Aeryon Scout Afghanistan Ready – Tested up to 13,000’ Altitude

Tuesday, August 16, 2011

Waterloo, ON – Aeryon Labs, manufacturer of the Aeryon Scout – a small man-packable flying robotic reconnaissance system – has announced the Scout is ready for operational use in high altitude environments such as Afghanistan and Colombia.  The Scout utilizes a special set of high altitude propellers and arms that extend its world leading environmental capabilities – wind gusts up to 80 km/hr and temperatures up to +55C – to high altitude environments up to and exceeding 13,000’ above sea level (ASL).

Although the average altitude of Afghanistan is 4000’ ASL, mountainous terrain dominates the landscape with military operations often conducted at higher altitudes.  For example, the city of Kabul is at an elevation of 6000’ ASL.  Many other situations of conflict, such as those in Pakistan and Columbia share similar geography.  As altitude increases, the air becomes thinner.  For aircraft, this means engines need to draw more air to get enough oxygen, planes need to fly faster to generate lift and propellers need to spin faster.  Often, aircraft require special modifications or have to carry less cargo when operating in these conditions.

To enable the Scout to perform as well at higher altitudes as it does at lower ones, a special set of high altitude propellers and motors arms were developed.  Recently, the system was fully tested and qualified at altitude.  High altitude tests ranged from elevations of 5,500’ ASL to 13,000’ ASL with the Scout flying flawlessly at all elevations.  At these altitudes, the Scout was able to attain an airspeed of 20 m/s (72 km/hr), exceeding its previous top speeds.  The Scout’s auto-tuning capabilities, including its automatic thrust compensation, position controller and wind estimator all dynamically adjust to varying air densities at different altitudes, making the Scout as safe and easy to operate at 13,000’ as it is at sea level.  Testing was performed with a range of payloads including the daytime still payload and the VideoZoom10X payload that features a 10 times optical zoom.

Critical to the Scout’s success has been how quickly and easily it can be deployed and operated by soldiers in the field.  With the Scout’s map-based, touch-screen interface, the Scout essentially flies by itself – the operator’s role is to simply tell the system where to go and what to look at.  This quick and easy deployment capability can now be leveraged for tactical aerial intelligence in hard-to-reach and high-need locations, such as Afghanistan and Colombia.

The high altitude version of the Scout is based around specific customer requirements for imminent deployment in Afghanistan is available immediately from Aeryon Labs.

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About Aeryon Labs Inc. – www.aeryon.com
Aeryon Labs provides robotic solutions to real-world problems through the design and manufacture of best-in-class small unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) and related systems. Its flagship product, the Scout, allows police, military and civil users to easily collect real-time aerial intelligence, with a system small enough to fit in a backpack or car trunk.  With expertise in robotics, control systems, and digital imaging, the Aeryon team develops state-of-the-art products while remaining focused on end-user ease of use.

Contact:
Aeryon Labs Inc.
Marni McVicar
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519-489-6726 x234