– Confirmation of the possibility of using drones in the surveillance and inspection industry –
– Various companies throughout the drone industry value chain participate –
DroneX, an exhibition specializing in drones, was held from October 2021 to 5, 6 at ExCeL London in London, UK. Based on the list of participating companies posted at the exhibition site, 104 companies participated in this exhibition.
DroneX Overview
Exhibition Features
The business fields of the participating companies spanned the entire drone industry value chain, including drone manufacturing, inspection service using drones, filming equipment used in drones, and image analysis solutions. In consideration of the COVID-19 situation, entry to the exhibition hall was permitted only if the vaccine was vaccinated twice or there was a negative test result for COVID-2.
Exhibition hall view
The characteristics of the major participating companies are as follows with the exhibition booths.
Air Robotics
The company's Gyrotrak GT20 can fly for up to 7.5 hours with an aircraft weight of 20 kg, a maximum take-off weight of 4 kg and a payload of 2.5 kg. It was mainly developed for the purpose of using cargo transportation and inspection. The GT20 can be equipped with various types of sensors and can also be adapted to customer needs.
Airial Robotics Exhibition Booth
A-techSYN
It is a vertical take-off and landing fixed-wing drone (UAV) manufacturer headquartered in Shannon, Clare, Ireland. It is based on the business of designing, manufacturing, integrating new equipment and educating operators and mechanics. However, since 2013, the company has been in the business of providing drone operation services to the defense, security, intelligence and civil aviation markets. This business also includes areas such as maintenance and repair (MRO) for drone equipment, providing flight services using drones, and customizing drone solutions to customer requirements.
The CGT 50 VTOL drone can fly for 55 hours with a maximum take-off weight (MTOW) of 5Kg and a payload of 6Kg. In addition, multiple sensors can be mounted at the same time, allowing simultaneous integration of Inmarsat SATCOM (Cobham Aviator200), LIDAR (Velodyne), DLRS cameras (Sony), IR sensors, etc. to collect multiple types of data in one flight.
A-techSYN exhibition booth
Xer Technologies
The Swedish company produces the X 4 with a flight time of up to 20 hours and a payload of up to 12 kg. Based on experience using drones in the field of security and search and rescue since 2011, we have developed drones to meet the demand for longer flight times and heavier payloads. The company's drones have strengths in monitoring large-scale infrastructure such as railways, pipelines and power lines. In addition to long flight times, LiDAR, multispectral, infrared sensors, and various sensors can be used to collect data in a complex manner. In addition, it can be used in the security field by installing premium cameras and thermal imaging to more easily monitor densely populated areas when searching for missing persons or tracking suspects.
Xer Technologies Exhibition Booth
Orthodrone
It is a company that provides services that collect and analyze spatial data using drones. It combines a hybrid multi-rotor drone with a survey-grade metric camera, an unmanned aerial vehicle LiDAR, and ground penetrating sensors to collect spatial data even in difficult working environments. It can be used in work environments where safety is a priority, such as the energy industry and infrastructure industry.
Orthodrone Exhibition Booth
Vizgard
A London-based startup that combines video data captured by drones with artificial intelligence to detect people, cars, boats, drones, birds, airplanes, helicopters, etc. . In the case of single object tracking, it can be continuously detected by accurately locking the object of interest. Real-time track location information can be applied to any IP or SDI camera-based system, reducing the burden on operators of continuous equipment maintenance. In addition, a facial recognition function can be applied when tracking a person.
Vizgard Exhibition Booth
Phase one
The company is a supplier of cameras for imaging applications used in drones. Its main products are 100MP and 150MP camera systems that are compatible with various drones. In the case of drone-specialized P3 Payload, drone users select the drone to use, the camera to use, and the lens to use, and they are combined to create a camera system to be mounted on the drone. The iXM camera that can be applied here is uniquely designed for drones and developed with a focus on responsiveness and durability, so it can be applied to various inspection and mapping tasks.
Phase One Exhibition Booth
Drones are expected to be widely used in inspection fields in industries such as railways, roads, and nuclear power, where regular inspections are important, but inspections are not easy due to their scale and risk. According to Mr. S, the director of company H, there may be changes in the power source of drones in the future. Currently, most of them use batteries, but in the future, the use of hydrogen as a power source for drones is promising. In the past, a storage tank was required to use hydrogen as a power source, but now a technology that can store hydrogen in a solid form has been developed. If this technology is applied in earnest, it is said that the weight of the drone can be reduced and the drone will be able to fly for a longer time, which will increase the utility of the drone in the field of monitoring and inspection.
In the industry, it is certain that drones will be used in the logistics field in the future, so it is important to secure technology that can detect and avoid drones flying in the sky so that they do not collide with other drones or flying objects. In addition, regulatory experts are of the opinion that when the number of drones increases, it is necessary to develop a system and system to manage drone traffic like road traffic.
The UK's Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) announced in April 2021 that West Sussex-based drone company Sees.ai will be conducting regular flights of unpiloted drones from three locations in the UK for testing purposes. allowed to start. This test is evaluated as the first step toward developing the plane to operate autonomously without human control by using cameras and sensors.
implication
Even looking at the products and services of companies participating in this exhibition, we could see that the day when drones will be used in the logistics and monitoring and inspection fields is not far off. Most of the drones participating in this exhibition were capable of vertical take-off and landing or short-distance take-off and landing rather than fixed wing that required a runway. This is analyzed to be considered for operation in places where there is no runway, such as in cities or industrial sites. In addition, it was possible to see a solution that analyzes video data obtained by drones through artificial intelligence, and various video equipment and sensors used in drones were exhibited, so it was expected that the use of drones in the field of surveillance and inspection could increase in the future.
Source: Comprehensive data held by KOTRA London Trade Center, on-site due diligence, corporate opinion