Tag: CTO at SPH Engineering

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Technology

TUNDRA drone integrated with UgCS Integrated Systems solutions

Nov 3, 2021 by Rekha Nair 0 Comments #Alexandre Labesse, #Alexei Dobrovolskiy, #CEO of Hexadrone, #CTO at SPH Engineering

(Riga, Latvia) – SPH Engineering and France-based Hexadrone partner to integrate TUNDRA drone with ground-penetrating radar. The trial flight was conducted in Balogi, Latvia, and confirmed the compatibility of the drone with a GPR sensor to perform near-surface surveys.

The integration was performed to unlock a new type of drone for industrial, hydrographic, urban and environmental data collection with the use of a GPR, magnetometers, methane detectors, echo sounders. The solution consists of UgCS software for mission-planning, UgCS SkyHub hardware (on-board computer) for data accumulation, Radar Systems Zond Aero GPR and Hexadrone TUNDRA drone.

The main advantages of the Tundra drone include a modular and multipurpose body that can be integrated with almost any payloads, accessories and modules available on the market or in development. Available in different configurations, it can fly up to 1 hour without payload, 50 minutes with a 1,5kg payload and 30 minutes with the max payload – 4kg.

‘Within this year we have got a few requests from drone producers who aim at enabling real industrial work in the most challenging terrain. We are open to extending UgCS Integrated Systems portfolio with new partners and satisfied with the TUNDRA integration results. We expect the technology will allow Hexadrone to advance their capabilities with the help of GPR solution,’ Alexei Dobrovolskiy, CTO at SPH Engineering, comments.

“The Tundra drone has been designed as a development hub, a toolholder, in order to meet every need. It embodies the word collaborative as it is meant to be the starting point of each and every conceivable development. It is through partnerships that technologies and applications can evolve, that is why we are so proud to be able to work with foreign companies such as SPH Engineering. We are very happy with the integration of their GPR that opens new opportunities for drone users. We’d like to thanks Cédric Botella and the whole Instadrone network – french official distributor of UgCS – as they introduced us to SPH Engineering.” Alexandre Labesse, CEO of Hexadrone, adds.

Test range for UAV-based geophysical sensors launched in Latvia
Business World, News

Test range for UAV-based geophysical sensors launched in Latvia

Apr 30, 2021 by Rekha Nair 0 Comments #Alexey Dobrovolskiy, #CTO at SPH Engineering

Riga, Latvia – SPH Engineering announces the official launch of its in-house drone flight area, enriched with a unique 450×70 meter range for various types of geophysical sensor testing with UAVs. The purpose-built testing ground features multiple targets of different materials and sizes buried in a variety of soil types.

SPH Engineering’s test range is designed for manufacturers, surveying and scientific teams for equipment testing and various experiments. The four distinct seasons in Latvia provide the opportunity to test the technologies in a wide range of conditions: dry soil in summer, wet to extremely muddy in spring/autumn, and frozen in winter.

Dozens of real-life application scenarios for geological sensors were taken into account to design the testing area. There are 23 permanently installed targets (pipes, barrels, etc.) buried in natural soil (layers from sand to clay) to inspect. The coordinates of the targets are known with cm-level precision to ensure the highest possible accuracy when interpretating data acquired by the geophysical sensors. Also, the diagonal orientation of pipes makes it possible to test the target’s responses at different depths and distances from the sensors.

“We integrated the first sensor with a drone back in 2017. It was a GPR. The solution has been widely used, mainly for industrial and archeological surveys, as well as for fresh water bathymetry. The decision to create an innovative test range was in response to the unexpected increase in requests for various UAV integrations from potential customers and sensor producers during the pandemic in 2020. Within a year, we successfully integrated two magnetometers, an echo sounder, a new methane detector and a metal detector with a drone,” Alexey Dobrovolskiy, CTO at SPH Engineering, explains.

Earlier this year, SPH Engineering renamed UgCS Industrial Solutions as UgCS Integrated Systems. The new name more accurately reflects the company’s specially developed “sensor+drone” portfolio.