Drones can fly autonomously but you still need trained (expensive) operators to bring them into the field, swap and charge batteries, perform pre-flight checks and download the captured data.
Skysense, San Diego based and Qualcomm backed company, has built a solution that automates these operations, making drone deployments economically scalable. “Our solution replaces human operators, paving the way for fully autonomous and scalable drone deployments”, says Andrea Puiatti (Skysense CEO).
Skysense has shipped the last batch of units in June 2015. “Feedback from customers is really positive, this is why we decided to ramp up production with a larger batch and additional features” says Michele Dallachiesa (Skysense CTO).
Skysense will present its new Charging Station during the Commercial UAV Expo (LV) on October 5-6-7, booth #720. Preorders will remain open until November 2015: http://skysense.co/pre-order
How does it work? The Skysense Charging Pad is compatible with all battery-powered drones nowadays on the market. You can retrofit existing drones installing the Drone Kit: The Micro High-Power LiPo Charger to connect to the drone battery and spring-loaded contacts to install on the landing gear.
When the drone lands, the spring-loaded contacts establish a physical contact with the Charging Pad and the charging process starts.
The Skysense Network Manager empowers operators to easily access and manage all charging pads remotely. Online APIs and dashboard provide access to all information and services needed to operate, manage and benefit from the Skysense charging infrastructure:
Examples include anomalous temperature and humidity warnings, drone takeoff and landing notifications, battery health monitoring and drone power on/off on demand.
“We are building a whole set of services around our infrastructure, removing barriers for developing and deploying industry-specific drone solutions.” says Andrea Puiatti (Skysense CEO).
http://www.suasnews.com/2015/10/38920/skysense-charging-pad-gives-drones-infinite-flight-time/