AeroVironment Unveils Hybrid Commercial Drone

Previously this month, AeroVironment, a company that has been supplying military-grade solutions for over 25 years, introduced its recent commercial drone, the Quantix.

While quadcopters can take off without a “runway,” most are restricted to around 20 minutes of flight time before the battery runs out. Drones that look more like a plane than a helicopter have the tendency to be more effective due to their aerodynamic body design, but they need more area to take off and land.

The Quantix has a mix of both– the drone takes off with the nose pointed to the sky while utilizing the quadcopter rotors. As soon as airborne, however, that nose pointers forward and the drone continues to fly, utilizing the wings to increase performance.

Unlike majority of drones, rather than flying with a joystick, the user draws a map on the screen. The program then takes the user through a preflight checklist, and, as soon as all set, the drone takes off and covers that space. The user can stop the drone’s predetermined flight path by informing it to land or go back to the takeoff place.

The drone is geared up with both a standard 1-inch video camera sensing unit, along with a multispectral electronic camera for analytic programs.

Developed for commercial uses consisting of farming and surveys, the Quantix is coupled with a software application that utilizes algorithms to supply more information than just the images from the drone’s integrated electronic cameras, including development evaluations of farm fields, as well as evaluations of man-made structures like bridges and railways.

The drone’s hybrid style enables the system to cover 400 acres, or 40 linear miles, on one charge, as per the producer. It can top the speeds of up to 45 miles per hour.

AeroVironment anticipates the commercial drone to deliver in the spring of 2017.