I saw at the establishment presentation on what Sony Mobile and ZMP's new company "AeroSense" to enter the drone business is aiming for

In July 2015, Sony Mobile Communications (hereinafter Sony Mobile) and startup "ZMP" to develop robot technology cooperated with autonomous unmanned aerial vehicle (droneUAV) A company that develops and provides services using technology "Aerosense Co., Ltd.When establishingI had announced. The press announcement press conference of the company was held in Tokyo on August 24 (Monday) the following month, so what kind of project is assumed and what kind of aircraft are used is used I went to see it.

Aeroosense started as a joint venture company that provides industrial solutions combining autonomous unmanned aerial vehicles and cloud services - Aerosense
http://www.aerosense.co.jp/pressitems/2015/8/25


Arrived at "Bersart Roppongi" which became the venue.


When entering the interview site, many cameras and interviewers were filling out.


Two prototypes were released on the day. Quad-cotter type UAV with 4 blades "AS-MC 01-P"At the center of the four rotors there is almost a ball type fuselage and at the bottom of the fuselage the camera is mounted downward. An antenna for GPS was attached to the upper part of the main body. The rod extending from the bottom of the propeller to the ground is not for exhibition but what is actually used during landing.


And it is the airplane type UAV "development" which will be developed in the futureAS-DT 01-E". Although it is a fuselage having a fixed wing different from the multi-coater type, the propeller which is producing the main thrust at the center of the fuselage faces directly under, so it takes off on the spot without a runway and the angle of the propeller gradually VTOL aircraft that makes it possible to fly a normal plane by landscape orientationVertical take-off and landing aircraft) Has become.


Using these UAVs, we are aiming to develop a new solution, at 10 o'clock (and sometime) Sony Mobile Communications led by Hiroki Yuki (left) and startup by Zhang Taniguchi (right) and ZMP jointly We launched in "Aerosense"is. At the company, Sony Mobile has a camera and sensing technology, a communication network, a robot technology developed through robot development such as AIBO, and ZMP has automatic business technology, robot technology, business experience to the industry By utilizing it, we are planning to start offering solutions to key industry sectors such as construction, logistics, agriculture, forestry and fisheries. Mr. Taniguchi was appointed as a new president of AeroSense, Mr. Kotaro Sabe, who has been involved in robot development, has worked as a CTO (Chief Technology Officer) with Sony's development of AIBO and QRIO at Sony doing.


The solution is to automatically manage the detailed construction site management, logistics management, agricultural crop condition confirmation with high precision by detailed cloud management of images captured from the sky for analysis and making it difficult to implement in the past It is possible to do. UAV skips the route automatically determined and automatically takes the necessary photographs. Then, when data retrieved from the UAV returning to the ground is brought close to the management PC, this data is automatically sucked out and uploaded automatically to the cloud. By accumulating the data like every day and analyzing it in the cloud, it is possible to obtain very high value of utility value for each industry.


Major fields of application are building and inspection, civil engineering / mining, surveillance / security, agriculture, logistics and transportation.


In the civil engineering field, it can be used to create a 3D model based on high-resolution topographical data and calculate the amount of sediment in the whole mountain.


The construction site can compare the daily data to be used for grasping the construction site situation and material management.


The scaffolding material placed in the material storage place is also batch-refreshed.


And in the field of agriculture, by photographing the situation of crops at low altitude flight, it can be used for grasping the growth situation and judging the harvest time. This seems to be said to be a useful function in Hokkaido where large scale agriculture is adopted in particular.


If you look at the image movie that shows the actual flight path setting from flight, image data capturing to utilization, you can understand the outline.

Image movie of solution provided by UAV (Drone) of "AeroSense" - YouTube


◆ AeroSense UAV
As mentioned above, the UAV's AS-MC 01-P with the rotor attached to the four arms extending from the round fuselage. The main body size is 515 × 515 × 400 mm, the main body weight is about 2 kg, and the battery and the camera will be about 3 kg.


Parts made of carbon fiber are incorporated for weight reduction of the main body, and a carbon pattern can be seen also in the propeller. Although existing hardware is used for some hardware such as motors, it is said that ZMP's proprietary developed system is used for the aircraft control system. In addition, this aircraft seems to have been developed so that it does not need any pilots to maneuver on the ground and it can autonomously fly the automatically determined flight route (flight pass).


What is installed downward is Sony's lens style camera released in October 2014 "DSC-QX 30"was. The lens part is fitted with a lens hood that is created with a 3D printer.


Up of the GPS antenna. In addition to the GPS operated mainly by the United States, it seems that Russian GRONASS is also used together to increase the accuracy of position supplementation.


I tried to approach the camera part. Although it is thought to take still pictures at the main stage at this stage, it seems that there is no problem even if it mounts directly on the main body, but if the need to shoot moving pictures seems to increase in future, it will make stable video possibleGimbalIt is planned to think about installing.


If you look closely, the front of the fuselage is also mounted with a compact camera facing forward.


Furthermore, you can see that there is also a small camera on the bottom of the fuselage, apart from the main. These two cameras are not used for actual photography, but they seem to be installed in order to grasp the movement and position of the aircraft. Although it is small, the number of pixels is not so much, but it seems that it is set so that small movements can be caught without omission by increasing the speed (number of frames) to shoot.


A movie that the AS-MC 01-P actually fly tests is also released on YouTube.

Quadcopter Flight by Aerosense Inc. - YouTube


One VTOL type prototype · AS-DT 01-E is an aircraft to be developed for industrial use, but its appearance is somewhat elegant. According to Professor Masahiko Nagahama of the Department of Art Design at the Tokyo University of the Arts, who worked on the aircraft design, this design focused on becoming a design that makes life feel like dolphins, paying a solid image such as "UAV = military use" It is said that the aim for sowing is put in. The aircraft size is 2200 x 1600 x 600 mm, the aircraft weight is 5 kg, the weight including the battery is 7 kg.


Two propellers laid out in the center of the aircraft. Each rotates in the opposite directionContra-rotating propellerAnd it is structured to cancel "twist (counter torque)" which is born by the rotation of the propeller.


Looking from the rear, the design makes you feel more like living things. As you can see from the moving parts of the feathers, this prototype is a mockup that does not actually fly.


Carbon fiber of light weight and high rigidity is used for the aircraft structure part, but the part which receives the big thrust of the propeller is designed so that the frame is assembled separately to catch the force.


A small rotor is embedded in both wings and the nose part. This is a rotor used to control the posture of the aircraft apart from the main propeller.


For the development of AS-DT 01-E, Kobe University participated and joint development was promoted. The scenes that actually fly are contained in the following movies.

VTOL Flight 20150715 - YouTube


The aircraft actually flighted in the movie was also exhibited. From the appearance full of handmade feeling compared to mock-up, the power and fame of the unique prototype are transmitted.


Upside down propeller section up. The outer shell of the aircraft was molded with a material like Styrofoam.


◆ Aerosense future
A feature of the system including these aircraft is a series of flow of "generation of flight pass" → "takeoff" → "flight" → "shooting" → "landing"Automate allWhere possible, it is possible to provide a solution that comprehensively packages it. In the past it was necessary to dedicate software to create the flight pass, the drone used was a commercially available general-purpose product, or the specialist staff managed the photographed image to make data However, it was a big feature that enhancing convenience by unifying this flow was a major feature.

Moreover, the merit that can be expected unexpected by automating the flight is "high safety". Among the development of self-driving cars developed by Google etc., it is said that many of the traffic accidents are often caused by human errors,An accident occurs that seems to be more safe than an automatic driving car anymoreThere are cases that I did it. This is the same in the world of drone and UAV, so it can be said that giving high safety is a matter of course, because it is an aircraft that may have a large damage particularly in case of an accident.

AeroSense, which aims to provide comprehensive solutions using these aircraft, is to offer its vision "more efficient observation through the provision of industrial solutions that combine autonomous unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) and cloud services , Surveying, management, logistics, etc., and contribute to the realization of a society that can live with peace of mind in consideration of the environment ". It is the company's aim to provide a one-stop service solution to environments where manufacturers, software vendors, and operators were separate in the past.


AeroSense is a company born by Sony Mobile and ZMP meeting. Both companies are planning to proceed with future development based on capital of 100 million yen and capital reserve of 100 million yen, totaling 200 million yen, and Sanyo Mobile owns 50.005% , ZMP is 49.995% which is a balance that can be said to be almost equivalent. With Sony's technology and ZMP technology, and "ZMP's Venture Spirits" (10 o'clock CEO), it seems that business will be developed with the goal of making business beyond 10 billion yen by 2020.