Firm impresses with fully-automated, solar-powered aircraft

LANGKAWI: Though it had one of the smaller booths at the Mahsuri International Exhibition Centre, UAVOS Inc was not short of visitors.

There was a steady stream of people to the Silicon Valleybased company’s booth, a relatively good showing for one of the lesser-known exhibitors.

Most were attracted by the model of a solar-powered aircraft with a wingspan of 10m hanging above the booth, some by the small helicopter drone on the side. Many, if not all, left impressed by what the company had to offer.

The aircraft with the 10m wingspan is an Apus High Altitude Pseudo-Satellite (HAPS) aircraft, the smallest of the company’s three Apus aircraft. They have 30m and 50m wingspan aircraft as well, and while the smallest one can carry a payload of only 1kg, these two have 8kg and 50kg payloads, respectively.

UAVOS board member Vadim Tarasov said this was the first fully-automated, solar-powered aircraft in its category. Many other companies had tried and failed to build such an aircraft.

“There is a lot of technology parked in these aircraft. It can fly between 12km and 20km above the earth for months in a row.

“One of the most innovative things about it is that it has a flexible, segmented wing that automatically adjusts to wind speed and pressure to reduce turbulence, thus making it a stable platform.”

Tarasov told the New Sunday Times that the aircraft uses a “fairly basic” battery that has a 22 per cent failure rate.

Though this is relatively low, he said, the company was working to make it better.

“(The Apus) can be used for a variety of purposes, both military and civilian, including surveillance, data collection and even signal transmission or jamming.”

The company also showcased a gasoline-powered drone helicopter, the UVH-29E, which is also fully automated.

It comes with high-performance characteristics and can fly at high altitudes in difficult weather conditions. The unmanned helicopter, weighing only 22kg, can reach speeds of up to 150kph, and fly up to six hours and up to 500km.

The unmanned helicopter system is intended for surveillance, monitoring of vast areas of the Earth, water, ice surface, as well as anti-drone protection.

Perhaps one of UAVOS’s most interesting products, however, is its unique automatic control system (ACS), which, upon integration into any type of UAV (unmanned aerial vehicle) or even manned airplanes and helicopters, can become a fully-automated unmanned aircraft.

ACS provides fully automatic, precise control of the aircraft on taxiing, take off, flight and landing on a runway.