In this episode, the Roswell Flight Test Crew speaks with Naveed Siddiqui of Bell Aircraft about the Nexus 4EX, the company’s latest concept for an autonomous air taxi, offered as a concept in Urban Air Mobility (UAM). This latest incarnation of the Nexus platform is an all-electric quadcopter, capable of carrying four passengers, their luggage and a pilot. The platform, which is expected to enter commercial operation between 2025 and 2030, will be capable of autonomous operations. However, Bell feels it will ease acceptance both by regulators, such as the FAA, as well as the general public, if a pilot is on board when flights commence. The Nexus 4EX will have a range of 60 miles. In addition, Bell showed of its “Nexus City” concept at CES. It included Autonomous Pod Transport systems, a VTOL tail-sitter that will be used for cargo delivery alongside the Nexus. Flight testing for the system is already underway.

In this video, the Roswell Flight Test Crew speaks with Soonsuk Roh about the Doosan DS30 multirotor drone. An octocopter, the DS30 powered by a hydrogen fuel cell and is capable of flying for up to two hours. Doosan supplies the hydrogen cylinders directly to customers and picks up empty cylinders for re-use. To guard against the potential hazards of using hydrogen gas a fuel source, Doosan is doing extensive safety testing, including enveloping the cylinders in fire and dropping them from a 150-meter height. When the testing is complete, the system will be certified by the US Department of Transportation. At present, the DS30 is being used in large-scale inspection missions, such as a agriculture and solar farms. The company recently tested the delivery capabilities of the DS30 by performing a delivery of blood and medical samples in the Virgin Islands, crossing 43 miles over the ocean in the process. The cost of an all inclusive package is $63,000.

In this episode, the Roswell Flight Test Crew speaks with Jangho Park of the Hyundai Motor Company about his company’s entry into the urban air mobility (UAM) market: the SA-1. An acronym for “Smart Air Mobility Solution,” the SA-1 is a manned multirotor built as an air taxi. It incorporates seating for four passengers, as well as a pilot. The design includes 12 separate propellers, both for redundancy as well as to reduce the noise profile of the aircraft in flight. The SA-1 is powered entirely by batteries and is being developed in partnership with Uber. The company hopes that the aircraft will be in use by the general public by 2028.

In this episode, the Roswell Flight Test Crew speaks with Vernon Kerswell of Extreme Fliers about the Micro Drone 4.0. Launched on crowd-funding website Indiegogo in 2019, the release of the Micro Drone 4.0 was delayed to make a series of improvements to the aircraft. Kerswell expects it will begin shipping in February or March 2020. At the CES Show in Las Vegas, Kerswell showed off a pre-production model of the finished design. Improvements to the aircraft included a more robust two-axis gimbal, using a unique brushed motor system to achieve image stability, as well as more robust motor mounts designed to protect the aircraft during crashes. The Micro Drone 4.0 sells for $200, and raised more than $1.7 million during its Indiegogo campaign. Kerswell’s goal is to put the capabilities of larger, more expensive drones into the hands of people at a low cost, approaching the level of “toy” drones that fail to deliver the imaging capabilities that they are hoping to realize.

In this episode, the Roswell Flight Test Crew speaks with Chris Leigh of the PowerVision Robot Corporation at CES 2020 in Las Vegas. At the show, the company released a new drone: the PowerEgg X, which features a 4K/60 camera mounted on a three-axis gimbal. The drone can fly for 25 to 30 minutes on a fully charged battery and incorporates a forward-facing binocular collision-avoidance system. In addition, the drone can be equipped with a weatherproof shell and pontoons, allowing it to fly in the rain and land on water. The unit can also become an artificial intelligence enabled hand-held video camera that can also be tripod mounted, by removing the limbs quickly and without tools. The image recognition system can then be focused on a subject, which it will follow using the gimbal. The PowerEgg X also incorporates VoiceSync technology, allowing the user to record audio through their smart phone or earphones in real time, narrating the activities that they are capturing.

In this episode, the Roswell Flight Test Crew speaks with Maury Covington of XDynamics about the company’s new Evolve 2 drone, announced at CES 2020 in Las Vegas. The drone features a carbon fiber monocoque airframe for a strong, lightweight design, as well as a magnesium belly plate to disperse heat and dampen vibration. The Evolve 2 is the smallest commercial multirotor drone to carry a Micro Four Thirds sensor, mounted on a three-axis gimbal, and the camera accepts interchangeable lenses. It incorporates memory card slots for both CFAST and MicroSD storage media, and has both forward-facing and bottom-facing binocular collision-avoidance cameras, as well as a LiDAR sensor to maintain precise altitude hold. The aircraft also includes a pair of downward facing LEDs to enable optical flow position hold in low-light situations, and to improve aircraft visibility. The Evolve to is weatherproof up to the IP43 standard, allowing it to operate in rain. The controller for the Evolve 2 incorporates a clam shell design as well as two 1080p touchscreens and external connectors for antennas to improve aircraft range and performance. It also includes a full-sized HDMI output.

In this episode, the Roswell Flight Test Crew speaks with Emily Wang of ZeroZero Robotics about the company’s newest drone, the V-COPTR. As opposed to conventional multirotor designs, the V-COPTR only has two propellers mounted at the end of long, folding arms. To maneuver, the bi-copter is capable of pivoting each motor independently, allowing it to pitch, yaw and roll. The company claims a 50-minute flight time for the V-COPTR, which otherwise resembles as conventional aerial imaging platform. The camera delivers 4K/30 video and 12 megapixel stills. The aircraft folds up for transportation and storage, and incorporates a 2,500 mAH lithium-polymer battery.

In this episode, the Roswell Flight Test Crew speaks with Tim Matthews of Autel about the Evo 2, introduced at the CES 2020 show in Las Vegas, Nevada. There are three models in the Evo 2 series: the base-level Evo 2, which incorporates an 8K video sensor; the Evo 2 Pro, which includes a one-inch sensor capable of capturing 20 megapixel stills and 6K video, and also incorporates an adjustable aperture from F 2.8 to F 11; and, the Evo 2 Dual, which incorporates the same 8K sensor as the base model, as well as FLIR thermal imaging core with a resolution up to 640×512 pixels. Different cameras can be mounted on the same aircraft, so there is no need to purchase multiple drones for different imaging payloads. The aircraft itself incorporates a total of 12 cameras for omnidirectional collision avoidance. The aircraft is powered by an 7,100 mAH battery that fits fully inside the airframe, and can power the aircraft for up to 40 minutes of flight.

In this episode, the Roswell Flight Test Crew speaks with Phil Burks of FIRST iZ, which is developing an autonomous drone system to assist first responders by deploying automatically at the initial report of an emergency and arriving ahead of police or firefighters to provide an assessment of conditions on the ground. While it will initially require a Remote Pilot In Command (RPIC) and a visual observer (VO) to function, FIRST iZ ultimate plan is to develop a system that functions without direct control input or monitoring by humans. Arriving at the scene of a public safety incident, the FIRST iZ aircraft will loiter and relay live video back to the dispatch center, as well as command and control units. It is also equipped with a gas detection system to detect potential hazardous material leaks.

In this episode, the Roswell Flight Test Crew speaks with Jeff Dickens of AeroVironment about the company’s Quantix VTOL autonomous mapping platform. The Quantix was designed and produced to serve the agricultural market. As a result, it carries two 18-megapixel cameras that capture both visible light imagery as well as multispectral data, which can be used to evaluate the health of crops. The Quantix has been developed to fly at altitudes between 150 to 800 feet above ground level (AGL). It takes off and lands vertically but pitches over into fixed-wing flight at altitude, providing a 45-minute flight time. Operating at 360 feet, that allows the aircraft to map 400 acres in one flight. The Quantix flies autonomously and is controlled via an Android-based tablet computer with no direct control input from the pilot.