Fixar autonomous drone operations reaching new heights – 6000m ASL – sUAS Information – The Enterprise of Drones

Drone operations at excessive altitudes and consequential restricted by harsh climate circumstances have all the time confronted numerous dangers and challenges. Excessive altitude is usually linked to mountainous terrain, which contributes to thought-about further challenges.

Aerial missions in mountainous terrain maintain a large variety of particular options and limitations. Flights over mountainous areas are all the time unpredictable as a result of present skinny air and fast modifications in climate circumstances – sudden storms and very chilly climate are widespread even in the summertime season.

The unmanned aerial automobile (UAV) operators require meticulous preparation by way of gear and operation, it could even require the operators to acclimatize and improve liquid consumption throughout the time spent within the mountains, and it’s simple to change into disorientated if their well being situation will not be monitored.

From an gear perspective, the commonest challenges lie in unspecified or incorrect terrain maps which can trigger the drone to crash; restricted altitude configurations could result in poor high quality information and even the lack of the drone; magnetometer sensor malfunction in zones of magnetic anomalies and will result in the lack of the drone management and even lack of the plane in itself.

The FIXAR 007 unmanned aerial answer already has confirmed its operational capabilities at Elbrus, finishing up an aerial images mission and reaching an altitude of 4 000 m (13 123 ft). The drone’s sturdy design and proprietary Autopilot together with mission planning software program xGroundControl permits it to make use of the UAV for missions at difficult places and climate, subsequently FIXAR 007 was chosen for the duty requiring operation altitude vary 5 000 m (16 404 ft) as much as 6 000 m (19 685 ft) above sea degree.

MISSION DESCRIPTION

The one-day mission was carried out in September 2022. The climate circumstances have been continuously altering and diversified thought the day, with temperatures starting from -20 to five°C. All the mission phases have been carried out in a rarefied environment. The FIXAR 007 configured with the gimbal video digicam was used for this mission.

In mountains take-off and touchdown areas are restricted, subsequently vertical take-off and touchdown (VTOL) is essentially the most appropriate drone design configuration for use in these areas. The mission launch and drone take-off passed off at an altitude of 5 300 m (17 388 ft) and continued the flight route by way of the valley.

The aim of the mission was to execute a steady flight at a difficult excessive altitude with antagonistic climate circumstances, and concurrently achieve affirmation for high quality telemetry information assortment underneath these circumstances.

The complicated mountainous flight space with a deliberate mission flight route

The 3D trajectory of the flight. The altitude proven is QFE (heights are relative to the start line of the drone flight, the place the start line is an absolute ZERO – in all coordinates)

The 19.8 km (12.5 mi) mission was carried out with an ascent to an altitude of 6 115 m (20 062 ft) above sea degree and an extra descent and touchdown under the purpose of the preliminary take-off location. At a low altitude above floor degree, the terrain envelope was 100-150 m (328-492 ft). Throughout the flight, the touring pace was maintained steady at pace of 72 km/h (45 mph).

Flight absolute altitude throughout the mission with the utmost attain of 6 115 m (20 062 ft)

CONCLUSION

The FIXAR 007 confirmed stable and steady efficiency on the high-altitude missions. FIXAR 007 at present is the one industrial fixed-wing drone, which has flown a BVLOS mission autonomously with terrain envelope on the altitude 5 300 (17 388 ft) – 6 115 m (20 062 ft) ASL within the mountains with out particular gear.

FLIGHT MISSION OVERVIEW

AIRCRAFT MODEL	FIXAR 007
AIRCRAFT TYPE	Fastened-wing eVTOL
DURATION OF FLIGHT	18 min
MISSION MAXIMUM ALTITUDE	6 115 m (20 062 ft)
MISSION TAKE-OFF ALTITUDE	5 300 m (17 388 ft)
DISTANCE COVERED	19.8 km (12.5 mi)
MISSION AVERAGE FLIGHT SPEED	72 km/h (45 mph)
PAYLOAD	Gimbal Video Digicam
PAYLOAD WEIGHT	600 g (1.32 lbs)