Microdrone Military Technology

Prox Dynamics

Goes Nano

With Personal UAVs

By Danielle Lucey

Prox Dynamic’s PD-100.

The company believes it is the smallest UAS to ever enter theater. All photos courtesy Prox Dynamics.

S

hrinking systems and components is nothing new in the unmanned systems world, but Prox Dynamics has taken that concept to an even smaller level.

The Norway-based company is now manufacturing a line of UAS so small you can fit multiple systems in the palm of your hand. The PD-100 PRS, which stands for Personal Reconnaissance System, includes two vertical takeoff and landing systems and a base station, which together weigh less than 2 pounds and fit inside a magazine pouch.

The company, which started in 2007, began developing the PD-100 in 2008 and completed Block 1 back in January 2012. The systems have been for sale since May, but Prox Dynamics has mostly kept quiet on its feat of nano flight, despite successfully fielding them.

“Very few could do what we did,” says VP of Sales and Marketing Oleg Aguirre, on the speed with which the system came to fruition. “We were at a level that no one else was.”

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Since the system’s release, the company has won a contract with the U.K. Ministry of Defence in competition with much larger companies to use their systems to fit an urgent operational requirement in Afghanistan, says VP of Sales and Marketing Ole Aguirre, though he declined to get into details.

Aguirre believes the PD-100 is the world’s first operational nano UAV. “There’s a lot of players that say they can do it,” he says. “I think we are a bit ahead.”

Other companies have worked in nano UAS, most prominently AeroVironment with its Nano Hummingbird. That company gained funding through DARPA to work on the system, which unlike PD-100, uses flapping wing technology.

Both systems are roughly the same size, with the PD-100 edging out the Hummingbird in the lightness department by 3 grams, coming in at 16 total, in weight.

Unmanned Systems — January 2013 Read us online at auvsi.org

“The whole idea was to provide new and lifesaving capabilities directly to the fighting soldiers without increasing their weight burden,” explains Aguirre, who has military and first responder experience prior to coming to Prox Dynamics.

“And I think we have succeeded quite well.”

Getting Personal Because of the size, Prox Dynamics calls it a personal reconnaissance system, in the same way that computers became personal computers once they got smaller. Aguirre credits cell phone market technology with allowing Prox Dynamics to contain the size and weight of the PD-100.

Each UAV can fly for 25 minutes at a time, and the kit was designed so one PD-100 would fly at a time. To go from an in-the-box system to in the sky takes two minutes. Though it’s small, the PD-100 can fly in 10-knot winds, but Aguirre says he’s flown it with gusts up to 20 knots.

The battery powered PD-100 flies with three electro-optical cameras per vehicle providing pan/tilt. Live video and still images from the air vehicle are displayed on Prox Dynamic’s 7-inch display unit, which adds 0.6 kilograms to the total weight of the system. The system may also utilize other display systems, such as a helmet-mounted display. No data is stored on the air vehicle; instead digital video and still images are sent to the base station through the advanced digital data link. The system can be operated beyond line of sight in a semi-urban environment.

Aguirre says typical training time on the entire system is a two-day course, but he’s seen people pick up the basics within five minutes.

Size keeps the nano vehicle pretty stealthy, but Aguirre says the system is so quiet that you couldn’t hear one flying directly overhead by only a few feet. The company took care to select materials that left a low mechanical noise signature. This kind of covert situational awareness will save lives, he believes.

The PD-100 has a flight time of 25 minutes, with two vehicles in each system.

“I can see this one making a real difference in theater. …

You’re not going to enter an ambush.”

Aguirre thinks the PD-100’s size will also help it enter the civil market, citing the Military Aviation Authorities in both the U.K. and Norway, which determined that any vehicle weighing less than 60 grams is inherently safe, posing no unacceptable risk if they should fall out of the sky.

“Privacy is a concern to us,” Aguirre adds, saying misuse is a legal issue, not one for manufacturers. “Prox Dynamics has, therefore, made a conscious decision to restrict sales outside government organizations, even though this would also mean reduced sales.”

Danielle Lucey is managing editor of Unmanned Systems.

Read us online at auvsi.org

Unmanned Systems — January 2013

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