New UAVs to Detect Radiation and Chemical Agents

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FlyCam UAV launched two new UAVs. The Cypher 6, a commercial-grade hexacopter, and the NEO, an all-weather commercial co-axial octocopter. The new developments can be used to detect radiation leaks in nuclear power plants or flown into plumes of smoke from a burning building to give first responders immediate data about what kinds of hazards might be present. It can also be used to monitor public events, sea ports or geographic areas to detect possible dirty radiological bombs or the use of chemical and biological agents.

According to pennergy.com, the Cypher 6 and NEO UAV configurations acquire and relay data to the operator in real-time. The data will come with GPS coordinates and stored on-board for post-flight download and viewing, or it can transmit data to a base station wirelessly for live monitoring. The data consists of a series of measurements of radioactive intensity tagged with GPS data for color coded display on a map. The data can be displayed as a full gamma spectrum, allowing the identification of radioactive isotopes.

“Sensors mounted on UAVs is the perfect marriage of two technologies that will be a game changer for a variety of different industries,” Jeri Donaldson, CEO and owner of FlyCam UAV, said. “In addition, the need for security is at an all-time high and our technology can remove the human element from a potentially dangerous situation. The practical and potential applications of the Cypher 6 and Neo with US Nuclear Corp.’s DroneRad sensor package are enormous and we have yet to see all of the use cases of the devices.”