(Source: unmannedsystemstechnology.com)
Drone Aviation Holding Corp., a developer of specialized lighter-than-air aerostats and tethered drones, has announced that its wholly-owned subsidiary, Drone Aviation Corp. (DAC), has officially launched WATT, the company’s first model of a new line of commercial-grade electric tethered drones. Designed to provide secure and reliable aerial monitoring for extended durations while being tethered to the ground via a high strength armored tether, WATT is uniquely suited for a wide number of news-gathering, industrial and emergency response applications where manned aircraft and even free-flying drones are unable to deliver the long flight duration and commercial grade real-time day/night video monitoring capabilities needed, all while operating in compliance with the new guidelines proposed by the FAA.
WATT is a complete turnkey system that can be launched within minutes of unpacking from a standard case stored in a host vehicle. When launched, WATT is designed to hover in a stationary position directly above its launch site at one of several preset altitudes of up to 300 feet. Once airborne, a highly stabilized military-grade/broadcast quality HD video imager can provide a 360° live aerial monitoring feed transmitted through the tether to its host vehicle while being wirelessly shared to a network of mobile devices such as tablets or laptop computers.
Key WATT features include:
Unique power system with the ability to either draw power parasitically from a host vehicle such as TV production trucks, first responder vehicles or common agriculture/infrastructure equipment with standard 120v/220v power, or to independently provide up to 8 hours of operation through its own ground power equipment
Carrying capacity of up to 10 lbs. of payload such as advanced, highly stabilized optical packages capable of delivering live broadcast-quality or military grade day/night all-weather sensors
Significant safety features such as fault-tolerant primary sub-systems, on-board battery back-up, automatic telemetry alerts and auto recovery/retrieve functionality for safe and simplified operation.
Aircraft control over tether to help minimise the risk of radio frequency collisions, interference or hacking.
Continue Reading at unmannedsystemstechnology.com…
Alan is serial entrepreneur, active angel investor, and a drone enthusiast. He co-founded DRONELIFE.com to address the emerging commercial market for drones and drone technology. Prior to DRONELIFE.com, Alan co-founded Where.com, ThinkingScreen Media, and Nurse.com. Recently, Alan has co-founded Crowditz.com, a leader in Equity Crowdfunding Data, Analytics, and Insights. Alan can be reached at alan(at)dronelife.com