BLUE VIGIL OFFERS TETHER AS SOLUTION TO DRONE FLIGHT TIME

摘要

Blue Vigil has a solution for the problem of limited drone flight time: a removable tether that provides unlimited power. Other companies have used tethered systems before, but most were proprietary, where Blue Vigil's can be attached to small and medium-sized systems, up to 10 kilograms (22.5 pounds). "We solved the problem of limited flight duration," company CEO Todd Stave said at AUVSI's Innovation Challenge, held as part of Unmanned Systems Defense. Protection. Security conference in Washington. The company walked away with the top prize, a package of benefits worth $35,000 that will help elevate the company's profile. Stave, speaking later to Unmanned Systems, says the company came about after Blue Vigil cofounder Gerard Eldering saw a demonstration of a tethered drone built by the University of Kansas. It had no built-in control system but relied on three tethers for power and operation. The company thought to license the system and market it, but "when we gave it to our engineers, they said, yeah, this was an invention that was developed when flight control systems cost $30,000. Now they're $30 and you don't really need to have this mechanical, stabilized system anymore, we can do it with computers. "But the idea of a tethered drone was a really good idea, so we started developing from scratch."