Bringing unlimited autonomy to Civilian Drones : PULSE, an Intelligent Tethered Power Supply.

Project Information

Elistair

Grant agreement ID: 673601

DOI

10.3030/673601

Project closed

EC signature date 13 April 2015

Start date 1 May 2015

End date 31 October 2015

Funded under

• INDUSTRIAL LEADERSHIP - Leadership in enabling and industrial technologies - Information and Communication Technologies (ICT)

Total cost

€ 71 429,00

EU contribution

€ 50 000,00

Coordinated by

ELISTAIR
France

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - Elistair (Bringing unlimited autonomy to Civilian Drones : PULSE, an Intelligent Tethered Power Supply.)

Reporting period: 2015-05-01 to 2015-10-31

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

The average time of flight of civilian drones is around 15 minutes, which reduces considerably the productivity and the potential applications of unmanned aerial vehicles. We are developing and manufacturing the first smart tethered power supply system designed for civilian drones, SAFE-T.

Compatible with 95% of multicopter drones, this patented solution brings unlimited power from the ground station to drones through an extremely lightweight micro-tether. This tether provides secured and unjammable high speed data transfer. Thanks to this physical link, the drone beneficiates from exemptions and a lighter legal context, this saves a lot of trouble to operators.

Our system has a big impact on missions where a long time of flight is needed, on relatively small volumes of action. We target three markets where our system brings the most value and has the biggest impact: aerial surveillance (response forces, firemen etc...) temporary telecommunications (virtual antennas) and industrial inspections.

At the beginning of this Phase 1, we had a first simple prototype for the power supply that allows for a height of flight of 100 meters. To be able to reach our markets, our next step was to include data transfer and data processing and to assess the feasibility (technical and commercial) of our project.

The objectives met during this innovation project were:
• to assess the commercial and technical feasibility for our tethered system SAFE-T (formerly called PULSE).
• to define the utmost performing solution and new technical design of the tether power supply system, with the inclusion of the data transfer function.
• to lead an intellectual property study in order to define an IP strategy.
• to rapidly prototype the final system.
• Pre-industrialization and passing of EU Certifications (electric and electromagnetic)

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

To meet the objectives we had for this phase 1 project, we lead one technical feasibility study, and one commercial feasibility study.

The technical feasibility and prototyping phase were based on three steps:
• Technical feasibility: studies of different data transfer solutions. Evaluation of these technologies and their impacts on the performance of the system (weight, mechanical characteristics of the tether, cost, data transfer speed…). Design of the complete system (power and data transfer).
• Choice of the most performing solution and technical design of the new tether power supply system. Prototyping of the final system.
• Pre-industrialization and passing of EU Certifications (electric and electromagnetic)

The results were great, the objectives were met, and it validated the design of SAFE-T. We even reached unexpected performances in terms of power/weight ratio for the embedded part of SAFE-T, which opens new perspectives in terms of possible payloads and applications.
Regarding the data transfer feasibility and implementation, we also reached our objectives and we now have a fully operational data function offering a secured transfer speed of up to 100Mb/s.

The commercial viability study was focused on finding the most interesting niches for our product, in order to be able to develop a tailor made solution for this segment.
We’ve been able to identify three promising markets thanks to interviews with specialists, networking, exhibitions and evaluation of commercial partnerships, in a deeper market evaluation.
What we needed was to go further in these markets studies in order to choose the right markets and services. We also defined our strategy to expand internationally, by selecting the most promising foreign markets and identifying partners abroad.

We also lead an intellectual property study in order to define an IP strategy, in order to be able to face international competition, and the results were the filing of two patents.
Helped by Horizon 2020, we were able to assess commercial viability and technical feasibility, to launch industrialization and to pass EU certifications (CE and CEM). We then started the production of SAFE-T first batches.

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

Final results are :
- The commercial launch of SAFE-T, world’s first smart tethered station for drones
- IP strategy, and two patents
- Business Plan and growth strategy

The impact of these results on Elistair development is mementous. Our SAFE-T product is a real game-changer for the drone industry, and we are now a fast-growing startup with great ambitions on a new promising market.
For aerial operations like surveillance or emergency telecommunications, SAFE-T offers an alternative to helicopters, expensive and unsafe. Compared to tethered balloons or blimps, tethered drones are far more resilient to wind and it only needs one person to deploy it (two or three people for balloons).

Drone users focus on the information collected by their drone, which help them make better decisions, sometime when human life are at stake (firemen, first responders, police etc...). This acquisition of crucial information is where SAFE-T and Elistair have a strong impact: by enabling the access to better data (quantity and quality) at a lower cost. This innovation project is all about the control and processing of this valuable information.

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