DRONELIFE attended an illustration of the American Robotics Optimus system this morning, an revolutionary drone-in-a-box solution poised to rework business drone operations. Sponsored by the Massachusetts Department of Transportation Aeronautics division and held on the Mass Maritime Academy, the event showcased the potential of this autonomous system. The Optimus system represents a shift in how drones are utilized, integrating them into existing infrastructure moderately than viewing them as standalone tools. With installations across states and municipalities, these systems could offer stakeholders access to aerial data for a wide range of purposes, from monitoring school roofs to responding to emergency calls.
The Concept of Infrastructure Drones
The concept of the Optimus system as “infrastructure drones” represents a major departure from traditional approaches to business drone deployment. By installing these drones throughout a state or municipality, a big selection of public services could access timely and specialized data tailored to their specific requirements: potentially eliminating or reducing the necessity for separate fleets of drones for every public service department like transportation, public safety, environmental protection, and inspection services. As an alternative, the Optimus system centralizes drone operations, offering a streamlined solution that efficiently serves the various needs of every party. Whether it’s monitoring traffic patterns, conducting search and rescue missions, assessing environmental conditions, or inspecting infrastructure, the system could provide data to any stakeholder – eventually constructing a library of information available for current use and to measure change over time.
It’s an idea that has sparked the interest of a wide selection of entities, present on the demonstration. By leveraging data for a wide selection of stakeholders, the associated fee per flight may very well be dramatically reduced. MassDOT Aeronautics have been thought leaders in the sensible adoption of unmanned systems, working to discover innovative solutions for on a regular basis challenges throughout the state. Scott Uebelhart of MassDOT Aeronautics says that his department must see immediate value for brand spanking new technology – something that Optimus test flights around Wachusett Reservoir have offered. With the potential to send alerts when a big tree is observed across the train tracks, or trespassers are seen within the vicinity of critical infrastructure, each flight offers the potential to supply value to the state or municipality as a complete.
The Drone-in-a-Box System
The Optimus system was originally conceived by Airobotics, purchased by Ondas Holdings’ company American Robotics in 2022. It’s a big, portable drone-in-a-box system that will be moved temporarily, or installed permanently; and an operations center that will be anywhere communications accessible. The system is designed to operate with no human pilot on site: utilizing a robotic arm contained in the temperature controlled box to alter out batteries (10) and payloads (9 of them.) The 9 different payload options combined with a flight time of 40 minutes and a flight range of 10 miles make the available applications for the Optimus systems almost limitless. The video below shows the within the box:
A layered system of airspace awareness makes flight beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS) and without visual observers secure and feasible from a regulatory standpoint. The Optimus system leverages technology from SenHive, Echodyne, and ANRA to supply that layered awareness. SenHive provides passive airspace awareness: “listening” boxes that may pick up other aircraft from a major distance: detecting ADS-B, AIS, Flarm (used for gliders in Europe), Distant ID, Mode-S. SenHive may monitor GPS and connectivity signals for BVLOS flight. Echodyne’s EchoGuard short-range, software-defined, micro-doppler FMCW radar detects all vehicles: aircraft, ships, ground vehicles, and more. ANRA’s SIOP system takes that information and puts it into a typical operational picture. ANRA layers in much more data, including regulatory data like NOTAMs, Blue Force management (which might detect first responders) and weather. The ANRA system handles operational processes including flight planning and deconfliction problems. The mix of technologies has enabled American Robotics to successfully achieve FAA permission for BVLOS operations without visual observers or throughout the constraints of shielded operations.
The Applications
In Dubai, where the Optimus systems are installed primarily for public safety, response time to calls for service are actually inside moments – providing critical data concerning the appropriate resources required while a police automobile should still be battling traffic. However the sheer range of potential applications given the choice of 9 different payloads – thermal, LiDAR, delivery, visual and more – reveals major potential for the drones as infrastructure concept.
Susan Roberts, VP of Strategy and Business Development for American Robotics’ parent company Ondas Holdings, sees a future where drones are ubiquitous and maybe boring – only a useful a part of the electronic infrastructure, like traffic lights and emergency call boxes. “We are able to cover applications from the agricultural to ultra-urban, from the banal to the delicate,” she says. “Infrastructure drones are few and much between – it’s an asset optimization model. We are able to operate essentially 24/7: we will switch flight battery and payload inside 2 minutes.”
The Optimus system is deployed all over the world for monitoring, security, inspection, public safety and more. While widespread adoption of drones as shared use infrastructure is just getting began, the concept of infrastructure drones offers promising possibilities for industries from public safety to environmental monitoring. The efficiency, versatility, and safety features of the system suggest that integrating drones into our on a regular basis infrastructure often is the future of business operations.
Read more: