Pickup-Truck for Continuous Drone Operations

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Continuous drone operations are required for a wide range of missions, from commercial applications to emergencies. A new development leverages a rapid-refueling battery-swapping station with low-cost off-the-shelf drones.

A pickup-mounted automated drone hangar platform compatible with any off-the-shelf craft for automated mobile inspection and public safety operations has been unveiled by Hextronics and FlyBase.

The Hextronics Global system has a rugged yet lightweight design. The Advanced version recently improved for increased safety and reliability now features upgrades providing more powerful cooling, better connectivity, and more efficient battery-cycle management.

Working closely with first responders, public safety officials, and drone service providers (DSPs), the Hextronics team learned that shorter response times and easy handling of drone fleets were required for effective deployments, particularly during emergencies.

Consequently, a new variant of the Global Advanced has been designed for increased mobility by tightly integrating it with a pickup truck. The drone can now be charged on the move and requires no human intervention, as its entire operation (including, take-off, landing, battery swapping and management) is fully automated and can be managed remotely. 

This system can make long-distance inspections of high-value industrial assets, such as railways and powerlines, simpler, easier, and more efficient.

The HexTruck is designed for use in any geography and can fit on the back of any standard pickup truck.

Its applications include first response, powerline and railway inspection, large-scale crop monitoring, construction management and monitoring, etc.

FlytNow Auto is the all-in-one drone-in-a-box (DiaB) automation software that comes pre-integrated with HexTruck, according to uasvision.com.