Menatir is an innovative automated UAV monitoring system. It was presented by the Ukrainian company Culver Aviation in Las Vegas
Within the framework of the international exhibition Commercial UAV Expo 2022 in Las Vegas, the Ukrainian technology company Culver Aviation for the first time publicly presented its new revolutionary product Menatir - a system of automated monitoring of the earth's surface using UAVs.
Menatir is a network of base stations in the form of standard containers with unmanned aerial vehicles inside. The containers protect the aircraft, ensure their launch, landing, mission execution, as well as charging and transmission of data collected by them - all in automatic mode. The system is suitable for fire, road, environmental, municipal and infrastructure services. After all, Menatir makes it possible to comprehensively monitor any objects from the air in real time around the clock. And to manage the system, regardless of the number of base stations in the network, only one specialist is needed from anywhere in the world.
"Our solution has no analogues in terms of automation and scalability. It's a new approach to handling UAVs and data. Businesses and government agencies will be able to continuously receive and process information in automatic mode with minimal human involvement and make the right management decisions. With Menatir it is 30% cheaper than with traditional drones and helicopters," says Oleksandr Danylenko, CEO of Culver Aviation and author of the project.
For this project, the company has developed a unique Menatir UAV with vertical launch and landing. On a single charge, an unmanned aircraft can fly up to 45 km in one direction and then return. The base station contains up to 6 such drones. Menatir UAVs can be equipped with one of several types of payloads:
- video camera
- video camera with thermal imaging camera
- digital camera
- multispectral camera
- eco-sensor
- Any custom made equipment, matching the given dimensions and weight.
Menatir can be used for video surveillance of any objects in HD quality, aerial photography to create orthophotomaps of the area, monitoring the condition of crops, forests, reservoirs, preventing landscape fires, analyzing the state of air quality and other tasks in real time.
To cover large areas, the system can be scaled up to any number of containers, which are installed in such a way as to overlap each other's range. Drones will be able to move freely between the stations of the network, and it will take no more than 20 minutes to fly to any of the coverage points. In case of unfavorable weather in the area of one of the containers or in case of force majeure, the overlapping zones will allow another UAV to take off and continue the task.
It takes 3 minutes from receiving the command to the departure of the aircraft. Each container has its own weather station that will protect the UAV: the system will stop the flight mission and the aircraft will return to the container in case of bad weather.
The data collected by drones is processed and analyzed by specialized software with elements of artificial intelligence - Drone Management System. The system sends the execution stages and the results of the flight missions to network users, in particular through a mobile app.
Culver Aviation is a Ukrainian technology company that provides services based on data from the Earth's surface collected by UAVs of its own design and the best technological solutions. The main areas: agriculture and forestry, mining and energy industry, land management and protection against emergencies.
Source: Menatir
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