AscTec Firefly: Netexplo Award Winner 2016
The AscTec Firefly UAS drone has been awarded the Netexplo Award 2016 for its impact on society and business. The redundant research drone is established as programmable unmanned aircraft system in leading universities and R&D labs worldwide. Moreover the AscTec Firefly is involved in many challenging research projects.
Netexplo (“Netexplorateur” until late 2011) is an independent observatory that studies the impact of digital tech on society and business. It was created in 2007 by Martine Bidegain and Thierry Happe in partnership with the French Senate and the French Ministry for the Digital Economy. Netexplo takes a unique approach to understanding digital society. Through its International University Network, the Netexplo Observatory scans the world for the new faces of tech and their inventions.
Actually the Netexplo videos shows our expert UAS drone AscTec Falcon 8, not the Netexplo Award Winner 2016: AscTec Firefly.
AscTec Firefly: “The drone that flies itself”
The AscTec Firefly is one of the most advanced UAV of the AscTec Research Line. The hexacopter is redundant and offers the researcher vibration damped slots for various payloads. The inertial guidance system provides highest precision through advanced sensor components and two ARM7 microprocessors. The control unit offers highest flexibility. Latest interfaces simplify the implementation of your own c-code algorithms.
There’s no need for a remote control to watch this drone fly safely without colliding with obstacles like houses, bridges or other drones. Its maker, the German UAS developer Ascending Technologies, fitted the AscTec Firefly not just with redundant six rotors, but – to demonstrate the impact of possible – also with ultra-lightweight Intel RealSense 3D cameras to give it 360°. Then drone could orientate itself and manage its own trajectories, enabling it explore out of reach places for commercial and research purposes.
Leading the way for drone research & drone-driven technology
The AscTec Firefly has been involved in various research projects; such as the European Robotics Challenges (EuRoC) aiming at the European manufacturing industry to maintain global leadership in products and services by providing competitive solutions.
The EuRoC consortium consists of a total of 9 beneficiaries. The five academic/research beneficiaries (CREATE, CNRS, DLR, ETHZ, IPA) of the consortium have been chosen in a way that the three challenges of EuRoC are covered at a very high scientific level, while the three industrial beneficiaries (Alstom Inspection Robotics, KUKA, Ascending Technologies) guarantee the industrial relevance of the challenges in those relevant domains which are thought to cover the most promising technologies for potential end‐users and market‐driven finalization of robotics research. Learn more about the EuRoC project.
About Netexplo:
The founding partners, the Senate, the Ministry for the Digital Economy and HEC Paris business school share Netexplo’s commitment to covering every aspect of digital innovation, whether technological, commercial, organisational, social or environmental. Netexplo’s innovation watch and analyses focus on emerging uses of digital tech worldwide.
Learn more about Netexplo and Netexplo Award Winner 2016 AscTec Firefly UAS drone: https://www.netexplo.org/en/
