With their ability to hover for days and to hold more payloads than many drones, aerostats and airships become good choices for surveillance in multiple scenarios.
Looking for these advantages, low-cost unmanned aerostatic platforms have been developed focused on fire monitoring and security applications.
Two blimps have been studied, designed, built and operated. They are currently available with payload capacities from 10 to 100 kg and a helium volume of 300 and 660 m3 respectively. The onboard autopilot allows a high degree of autonomy.
Development tasks were completed and they are available for researchers and other operational users to validate payloads, improve performances and serve commercial applications.
The Group leads HAPPIEST, the European Space Agency study for the development of stratospheric platforms for telecommunications and Earth observation.