We have seen blog posts about the Swinglet Cam from senseFly here and now the guys from senseFly have a new product, the eBee.
From the site
The eBee is lightweight enough to be launched by hand. It is fully autonomous during its entire flight. When it comes to landing, the eBee can either land in a circular clearing or, when space is limited, use its advanced ground sensing technology to make a fully autonomous straight-line landing.
The eBee comes with a mission planner
The included eMotion 2 software lets you plan, simulate, monitor and control the trajectory of the eBee both before and during flight. With simple drag&drop actions you can designate the area to be mapped, generate a flight plan and with a single mouse click you can update your mission or return the eBee to its starting location.
3D processing
With its 16MP high resolution camera, the eBee can capture images with a ground resolution of 3 to 30cm per pixel. Areas from 1.5 to 10km2 can be mapped in a single flight depending on image resolution and flight altitude. The eBee package includes Postflight Terra 3D (a fully automated 3D processing desktop software powered by Pix4D). After the initial data check in the field (overlap control and low resolution orthomosaic), Terra 3D automatically creates a precise geo-referenced orthomosaic and digital elevation model (DEM). Advanced users can further optimize their models through operator defined ground control points and seamlines.
Highlights
I haven't been able to find a price. The product will become available beginning of 2012. More information on the senseFly website: http://www.sensefly.com/products/ebee
Comments
Correction, it's not that legal in Europe to fly such drones. In Belgium for example it's just NOT legal to go to a place and throw the drone into the air. You'll need to do some paperwork beforehand and wait to get a permission. I've seen the sensefly in action, and it does what it promises. When I was attending a demonstration (UAVg conference in Zürich), two of these drones were flying simultaneously. You'll pay for the out-of-the box aspect, the impressive autopilot (eg. on the sensefly, the engine stops each time you take images) and ease of use. Deployment was indeed: take out of the box, connect battery, shake it to start, throw it in the air, go to your laptop and set flightplan, upload, wait till the drone lands.
great!
The performance of their gear really is top notch...
Another toy from sensefly !
10km2 hahaha my wing fly much much more in one single flight.
We can really applause Sensefly because they are one of the few companies who managed to sell hundreds of their professional drones. What's more, their new wings is a example of ingenuity. I have tested their previous version and was pleased by the simplicity of use. At the Intergeo, I could see that lots of improvement have been implemented. Well done!
I agree with Todd, this looks like a X5 copy/paste. Now the 3d ortho out of the box is nice, but I think we can expect the price of this package is in the multiple thousands if my guess is correct, when we all know we can do this for much much less with an X5 and APM.
Given what they are offering on their site I think it is safe to assume that it will be substantially more than that John. Guess we'll find out early 2013.
I dont know how much it costs but if it works right out of the box I think thats worth at least a few hundred dollars over a DIY version.
Bears an uncanny resemblance to the X5 wing from BEVRC, which retails for $65. An APM with all the bells and whistles cost a fraction of what this one probably does. I know because I built one last year for a buddy. If only I had majored in marketing:/
As Pix4D has Parrot behind it its not going to be cheap.You can easily make your own version of this, the number of cheap EPP wings out there to choose from is enormous. Expect to see lots and lots of these in Europe where it is of course legal to operate them and perhaps a professional AR drone before long.
If you have not seen it these guys have an excellent video where a chap chucks a wing and a few seconds later it thuds back by his feet, also great collision avoidance stuff and multiple aircraft in the sky stuff. They really ought to be doing better!
-
1
-
2
of 2 Next