By the time we started researching and developing Drone, there was no droning motor or propeller. For that reason, we designed the motor by themselves, scraped the propeller, and soldered every single part to make the control board. Today, it has become easier to buy parts and assemble and fly drones. However, considering the use in business, it is clear that there are many problems to be solved, including ensuring safety. I will show examples of our research sectors.

Indoor flight technology

　Flight technology in the indoor environment is diverse. You can know your location by using GPS outdoors, but GPS signals can not be captured indoors. Therefore, it is necessary to develop technologies that match the flight environment. The picture on the right is an example of self position estimation using high speed image processing developed in 2013. By processing the image taken from the aircraft from the floor, you can extract the pattern of the floor as shown on the right side and follow the change to determine the change in the attitude of the drones and the distance traveled. We succeeded in realizing this process with just 10 g modules at the time, and we are still evolving today.


　On the other hand, we also do map development to create maps while drone moves, and research and develop flight with map to move through existing map. Techniques to fly while avoiding collisions are indispensable in factories such as complex factories. In addition, the need to fly safely in environments where indoor facilities change is expected to increase significantly in the future. Right is an example of moving while recognizing space as a cluttered path with many obstacles. In addition to avoiding collisions, we are also developing processes to recognize their own position and create flight paths themselves.

　As a culmination of such technologies, we have accumulated experience in various development projects. For the sake of convenience, there are few examples that can be released, but we will introduce photos (right) when we fly through the sewer as one of the achievements. Inspection machine P400, which shoots a wall while firing a flash in a dark underground space, can fly in a pipe without a map. Various technologies are combined to overcome steps, curves, sediments and fly to the exit.

Outdoor flight and safety pursuit

　There are a lot of technologies cultivated indoors among outdoor flying flight techniques. Normally it will fly using GPS, but we will utilize the technique of indoor flight for precise takeoff and landing and obstacle avoidance. In infrastructure inspection, we are using a system that focuses on technologies other than GPS such as collision prevention and shape recognition and flying. The picture on the right is a picture of the tower inspection. In the infrastructure inspection, the accident in the unlikely event has the risk of stopping the infrastructure itself. By combining various technologies developed in-house, we will implement highly safe inspection by taking dual and triple safety measures.

　We constantly conduct research to improve safety at all times within the company. There is no perfect safety. So it is difficult to guarantee that the drones will not fall, but that's why we are continuing experiments seeking safety a step ahead.
We are continuing to gather data on the gusts during the experiment, investigate the response of the sensors in various places, and are conducting daily research to realize safer flight in more environments.
We also conduct accident investigations when we operate other airframes. We believe that conducting extensive research will improve the safety of the industry as a whole.

Data analytics

　We also analyze the data acquired by Drone's flight. The subjects of the analysis are various, such as agricultural data and inspection data on structures that are acquired daily. Because it is a machine set up by us, there are many events that can be analyzed diversely, so we are promoting R & D to provide a wider range of analysis services. It also supports data analysis in cooperation with existing devices in customer facilities. Please feel free to contact us.