VTOL - Titlrotor “Vertical Take-Off and Landing” platform
As it is possible to see in Figure 1, this platform has 3 motors. During takeoff and landing it flies as a multicopter - both front motors are upwards when in this mode (as depicted in the image above). As soon as a safety altitude is reached (usually 60m) a transition to fixed-wing mode happens - both front motors tilt 90 degrees forward and the tail motor stops and it’s not used in this mode. The flight mission is executed in fixed-wing mode and a transition back to multicopter mode is done only in the moments prior to landing.
During this REP exercise, this platform will be used in the SaVel objective (shipbased flights), where the VTOL is tasked to acquired geotagged IR stills. The idea is to fly over a front.
TITAN - dual quadcopter platform
This octocopter will be used in the objective CDC3 as a Flying Modem. In Figure 2 (on the right) you can see the payload for this exercise in an acoustic modem (Seatrac da Blueprint Subsea). TITAN can land and takeoff from the water, being able to act as a relay between the basestation and the assets underwater (via the acoustic modem). This means TITAN can be used to reroute the vehicles underwater or collect data from them.
The dimensions of this platform are quite big: 1,2m diameter and height of 0,69m. For this motive the flights will be performed in Line-of-Sight of our safety pilot at all times.
MAVIC PRO - Quadcopter platform for media purposes.
This platform will be exclusively used for media purposes, to acquire aerial imagery of the operational areas and the exercises. It’s a very small platform, weight < 900g. Commercialized by DJI for the general public, its main purpose is to document our operations in the field.
by Maria Costa and Manuel Ribeiro