Earlier this week at the Commercial UAV Expo in Las Vegas, Aerotenna announced the release of a new miniaturized collision avoidance radar and SoC FPGA flight controller for all drone platforms.
When it comes to sensing and collision avoidance, vision, ultrasonic and LiDAR have been the most commonly used sensors. Despite radar’s robustness and reliability in all-weather, all-terrain and all lighting conditions, until recently it has not been considered a practical sensing solution for smaller drones due to size, weight and cost.
Our mission at Aerotenna is to provide robust sensing and processing solutions that are affordable and easy to integrate with any airframe and flight stack. This year we introduced microwave sensing to the commercial and consumer drone industries with the release of the μLanding compact radar altimeter and μSharp 360° collision avoidance radar, both of which have received stellar feedback from a number of drone manufacturers and service providers.
The newly released μSharp Patch is a single-direction collision avoidance radar designed to meet the need for smaller and more robust collision avoidance sensors. This microwave radar patch is an affordable, low power and easy-to-integrate collision avoidance solution for even the smallest drones.
Features:
- Miniaturized design (6.5 x 4.5 x 0.8cm) with low power consumption (<1.5 W)
- Robust and reliable performance in any weather and lighting condition
- Advanced target detection and recognition algorithms
μSharp Patch collision avoidance radar
The newly released OcPoC mini is engineered to enable sensor fusion and onboard real-time processing for multi-sensor drone platforms. With over 100 I/Os for sensor integration and redundancy, ARM processor and FPGA structure, OcPoC mini has the processing power and efficiency to handle complex drone applications while maintaining safe and stable flight. Just like the µSharp Patch, OcPoC mini has easy integration with any airframe and open-source flight stack.
OcPoC mini SoC FPGA-based flight controller
We believe the addition of radar sensing as well as sensor fusion and real-time processing capabilities to commercial and consumer drones is a crucial step in the advancement towards smarter and safer drones. We look forward to opportunities in working together with the community to make Aerotenna's latest technology and solutions available to more DIYers!
Find out more about Aerotenna radar sensors and SoC FPGA flight controllers:
http://aerotenna.com/aerotenna-miniaturized-radar-sensor-soc-flight-controller-commercial-uav-expo/
Comments
Have to admit that their radar is working fine : http://aerotenna.com/aerotenna-first-prize-utm-drone-sense-avoid-te...
Nice! Need one!
Judging by this:
https://aerotenna.readme.io/docs/data-format
It would appear that you sample each antenna and decide what to do with the results.
But knowing the FOV of a given antenna is pretty important. Are there any blind spots between adjacent antennas?
@Antony
Thank you for the order! I sent you an email with details =)
Currently the μLanding radar altimeter presents distance data (no angle).
@Hongshu As soon a Arducopter integration is done, you will have me as a new customer, and for shure many others too :)
Pretty interesting. I've ordered one and an Altimeter.
How is the data presented?
Is it able to display angle of the object or only its "presence" and distance?
Thanks everyone for the feedback and questions. Check out this short video we just shot of the μSharp radar successfully performing collision avoidance on an autonomous flight based on a planned route.
@Global Innovator presence of the pilot isn't an issue as the radar outputs an indicator for direction of flight.
@Gary thank you for the feedback. You're right that affordability is relative. A $500 price for a collision avoidance radar is competitive versus price for other sensors that provide a similar level of performance, and as we ramp up on production volume, the cost will go down further. This is what we've been working on to make the radar solution more accessible to all users and DIYers.
@Stefan Arbes
They are already using ArduCopter in their OcPoC boards and I think they wrote a driver for this. Unfortunately it is in their own GitHub repo, but I hope they will open a PR with it.
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