Friday, May 8, 2015

High Eye, Drone UAS UAVs from The Netherlands, Esther Hackert and Marijn Van De Ruit

High Eye is a manufacturer of unmanned helicopter systems for the international civil market. The company designs medium sized, gas driven VTOL UAVs. High Eye had on display it's HEF 30 single rotor helicopter. Following are excerpts from my conversation with Esther (Compliance Officer) and Marijn (Design Engineer & Pilot).


Esther:  In the last 2 years there have been a lot of changes at High Eye, new Investor, CEO, Staff, Building and Helicopters. 

Me: What was your previous product focus?

Esther: Model Helicopters, RC. All new design in this HEF 30. 

Me: This is gas powered?

Esther: Yes, it is a 32cc 2 stroke engine, EMC shielded with complete auto-pilot. The customer can select the Gimbal of their choice, the display model sporting a DST (Sweden) gimbal. It has infrared and HD sensors. Fully autonomous and can perform Auto Take-Off and Auto Land as well as Way Point Navigation.

Me: And what about the Ground Station?

Esther: We build our own, it comes with a lap top and joy stick device.

Marijn: The operation of the Ground Control Station is really quite simple, and designed for remote operation with a 5 hour independent power source. Flying the helicopter is very automated, including waypoint and follow-me modes. The gimbal connects through the auto-pilot, so you can use the Inertial Measurement Unit (IMU) from the auto-pilot. If you want to have geo-tracking and geo-locking functionality, you don’t have to buy a separate IMU from the gimbal manufacturer, you can use High Eye’s. This can save the customer 10’s of thousands of dollars. Because the gimbal and auto-pilot are communicating, the auto-pilot knows where the gimbal is pointing at. The UAV will fly in the direction the gimbal is targeted.

Me: What markets are you looking to enter here in the US?

Esther: Civil inspections, mining operations, border patrol, law enforcement and security.

Marijn: With our 2 ½ hour flight time we can cover a large area. We have even done work for the Tuna industry.

For more information, go to:
www.higheye.nl/

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