With the "U-Drone" proposal, Delft Dynamics has won the Dutch Defence Innovation Competition (DIC) "the underground" at the end of 2018. The purpose of the proposal is to explore caves, corridors, tunnels and buildings with a drone with minimal risk for the operator. The purpose of the DIC is to show a prototype that can lead relatively quickly to a deployable product. The U in U-Drone stands for: Underground, Unlimited, Unjammable, User-Friendly and Unearthing.
A prototype of a compact cable drone (U-Drone) has been developed in the one year project. It has been tested and demonstrated in underground tunnels (without GPS reception), whereby the drone can be operated at distances of up to 100 meters. The commands to the U-Drone, and the images and data from the drone to the operator, run through an (unjammable) lightweight cable. The replaceable spool with the 100 meter cable is connected to the U-Drone and therefore unwinds from the drone during the flight in such a way that the drone is not stopped when the cable gets stuck.
Lightweight sensors have been tested in a hand-held setup to build up a 3D map in real time. In a planned follow-up project these sensors will be installed on a compact and robust U-Drone, and a lightweight ground station will be developed for the processing and distribution of this map. If you are interested in this follow-up project: please contact Delft Dynamics B.V..
