Hello, this is my first post.
I'm Strantor; I'm a Controls Engineer at a small company that designs and manufactures niche market tools/machines for subsea use, typically at the hands (or manipulators) of a deep sea work class ROV. Our tools utilize a proprietary technology that has zero environmental impact and is safe for divers. We have turned a new stone and found a good opportunity to evolve out and expand to the world outside the sea. I am investigating our options for applying our technology to land-based applications at elevated heights, in situations that would endanger a human worker. On the surface, (barring legal and technical issues) delivery of our technology by UAV seems like it may be the optimal option.
I am doing preliminary research, looking for commercial UAV platforms to purchase, or examples of similar UAVs which we might look to for inspiration in developing our own UAV platform; work-class crafts capable of heavy (~50Lb) payload and stable operation - stable enough to grab onto a stationary object mid-air with a robotic manipulator and hold onto it for couple of minutes while a task is performed on the object. I'm looking for the airborne version of a small subsea Work Class ROV. I have found a dearth of examples, and I want to know why. Everything I am finding online is Hobbyist drones, followed by aerial camera drones for realtors, and then a massive leap to military drones, with nothing in between.
Every time I have an idea which seems brilliant (to me), I confirm it by going online and finding that someone else has beaten me to it by decades. The fact I am coming up empty handed now makes me think maybe it's not such a good idea; but why?
Possible explanations:
How big are the challenges that I face in pursuing building one?
Am I going to need to get lawyers involved with the FAA?
Am I going to need an Aeronautical Engineer to design this thing?
Are there any commercial work class UAVs for sale that I might have missed? (I'm going to feel really stupid if the answer is yes)
I would genuinely love to provide more details (I hate dancing around and being all cloak & dagger about it), but unfortunately I am bound by a NDA and I can't say anything more about our technology or the work we do. Please keep this discussion focused on the legal and technical aspects.
I'm Strantor; I'm a Controls Engineer at a small company that designs and manufactures niche market tools/machines for subsea use, typically at the hands (or manipulators) of a deep sea work class ROV. Our tools utilize a proprietary technology that has zero environmental impact and is safe for divers. We have turned a new stone and found a good opportunity to evolve out and expand to the world outside the sea. I am investigating our options for applying our technology to land-based applications at elevated heights, in situations that would endanger a human worker. On the surface, (barring legal and technical issues) delivery of our technology by UAV seems like it may be the optimal option.
I am doing preliminary research, looking for commercial UAV platforms to purchase, or examples of similar UAVs which we might look to for inspiration in developing our own UAV platform; work-class crafts capable of heavy (~50Lb) payload and stable operation - stable enough to grab onto a stationary object mid-air with a robotic manipulator and hold onto it for couple of minutes while a task is performed on the object. I'm looking for the airborne version of a small subsea Work Class ROV. I have found a dearth of examples, and I want to know why. Everything I am finding online is Hobbyist drones, followed by aerial camera drones for realtors, and then a massive leap to military drones, with nothing in between.
Every time I have an idea which seems brilliant (to me), I confirm it by going online and finding that someone else has beaten me to it by decades. The fact I am coming up empty handed now makes me think maybe it's not such a good idea; but why?
Possible explanations:
- Painful red tape involved with:
- licensing a drone pilot
- getting a prototype drone design approved by the FAA
- Insufficient demand - admittedly, it is (would be) a niche market, but our clients seem interested.
- Lack of trusted/time-proven drone technology and suppliers of it - everything available is marketed to the hobbyist; perhaps not "legit" enough for most companies to buy into.
- Cost prohibitive - my SWAG estimate is that a budget of $100k to develop a prototype is reasonable. That doesn't seem like a lot for a commercial operation. But then you must make the thing pay for itself, and service/rental rates are a mystery with no precedent.
- Insurance/Liability issues? - not my area, I can only speculate
- battery technology - Larger crafts capable of doing real work are heavy, which requires more batteries, which makes it heavier, which requires more batteries, and so on. Per the numbers I've crunched, I think I can fit the amount of work to be done (including flying) into a time*power window that is more than sufficiently served by an 80AH pack. Battery tech does not appear to be the limiting factor to me. Plus, most of our work could be done with the UAV powered by a high voltage, high frequency (400Hz+) power tether from a generator on the ground, only backup batteries need be on board.
How big are the challenges that I face in pursuing building one?
Am I going to need to get lawyers involved with the FAA?
Am I going to need an Aeronautical Engineer to design this thing?
Are there any commercial work class UAVs for sale that I might have missed? (I'm going to feel really stupid if the answer is yes)
I would genuinely love to provide more details (I hate dancing around and being all cloak & dagger about it), but unfortunately I am bound by a NDA and I can't say anything more about our technology or the work we do. Please keep this discussion focused on the legal and technical aspects.
