Survey by microplanes

14 August 2013 - Smart and quick land surveys by unmanned microplanes are now offered by the German company MAVinci, an alumnus of ESA Business Incubation Centre Darmstadt. Guided completely by satnav and following predefined routes, the company's automatic micro air-vehicles (UAVs), with their 1.6 m wingspan and less than 3 kg take-off weight, take precise aerial photos that used to require conventional piloted aircraft. "Our UAVs are cost-efficient, available at short notice and easy to use for surveillance of development areas, construction sites, mining areas, disaster zones and waste disposal sites, just to mention a few," said Johanna Claussen, MAVinci CEO. "They can carry visual cameras or other customer-specific measuring equipment." With the support from the ESA business incubation centre, the MAVinci entrepreneurs developed their small air-vehicles and turned their idea into a growing business. ESA engineers provided expertise on exploiting satnav data, and the Agency's optical lab at ESTEC in the Netherlands helped with calibrating the camera. Before taking off, the whole flight plan is defined and uploaded to the plane. From take-off to landing the flight is controlled by the autopilot, although it is followed via radio by a 'safety pilot' on the ground who can take over the controls at any time.