ECA Group UAW tethered UAV Express pickup

To answer new request for improved surveillance capabilities for Forward Operating Base, sensitive area and border protection, ECA GROUP has designed a new tethered UAV system to provide enhanced surveillance capabilities.
This new and unique patented robotic system converts a conventional 50 minutes endurance UAV for ISTAR missions (IT180-60) into a tethered version able to reach up to 150 m altitude from the ground during an unlimited period of time.
The embedded “follow-me” function gives the system the possibility to be used for convoy scouting.

The drone piloting is automated for vehicle following (once this one has been identified by the camera): this one being identified as “friend” vehicle.

1. The operator states which vehicle is to be tracked and at what distance / a priori the vehicle at the head of the convoy
2. The drone tracks automatically the vehicle at the head of the convoy
3. The operator who sits beside the driver can see on his monitoring screen farer than the driver him-self thanks to the drone view.

Thus, on board the vehicle the drone operator’s attention is fully used for data exploiting in order to foresee convoy’s environment conditions for next 500 meters or 1 km distance.
More:
http://www.ecagroup.com/en/solutions/...

This UAV solution is also adapted for Radio Relaying missions:
http://www.ecagroup.com/en/solutions/...

This video was made by Droptair-Production: http://www.droptair-production.fr/