Because equipment components are heavy, in areas inaccessible to vehicles, it is hard to carry or lift the equipment to pass steep terrains or thick forest during field exploration/prospecting in mountainous areas with complicated terrains or high-altitude areas. In this case, air means is required to release the equipment components accurately in a point-to-point manner and guarantee that no instrument and equipment be damaged during transportation.
How UAVs can assist the field scientific investigation/exploration.
Digitalization
Digital images will be provided during UAV prospecting, which can reflect the terrain and landform intuitionistically.
Safe Operation
UAVs feature strong operation environmental adaptability and higher accuracy. Especially, under adverse weather environment conditions, UAVs can reduce the field exploration risks to explorers to the maximum
Applications
Challenges in Field Exploration/Prospecting Sites
Field exploration/prospecting equipment components should be released to a designated point in the mountainous area and this point may be a peak, valley, hillside, or somewhere in a jungle. Therefore, UAVs should be capable of VTOL and fixed-point hovering.
The release point of equipment components may be near or far from the take-off point. The biggest problem is that the intervisibility is generally impossible between the take-off point and the target release point.
The equipment component release area is small in size and the ground surface might be stones, loess, or bush. Because of steep peak or blocking by tall trees in the surrounding, it is hard for UAVs to land remotely and the weather near the landing point is complicated.
UAV Application Advantages
ZHZ UAVs feature great load capacity, VTOL, and long-term hovering and support strong wind resistance and rainproofness. They are capable of normal flight in complicated weather environments.
ZHZ has mastered the UAV sling stability control technology and owned several proprietary technologies to realize sling transportation and accurate release control of heavy equipment components.
To ensure the intervisibility during the whole release process to guarantee accurate release, the differential positioning mode and visual identification mode are adopted to accomplish accurate release of equipment components. The communication relay UAVs or communication relay captive balloons may be configured to guarantee TT&C and communication during the whole flight. Dual-station handover control mode is used to further guarantee the safety and controllability of the release.
Solution
Flight Platform
Great-Load Multi-Rotor UAVs (Pure Electric)
Great-Load Unmanned Helicopters (including Plateau and Plain Types; Models to be Determined Based on Altitude of the Disaster Area)
Loadable Payloads
Single-Light Pod
Small Megaphone
Cargo Mount
Sling and Jettison Device
GCS
Portable Control Station (Take-off Point)
Pickup Truck or Small Van (for Land Maneuvers)
Differential Base Station
Ground Link Terminal
Communication Relay UAV (Vertical Take-off Fixed-Wing UAV)