Israeli-based drone manufacturer Airobotics, (a subsidiary of Ondas Holdings) recently announced a $2.6 million order for added Optimus drone systems from an area government entity in Dubai, UAE for public safety and emergency response operations.
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by DRONELIFE Staff Author Ian J. McNabb
The Optimus system, which relies on a network of drones centrally operated from an urban command center and is designed to interchange the role of a helicopter for law enforcement and first responders, has been energetic within the UAE for a while, including as a joint enterprise with UAE-based SkyGo in Abu Dhabi, but this larger acquisition deal highlights the potential of fleet-based first responder UAV solutions in urban areas. The system has already accomplished 1000’s of successful missions without human intervention within the difficult environmental conditions of the Middle East.
The Optimus drone recently achieved an Airworthiness Type Certification from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and is the primary small UAS (sUAS) developed for aerial security and data capture to receive a Type Certificate. While the technology is first being applied to the Public Safety and Security industry, future applications of the command-center based decentralized approach, which is built on individual, fully autonomous launch stations able to routine preflight operations (like battery or sensor swaps) distributed around an urban area could include parcel delivery or other “smart city” operations.
“We’re proud to receive an extra order for Optimus Systems from our customer in Dubai,” said Meir Kliner, Airobotics’ CEO and President of the Ondas Autonomous Systems business unit. “We’re working to grow our Optimus deployments in Dubai and fulfill the vision of a totally automated urban drone infrastructure for Public Safety and Emergency Response. Along with Ondas’ American Robotics, we’re bringing these capabilities to america where we will leverage the Optimus drone FAA Type Certificate required to enable similar operations.”
More information on Airobotics and Ondas is accessible here.