Aibotix GmbH, maker of a new generation of vertical take-off and landing unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV), today announced automated landing features for its Aibotix X6 model. Autonomous landing is the latest addition to multi-sensor, intelligent guidance systems that make the X6 the safest and easiest to operate commercial UAV.
The X6 has been recognized as the only UAV that is practical for application professionals to operate by themselves. Photographers, surveyors, engineers, maintenance inspectors, and public safety officials can safely maneuver equipment without the distraction of directing pilots where to fly. With automated landing, the Aibotix X6 sets new standards for completely intuitive operation. “Take-offs and landings are the times most prone to accidents when flying remote-controlled craft,” says Joerg Lamprecht, managing director of Aibotix. “With fully automatic landing, completing a round-trip mission with the X6 is simple. Piloting is easy for people with no prior experience flying model aircraft,” he added.
Dr. Friedhelm Michael of Aibotix customer Dr. Michael GEOMATICS explains, “Our expertise is in geographic information systems. Now, with auto landing, we are confident that surveyors can control the X6 directly for the entire assignment. X6 auto landing enables us to work faster and more accurately, which means we not only save on operating cost, but also do a better job for the customer.”
Auto landing is available now and is included in the Aibotix X6 at standard pricing. Payload and performance specifications are unchanged with auto landing, and it is compatible Aibotix X6 camera suspensions for still and video cameras. More information is available at the Aibotix Webpage.
About Aibotix GmbH
The name Aibotix is emblematic of the company’s two core technologies (AI from artificial intelligence and BOTIX from robotics). Founded in 2010, Aibotix develops and produces high-quality, intelligent flying machines that are particularly easy to operate due to their high degree of automation. Various cameras and sensors are available for particular tasks, especially those where human-piloted craft entail high risk and expense, such as aerial industrial inspection of wind turbines or outdoor cables.
Aibotix was founded by a team of experienced entrepreneurs who have worked intensively on advanced image processing, sensor technology and robotics for many years. Aibotix is represented in 14 countries and provides quality support and service worldwide. Sound financials and strong growth potential make Aibotix attractive to investors. Aibotix GmbH employs 28 people, and is headquartered in Kassel, Germany.
Comments
the Airopal Alpha 4 can also takeoff and land automatically :) and have a cool arm click in system .
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ymwxbejS23A
http://www.airopal.de/
It's a very pretty and well protected airframe.
Obviously at that price they are attempting to provide a professional work related piece of equipment with full support.
Probably a short window at that price though, because the inexpensive stuff coming up from below will overtake them in a very short time frame.
It's great to target high end markets, but when the consumer market is headed your direction, you better watch out.
Nonetheless, the trend towards heavily automated flight is well illustrated and with the upcoming advent of working inertial navigation in our MultiCopters, our normal flight mode is likely to become loiter rather than stabilize.
I agree with R_Lefebvre, What this does is to make the situation worse not better. We have less crashes not because there is some fancy electronics that do a new trick, we have less crashes because we fly better with more practice and understand more about the copter or airplane. that way we anticipate the problem and avoid it or we have the skill and resources to get out of the bad situation.
what happens when the new device has a hiccup. ...usually a high speed crash.
In my early days I well remember when flying a trainer plane, another pilot said to me "watchout for the goal post (in England)!! my comment "what goalpost?" the crunching noise 2 seconds later told me what goal post...I never even saw it, distance and high speed together with a new flying site were all the ingrediants for a crash. Now I take more care.
Do I have the same amount of landings as takeoffs??? NO, (over 30yrs) Take offs = 2789 landings = 2770 and yes I do keep a logbook !
Thomas: Ok. But I guess I disagree with their view. If they have pilots hitting things while landing, they should train their pilots better.
Dwgsparky, I agree. Or rather, disagree... err... uh...
I find that crashes on landing are the sign of a bad flight controller, or a really bad pilot. The landing is the easy part assuming you are landing in a really clear area. I can't remember the last time I crashed on landing due to pilot error. Almost all of my pilot error induced crashes are because I hit something in the air, usually due errors in depth perception at speed.
Autolanding? Pah, even my 55€ FC does that without using an extra radiochannel (with my own open source code ..;)..).
I think the genius who decided that most accidents occur at take off and landing must have been reading the defination of a good pilot is " A good pilot is one who has the same amount of landings as he does take offs!!"
The crash at the end of a rough flight always happends at the point of landing because thats when it hits the ground. Lets remove the ground and we will avoid all bad takeoffs and landings.
@Rob,
I posted this in relation to this company's view on multicopter safety when controlled by a human operator. They have obviously found that takeoff and landings are where many accidents occur, possibly due to operator error, and are trying to mitigate the chances of an accident during multicopter operation.
Regards,
TCIII
It has a $500 Mikrokopter flight control board inside of it.
I love the frame and protected props but not at a CRAZY high price tag.
-
1
-
2
of 2 Next