Drones

Aertos drone is made to take a beating

Aertos drone is made to take a beating
The Aertos 130IR heads down a tight-fitting hole
The Aertos 130IR heads down a tight-fitting hole
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The Aertos 130IR features a carbon fiber composite frame with grip tape-wrapped carrying handles, protective shrouds around its four propellers, and an omnidirectional array of nine sensors
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The Aertos 130IR features a carbon fiber composite frame with grip tape-wrapped carrying handles, protective shrouds around its four propellers, and an omnidirectional array of nine sensors
The Aertos 130IR comes with a Linux-based remote control unit
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The Aertos 130IR comes with a Linux-based remote control unit
Although pricing has yet to be announced, the Aertos 130IR should be available this autumn (Northern Hemisphere)
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Although pricing has yet to be announced, the Aertos 130IR should be available this autumn (Northern Hemisphere)
The Aertos 130IR heads down a tight-fitting hole
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The Aertos 130IR heads down a tight-fitting hole
View gallery - 4 images

If you've ever tried flying a cheap consumer quadcopter indoors, you'll know how easily they can crash into walls or furniture. Now imagine trying the same with a much more expensive industrial drone. That's why the new Aertos 130IR is built to be tough.

Manufactured by Kansas-based company Digital Aerolus, the 130IR features a carbon fiber composite frame with grip tape-wrapped carrying handles, protective shrouds around its four propellers, and an omnidirectional array of nine sensors including LiDAR and depth-sensing units. Those sensors not only allow the drone to perform mapping tasks, they also help it to maintain its position in three-dimensional space – this is a particularly important feature in settings where GPS won't work.

The 130IR is additionally equipped with an LED spotlight, a gimbal-mounted Sony RX011 4K/30fps optical camera, and a FLIR Boson 320 infrared camera. A separate FPV (first person view) camera streams real-time video back to the operator, although the drone can also fly autonomously.

Although pricing has yet to be announced, the Aertos 130IR should be available this autumn (Northern Hemisphere)
Although pricing has yet to be announced, the Aertos 130IR should be available this autumn (Northern Hemisphere)

The whole copter tips the scales at a claimed 5.9 lb (2.7 kg), measures 21 inches (533 mm) across, and has a flight time of 10 minutes per charge of the onboard 4,500-mAh/22.2-V lithium-ion battery – it comes with three of those batteries.

According to its makers, possible applications for the Aertos 130IR include the mapping and/or internal inspection of power plants, mines, chimneys, bridges and pipes.

It's demonstrated in the following video.

Source: Digital Aerolus

Aertos 130 IR Commercial Drone | Teaser

View gallery - 4 images
2 comments
2 comments
Pio Tr
I wonder how can to keep it connected to pilot with walls and metal structures in between.
mediabeing
Pio Tr, my guess is that it might employ multiple frequencies along with advanced spatial awareness.
I'm glad to see a drone with serious prop protection and easy access handles.