Development & Prototyping

Radiation-detecting Drone

A unique miniature drone solution for protecting the population from the adverse effects of radiation

Application

Drones in Protecting the Population From the Adverse Effects of Radiation

Whether facing a natural or man-made disaster, providing relief and ensuring safety need to be quick and efficient. Drones have played a significant role in assisting with pre- and post-disaster area mapping, search and rescue missions, managing hazardous chemical spills, assessing structural damage, extinguishing wildfires, and delivering emergency infrastructure and supplies.

Even insurance companies have used UAVs to expedite the insurance inspection and claims process without the need to be physically present in a dangerous environment.Drones can identify a critically damaged infrastructure, e.g. broken gas lines, or measure radiation exposure to protect both citizens and relief workers.

Disaster area with possible threat of radiation

Drones can assist in pre- and post-disaster areas detecting radiation sources.

Solution 

A Miniature Drone for Detecting Radiation from Fly4Future

Drones have shown great potential in radiation detection and monitoring. Drones’ ability to access hard-to-reach areas and collect real-time data on radiation levels is a significant advancement. Traditional methods often involve manual measurements or stationary monitoring stations, which can be time-consuming and limited in their scope. With the use of drones, radiation detection becomes more efficient and comprehensive.

Fly4Future offers a fully autonomous miniature drone with the ability to navigate and map unknown environments, locate radionuclide sources, and measure radiation intensity. The fact that it is compact enough to fly close to objects and obstacles is a major advantage. This feature enhances the likelihood of detecting radiation sources and provides an accurate mapping of radiation intensity in any given area.

In contrast, other competing solutions often need to fly at higher altitudes, often in the tens of meters, which can limit their effectiveness compared to our drones. Our drones are capable of approaching potentially dangerous objects within centimeters, allowing for greater precision and efficiency. The ability to fly very close to obstacles increases the accuracy of data collection, ensures the safety of personnel involved, and enables precise radiation measurements for effective risk management strategies.

RADRON: Radiation Detecting Drone

The Fly4Future miniature drone flies very close to a potentially hazardous object in order to precisely search for radiation sources.

In detail

A Miniature Drone for A Miniature Radiation Camera

Advanced algorithms and artificial intelligence techniques can analyze and process the data collected by the miniature drones. This speeds up decision-making processes and provides valuable insights into potential risks or areas requiring further investigation.

Fly4Future, in collaboration with our valued partner Advacam, co-developed the miniature drone designed to meet the research needs of the RaDron project. Advacam focused on the development of cameras and advanced imaging methods. The miniature drone can detect and search for stationary and moving sources of ionizing radiation (e.g., Cs-137, Co-60, Co-57, Eu-152).

The unique miniature Compton camera sensor MiniPIX Timepix3, developed by Advacam, facilitates radiation detection. The onboard software is the result of research by our partner, the MRS group at CTU in Prague. The drone system has been tested, with the support of the Czech Metrology Institute (CMI), during numerous civil defense exercises with the National Institute for Nuclear, Chemical, and Biological Protection (SUJCHBO) and the National Radiation Institute (NRI) in Řež.

Fly4Future in cooperation with Advacam, is currently working on the commercializing the results of the RaDron research project.

Miniature radiation-detecting drone

The miniature radiation-detecting drone features a unique, state-of-the-art sensor. It accurately detects radiation even on moving targets.

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Our Drones at Work

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Build your drone with our custom drone-building tool DroneBuilder.

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Be one step ahead and save your valuable resources with our expertise gained from years of research, development, and countless successful real-world experiments.

Read about

Our Work

Research Projects

AeroSTREAM Summer School 2024

AeroSTREAM Summer School brought together a great team of students and academic researchers.

Development & Prototyping

Autonomous Drones for Lake and Pond Management

Autonomous multi-robot systems for water quality monitoring and object recognition in lake and pond management.

Development & Prototyping

Autonomous Drones for Port Inventory

A cost and time-efficient solution for port inspection and inventory utilizing autonomous drones for optimized operations.

Development & Prototyping

Autonomous Drone Taxi Concept in Urban Mobility

Unique autonomous drone solutions for safe and reliable urban air mobility based on the concept of an autonomous drone taxi.

Development & Prototyping

Autonomous Drones for Parcel Delivery

We offer full range of services in development of unique solutions for the parcel delivery by autonomous drones.

Development & Prototyping

Autonomous Drones for Heritage Inspection and 3D Mapping

Autonomous drones for inspection and 3D mapping of large historic interiors with precise navigation in GNSS denied environments.

Development & Prototyping

Autonomous Drones for Monitoring of Animals

We develop autonomous drones for monitoring of animals: herding livestock, wildlife management, and related ecological research.

Development & Prototyping

Drones for Inspection of Highway Tunnels and Bridges

Autonomous drones designed specifically for inspection in GNSS-denied environments of highway tunnels and bridges.

Development & Prototyping

Autonomous Drones for Plant Management in Greenhouses

We offer the development of autonomous drone solutions for plant management in the narrow space of greenhouses.

Development & Prototyping

Autonomous Drones for Search and Rescue Missions

Autonomous drones and UAV swarms designed to conduct successful search and rescue missions in hard-to-reach environments – forests, caves, mines, etc.

Explore

What We Do

Custom Drone Builder

Custom Drones

We custom-build ready-to-fly fully autonomous drones that can be adjusted for any application and industry.

Development and prototyping

Development & Prototyping

We design and develop advanced autonomous aerial systems to meet the particular needs of our individual clients.

Research projects

Research Projects

We participate in many projects in various fields financed by the EU and Czech Republic, as well as private research institutions.