CyPhy Works flew into view yesterday unveiling two revolutionary small Unmanned Air Vehicles (UAVs): Extreme Access System for Entry (EASE) and Persistent aerial Reconnaissance and Communications (PARC).
CyPhy Works was founded in 2008 by Helen Greiner, who previously cofounded and served as president and chairman of iRobot Corp. (IRBT), creator of familiar platforms such as the PackBot and SUGV, and on the commercial side, Roomba.
EASE is an indoor flying UAV to help police, soldiers, and inspectors remain at safe standoff distances. It boasts the long endurance, GPS denied navigation, and portability needed to act as a forward remote presence for IED reconnaissance, building interior reconnaissance, hostage situations, and search and rescue. EASE will also be used for bridge and building inspection to help keep our population safer.
PARC is designed to fly vertically and remain hovering for unprecedented long durations without operator intervention. PARC provides situational awareness (SA) through its imaging payload and extends the range of radios on the ground with a communications relay payload. Needing little deployment infrastructure, it provides SA in austere locations where the need is the greatest but infrastructure is least established such as Combat Outposts.
Both EASE and PARC use a proprietary “microfilament” technology that transmits power, Ethernet protocol communications, and HD video.
“The microfilament bears a resemblance to the effective use of tethers on Underwater Unmanned Vehicles (UUVs),” said Helen Greiner, CEO and Founder of CyPhy Works, “But to be able to achieve a useful altitude or traverse useful distances, we had to engineer a completely new type of tether for the air domain. We call this a microfilament.”
This breakthrough microfilament eliminates common UAV pitfalls such as: short time of flight, jamming, spoofing, interception, and detection.
Matt England, vice president Military Systems of CyPhy Works, said, “What makes this innovative UAV approach so compelling is that it opens the door to a host of new applications for UAVs in the military and beyond.”
CyPhy Works, Inc. creates robots to empower people. Their first products are a line of UAVs that expand military, law enforcement, and inspection capabilities in remote situational awareness, endurance, and access.
For more information, visit www.cyphyworks.com.