramatically reduced price, starting from USD 299.- for the Europe/Asia version and 329.- for the US/Verizon version. The previous price was 699.-.

Sky Drone FPV 2 is a HD camera system for drones that transmits over the LTE network providing an unlimited range and low latency video+data link.

Digital High Definition Video

The Sky Drone FPV 2 system uses a high resolution camera with a wide dynamic range. It provides you with an amazing live video feed of up to 1080p at 30fps.

Telemetry and Command & Control Link

Besides the video link, Sky Drone FPV 2 provides a bidirectional data link between your drone and your Ground Control Station. This can be used to visualized telemetry data and/or control the drone. We support the MAVLink protocol as well as any generic protocol that interfaces via RS232/UART.

Unlimited Range

By using existing cellular networks, the Sky Drone FPV system provides you with virtually unlimited range. The only requirement is cell tower coverage. The system is optimized for the 4G/LTE network to provide best video quality and lowest latency. It does however fall back to 3G or even 2.5G networks by automatically adjusting video parameters without interrupting the stream.

Low latency

By using our own highly optimized video processing pipeline, the system is designed for lowest latency video from scratch. The typical end-to-end latency is less than 150ms.

Groundstation Software

The Groundstation to receive Video from the Sky Drone FPV 2 unit runs on Windows and Linux with version for MacOS, Android and iOS in the pipeline to be released in Q2 2017.

Interchangeable Lenses

The Sky Drone FPV 2 system is using high quality lenses that are interchangeable. Instead of locking you to a specific lens, you have the freedom to change the lens for specific use cases (wide angle lens for best overview or narrow FOV lenses for artistic flights with less distortion).

Security

The video stream and meta data are fully end-to-end encrypted making it impossible for third parties to eavesdrop the transmission or interfere with it. Rather than reinventing the wheel, we rely on open and proven standards including Datagram Transport Layer Security (DTLS) and Secure Real-Time Protocol (SRTP) using AES128.

For more information see https://www.skydrone.aero/products/sky-drone-fpv

The Sky Drone FPV system is a fully digital long range and low latency video transfer system for DIY drones and remote controlled vehicles. Sky Drone FPV utilizes 3G & 4G/LTE networks and automatically adapts the video transmission frame by frame to bandwidth availability, ensuring minimal latency in data transmission. The data transfer between hardware and the groundstation app is AES-256 encrypted, so even the NSA can't hack into your video feeds. Telemetry data from a connected 3D Robotics APM board that is transmitted via MAVLink can be plotted on the live FPV video stream as a Head Up Display (HUD).

Complete with a groundstation application for iOS, Android and BlackBerry pilots receive real-time full HD FPV video straight on his or her smartphone or tablet. A unique feature of the Sky Drone FPV is the option to take 5 megapixel high quality still images during flight. The images are instantly transmitted to the app while the video keeps running.

Sky Drone FPV is currently running an Indiegogo Campaign to raise money to complete the last stages of the Sky Drone FPV development and take it into production. In exchange for your financial support, Sky Drone has some amazing offers. Early Birds who pledge just $ 349 USD receive are the first to receive the full Sky Drone FPV set. This offer is limited to just 99 sets. Head over the Sky Drone Indiegogo Campaign page to get more details as well as a demo video of the Sky Drone FPV.

For more information, please head over to our Indiegogo campaign: http://skydrone.aero/fpv-indiegogo
We invite you to share your comments and questions either on this blog/forum or via email to info@skydrone.aero.