It is called “Guardian” and is the first solar-powered Italian “spy drone” capable of flying silently to carry out long-range surveillance, control and intelligence missions. This drone has the shape of a small airplane and, thanks to the photovoltaic cells placed on the wings, during the day it can fly autonomously non-stop for over 8 hours carrying on board a sophisticated ultra-HD camera with digital transmission. It can be used in civil and military environments for many activities, such as police and intelligence investigations, surveillance of territory and sensitive sites, surveillance of borders and coastal areas, rescue in the event of natural disasters or shipwrecks, fire monitoring, patrolling areas of illegal dumping of waste or even anti-piracy surveillance from ships.
The “Guardian” was created by two Italian hi-tech companies: NPC of Imola (Bologna), specialized in the engineering sector and in the production of microsatellites for scientific and commercial uses, and Vector Robotics of Mogliano Veneto (Treviso), a startup specialized in the design and production of innovative drones. It is based on the experience gained by the two companies for the project of the solar drone for fire detection “FireHound Zero”, introduced on the market in 2022 and which will soon be adopted by the first Italian customers.
The “Guardian” drone is built in expanded propylene, a very innovative solution that provides it with characteristics of lightness, strength and resistance. The small autonomous aircraft boasts very small dimensions: it has a length of 53 centimeters and a wingspan of 146 centimeters, weighs only 1.3 kilograms and on the wings has an area of about 0.4 square meters of photovoltaic cells that recharge a battery and provide energy to the electric motor. It is launched by hand by a single operator and can fly at a maximum operating altitude of 5 kilometers and at a cruising speed of about 40 kilometers per hour. It is equipped with various camera options, from fixed full-HD to obtain maximum flight autonomy, to 4K ultra-HD Starlight with 6x digital zoom stabilized on three axes, both already available immediately, and finally a very interesting EO + IR camera with auto-tracking, 40x zoom (of which 20x optical) in the visible frequency and 4x in the infrared, available from mid-2023. It employs a digital transmission system that ensures the reception of an interference-free signal, allowing the collected images to be sent to the ground station, but it is also equipped with an SD memory card to record data and then transfer it to other media after landing. In the basic version, the drone has a range of 10 kilometers, determined by the transmission range of the on-board radio, which can be increased on request, and is able to fly with external temperatures between -10 and +45 degrees Celsius and with winds up to 25 knots.
“The flight testing activities of the ‘Guardian’ have just ended with excellent results, even with reduced sunlight and adverse weather conditions,” confirms Gabriele Giorgini, chief operating officer of Vector Robotics. “This vehicle represents a real revolution in the simplification and optimization of missions in many operational scenarios and is a highly effective solution for the needs of armed forces, police forces, rescue and civil protection organizations and for all other realities active in the security sector. The ‘Guardian’ will be a very useful tool in the hands of these professionals and will certainly give them a greater chance of success than traditional means, thanks above all to its special characteristics of ease of use, absolute silence, long flight duration and sophisticated video shooting and transmission systems”.
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