Unmanned Systems Technology : Delair and ECA Group Develop Multi-Drone Ground Station

Monday, December 11 2017

Delair and ECA Group announced to have co-developed a new generation of ground control station (GCS). The GCS can be used to operate ECA Groups’s IT180 family of VTOL mini-UAS (unmanned aerial system), as well Delair’s line of drones, including the fixed-wing DT26X.

Published on Unmanned Systems Technology, November 2017.

The GCS is based around a ruggedized laptop specifically designed to withstand the harshness of field missions. The operator can real time:

plan missions
pilot the drone
and analyze data from embedded sensors in.

Both drones are complementary and can be used together on missions with this new GCS.While the fixed-wing aircraft can provide surveillance of an area and the rotary-wing will provide support after detection of a threat.

“Thanks to the new GCS, collaborative drone missions are gaining considerably in performance. This type of mission now becomes easier to manage via a single interface and by a single operator. With the new ground station the intervention forces gain especially in precision of information and intervention reactivity,” said Francis Duruflé, sales manager for Aerial Drones business at ECA Group.

“The new multiplatform ground station will also allow its users to optimize the training of their UAV pilot crews as well as the ability for the same pilot to switch from one drone to another in a very intuitive way. Another important criterion, the logistic constraint of the material to be transported, which will be reduced by using the new GCS.”, said Charles-Etienne Gariel, sales director at Delair.

Learn more about ECA Group's UAV solutions