UAS Development

We have accumulated significant experience in the development of Arducopter-based custom UAS solutions.

Through our UAS Development Labortaory (UDL), the facility has been involved in the development of UAS platforms for research and survey applications since 2015. At that time there were very limited 'off-the-shelf' platform options available that were capable of undertaking automated survey missions and integrating high quality sensors, and we were therefore obliged to develop in-house expertise in platform development to support these requirements.

Through this process we have gained significant experience in the development of UAS platforms using the open-source Arducopter and Arduplane autopilot firmware with Pixhawk flight controller hardware. The principle developments achieved by the UDL are our fleet of T680 hexacopters and C8 octocopter, while development of our FX61 and Explorer fixed wing systems are ongoing as and when time allows.

Find out more about Arducopter Find out more about Arduplane Find out more about Pixhawk

These days there are, of course, a great variety of very sophisticated unmanned aircraft systems on the market that fully support survey operations, along with either built-in or readily integrated high-quality sensors. In some cases software development kits (SDKs) are also available for wider sensor integration. In the majority of cases it is now simplest and most economic to use these platforms, and we will always seek the most efficient and lowest risk solution for a particular task. In some cases, however, for example in novel robotics, flight control, computer vision, or autonomous system studies, in-house platform development may well be the best option.

Whatever your application we'd be delighted to discuss your platform requirements and assist you in achieving your goals.

This article was published on 2024-06-25