# Airscort Mini

- Event: NestGen ’22
- Published: March 7, 2022
- Length: 35:51
- Watch: https://nestgen.org/library/watch/TylPydn_tyE/

> The transcript of a recorded NestGen session, for reading or for use with an AI tool. It comes from the video's
> captions; automatic captions can mishear names and terms.

## About this session

Witness the launch of the modular drone docking station Airscort Mini, engineered by Airscort.

## Transcript

**[0:12]** hey everyone I hope you are having a wonderful time so we are back with the band for the deep dive into one of the most awaited docking stations the ascot mini built for rapid and mass deployment awaited drone docking station mini is a compact and cost effective drone dock compatible with industry leading off-the-shelf drones such as DJI mavic series with the airsports unique and patented docking charging and smart swapping and launching technologies our guest speaker today aims to bridge the gap to allow seamless and complete mission autonomy for a range of drones and application please welcome italia stras co-founder and ceo of air squad after serving as a compact soldier in the idf tank corps etai followed his own passion for technology drone received his bscs in mechanical engineering since his

**[1:15]** studies itai has gained vast experience in complete product or development electronics and business management in it 2014 a thai co-founder of co-founded escort a drone focused hardware startup specializing in autonomous technologies as an earlier developer in the industry it I has become a recognized expert on drone technology and has been invented to speak on the topic at various drone conferences globally thank you so much for joining us at I welcome to nesgen over to you and I thank you so much fnaik uh first of all thank you guys uh flight based for setting up such an amazing event and for giving us an opportunity to present today we're really excited to share some of our recent technologies

**[2:15]** um so today we're going to be speaking about a revolutionary a new product developed by our company escort called the mini here you can see an image of this new and exciting product but before we dive into the details of the solution which will again be the topic of our discussion today I'd like to give everyone just a brief background of the company air sport and what we've been doing over the past few years so the company was founded by myself and my co-founder it's hachtal a few years ago we're both engineers itzhak is a really really amazing uh co-founder super talented and has uh helped build the company into what it is today uh we've uh recently began working with shimon israelian who is the head of our business development team um and has both an mba and a electrical engineering degree from uh the technion which is the most uh prestigious university here uh in israel in the country where we are

**[3:18]** located and operational uh so in the image here on the right hand side of the screen you can see some of the products we've been developing over the years and the the main vision of our company and you can see it in the solution developed to become an industry leader in the drone autonomous space specifically docking and charging solutions for a range of different drones and a range of different sizes that can be applicable and utilized for all sorts of different industries so the the first solution that we started our our developments with is called the st 1200 you can see the two units here on the right hand side of the screen and I'll share a very brief video about this specific product and you can see in general what we're looking to accomplish here at air square through this video so our docking stations are built to be very robust deployable in various weather conditions globally and when as soon as the drone is needed for an operation the drone can take off from the station and perform the task whether it be agriculture or compound

**[4:20]** security um homeland security defense or a range of other industrial inspections like solar panel inspections or wind turbine inspections etc so when the battery begins to run low the station the joints can fly back to the stations autonomously through the help of flight bases a very unique web applications and allow the drones to land and either recharge or have their battery re swapped I'm very pleased and excited to introduce our latest and greatest product uh the airsport mini so please have a look at this next short clip and there it is ladies and gentlemen the new escort mini docking station uh the most

**[5:25]** exciting product that we've developed to date we're very very enthusiastic about this uh the solution um and we're gonna be launching it just next month so we're very happy for the first time to ever be unveiling it on a public platform today here with uh with flight and we're very eager to start operations and remote demos with potential customers uh in the coming weeks so let's talk a little bit about what this product does and why we're so excited about it so maybe you can already off the bat notice a few features just from this image alone but here you can see the drones that are operational with this system this docking station are not proprietary drones but rather they are off-the-shelf drones and we are utilizing some of the most commonly used popular drones available on the market namely the DJI mavic 2 series the enterprise advance but also we are looking to integrate additional drones in addition to the DJI mavic series uh and as we dive

**[6:25]** further into some of the features of the stocking station you'll see just how easy it is to really implement and allow for the integration of additional third-party drones so in this in this image you can see here the docking station is in its open configuration in the pre-takeoff position at the front of the docking station we have a drawer as soon as the docking station uh receives a signal to prepare the drone for flight the drawer extrudes and we have a landing pad that can elevate as to allow for the landing and the takeoff to happen at the highest point of the docking station to ensure safety and zero interference to the drone during those critical times of flight as soon as the drone takes off and performs a task the station will then again close itself and remain in the closed configuration until the drone is ready again to come back and precisely land itself in the station we have a lot of interesting and pending

**[7:26]** features just in the landing section alone including a very interesting and unique uh landing pad which is both illuminated which allows for night operations and indication of the targeted precision landing section of the station even in uh dark environments but we also have spring-loaded um landing tabs that essentially allow for a larger deviation when the drone is coming in for landing and as soon as the landing pad starts to retract into the station for the battery swap the landing tabs will automatically uh fold up and and position the drone to its ideal uh space before it re-enters the station so now let's talk about how the system can be deployed uh the idea and the concept is that we as a company provide this technology and the solution uh as out of the box technology so essentially you are interested in obtaining these capabilities

**[8:29]** these securities you would be able to contact airsport and order a docking station and we would be able to send it to you at such a point the installation and setup is very straightforward very seamless again we call it out of the box operations because essentially you can take it out of the box uh mount it on your designated desired location um whether it be on a pole like the illustration you see here or some other configuration and the only thing you really need to do at that point is plug it into the electricity mains voltage also plug it into a internet connective source whether it be ethernet wi-fi gsm doesn't really make a difference and as the initial setup you would also place the drone on the landing platform and place the rc uh controller in the station as well and that's about it the rest of the interaction and interface is through flight bases software and is done remotely so in this illustration here you can see how this product is being deployed for

**[9:33]** compound security which is obviously a very important use case for this technology but we are looking at this solution in this technologies not only for the perimeter security space but rather for all the industries that can utilize remote data collection through drones so let's talk a little bit about the design features of the docking station and some of the the concepts that uh that really came into play during the design phase so when building these products and again this was a culmination of already years of working in the drone docking space and drone autonomy um so we were really able to implement everything that we've learned over the years and pack it all into this compact uh and really advanced robust product so the really most important and first uh concept that that that was in the back of our minds while designing the solution was to build a product that's robust and durable again we're looking to implement these solutions

**[10:36]** in industry critical uh environments um compound security uh in areas where the data that's being collected is critical for the operations of the the the operators of these of these systems so we really wanted a solution that will be all weather proof um and uh built from materials that will keep the drones safe and protected between operations the next feature that you can see on the external shell of this system is the lead indication that we have on either side of the product which can give a a local indication of what the status is of the the system of course the product is meant to be used remotely so the majority of the time the operators of the system won't be anywhere near the product itself so all the indications that the operator would be interested in receiving will also be fed directly through the flight based software and can be viewed remotely

**[11:38]** in addition to that we have the rc component compartment which is on the backhand side of the product and many of you may be aware that in order to work with flight bases uh remote software and with the the the remote operations of DJI drones and alternative drones it is crucial to integrate the rc uh controller into the product as well into the ducking station um so we made a designated compartment here for the remote control which is very easy to uh integrate in and out and we've made it in such a way that even if for instance you would like to perhaps remove the drone from the docking station and take it somewhere else to pilot without the docking station actively then it is very quick and easy to remove the rc to be able to implement that and enable that as well another feature here that we'll discuss briefly is the ip60

**[12:43]** connect to the system both for the electricity and the internet which will obviously allow for the system and station to work in a range of weather conditions and environments whether it be rain snow or humidity very humid regions we also have for the same reason a designated heating and cooling system with ventilation and allows really to make sure that the ideal conditions are met inside the station while the drone is being docked for storage the last feature that we'll discuss here is gripping handles that are also on either side of the docking station which allows the operators or or the officials that are looking to integrate or install the product on site they will allow the these operators to uh to handle the the system um very conveniently and two people will be able to lift and mobilize this the system

**[13:47]** without any issues and again there are also various mounting methods available for this product as well as you saw in the in the previous images uh the system can be mounted on a security pole but it can also be mounted on the roof of the facility that the this the system is protecting or monitoring um so there are many different ways of going about it now I'd like to share a brief demonstration video of what it's actually like to implement and and uh use the product through the FlytNow um software so we've prepared a short video which I'm going to share in the next slide which highlights the the the product can be used um I will just mention before sharing this uh this video that the video has been sped up times four so if it looks a little uh fast that's the reason and the video is also taken of our advanced prototype

**[14:49]** which demonstrates completely successfully the complete operation of the uh of the use case and and the partnership between FlytBase and airsport's new mini product um so again in the in the coming weeks we are going to be starting our official remote demonstrations um so we are very uh excited for a potential interested customer to reach out to us schedule your remote demonstration and at which point we will be sharing it with our new and fully manufactured product so without further ado let me share this uh this demonstration so here you can see we can send the commands to turn the rc and the drone on uh before the drone is requested to take off from the docking station our proprietary robot works with image processing uh capabilities and can scan lock onto the drone and be able to prepare it again for that application turning the drone on and allowing the

**[15:51]** drone to elevate and off here you can see the drone has taken off we are now flying inside of air sports headquarters and assembly facilities in israel and the drone has spotted a target of interest you can see how we can utilize all the on-screen uh control capabilities to uh allow the drone to to follow and and do whatever we want accordingly um we have sent now the precision landing uh command again to return to the docking station land successfully and now we have uh selected the postal and um functionality which will turn the drone off again swap out the battery um put it in charging and take a freshly charged battery and replace it in the drone and allow for the drone to to again be ready for takeoff total process takes about under three minutes um and at which point you will have complete ability to relaunch the drone up in the air and get the eyes back onto

**[16:53]** target so it's a very very exciting product I think it speaks for itself and again just in a few short weeks we're very excited to start these remote demonstrations with the actual fully functioning product and there you have it the drone has been powered on again after getting the the new battery and is ready and available to retake off and continue the mission um so I'd like to quickly just discuss a few other um very exciting in our opinion features and and advantages of the mini product obviously these are all topics that we can talk in about at great detail but since time is short I'll make it brief and obviously we're going to be opening up soon for some questions so I would um please uh request everyone to start preparing the

**[17:53]** questions now and soon we'll have some time to review those as well but the the main advantages of this product as well is the fact that through FlytBase and the ability to launch drones through the internet you can really begin to utilize these uh very advanced drones completely remotely and start getting that data that otherwise would have been very challenging or expensive to obtain the system again works with the industry-leading drones and because of our methodology and the implementation of our very advanced smart um computer vision scanning and battery swapping drone robot it essentially will allow us to integrate various models very rapidly and all while doing so without any modification required to the drone itself um so these are all very um uh significant advantages both in terms of uh regulatory uh reasoning but also um it

**[18:55]** essentially allows us to sell the system without the proprietary drone um and will allow anyone who's looking to utilize these capabilities and that has access to the drones that are integrated uh with the easiest and quickest way to be able to do so the system as well will be able to handle 24 7 capabilities and the the idea behind this uh statement is that we're actually going to be launching two different products under the mini family so there's actually going to be the mini one and the mini two and the difference being the amount of drones that the docking station can house so the mini one can of course house one drone while the mini 2 can house two drones simultaneously and that additional capability will allow for 24 7 coverage coverage and especially in industries where time critical uh are uh are the case um specifically compound security or homeland security then the

**[19:58]** ability to have 24 7 coverage is quite critical so what that essentially means is that if you have a drone that's on a mission uh and following a potentially a suspicious target um before the battery runs low and the german need to return to the docking station we would be able to send out the additional drone that's meanwhile been stored in the station to do an aerial relay um and once the new drone has eyes on on the target the initial drone can then fly back to the station land itself have a battery swapped again and then be ready to again swap out the previous drone um so with that cycle you can really have uh 24 7 capabilities and all while doing so in the most cost effective uh manner um and uh and housing two drones in the same system so I think with that uh information that I just shared um I'm gonna hand the floor back over to vinayak

**[21:01]** who will hopefully be able to handle the questions that will come in um and we can hopefully uh have a nice conversation from here on out so without further ado vinayak please the floor is yours thank you so much we are sure mini is going to help unlock the full potential of the drone industry right so with this we would like to open uh the house for a round of q a audience please use the q a tab to ask your questions and I can just see like the questions are already coming up so there is a question so it says does it or can it incorporate a weather reporting stations like when wind speed rain etc yes of course um so I didn't I didn't share this information but that those sensors are already embedded in the in the upcoming product we have a range of different sensors including temperature sensors humidity sensors rain sensors and wind sensors as well

**[22:02]** and all that information is fed directly through the FlytNow application so that information can be seen at all times and in certain environments and situations especially with this product utilizing the DJI mavic drones or alternative drones which in most cases should not be used in rainy conditions or high wind conditions we are able to monitor those uh scenarios and if the conditions don't allow for it we would send a message to the operator upon request and say although you did request to launch the drone currently we would recommend against it for the following reasons so yes that's all in place and and uh and has been considered okay thank you so much for answering that there is one more uh question coming up so could you please could you please describe what functionality is available via the like basically the open apis so is there any functionality available in terms of your

**[23:02]** like I mean the software or the I would say the eps yes great question so um that that really also ties into our vision um when we started our company we we realized that the drone autonomy needs to be supported by uh reliable um docking solutions but we realized as well that there are various drones and various software solutions that are being developed globally that can utilize the complete autonomy through the docking systems so we have taken the open uh path um both in the sense of the drones that we are looking to integrate and operate uh but as well as the the apis and the the mission software that can integrate with our system and allow operations with our docking stations um so we have been working with FlytBase obviously for a while and are very very impressed and happy with their uh their solutions

**[24:05]** are aware that there are other software players that have developed niche applications for industry-specific use cases as well and we're looking to to provide autonomy for those applications as well so yes the open approach is the one we've taken and if there are any interested companies out there that are looking to integrate or collaborate with us you are obviously as well more than welcome to reach out uh our our uh email address is on this here info airsport.me um so please feel free to reach us there okay right thank you die for that too so I do have like few more questions coming up so like you already explained uh there are multiple docking I mean your docking station can incorporate multiple drones right thus the mini also does the same like what type of drones it can host and what type of basically uavs and how many udavs it can host yeah okay great question um so again like I said um currently the the

**[25:09]** drones that are operational with the mini are the uh DJI mavic 2 series and the enterprise advance and we have developed the product to to allow for the quick and easy integration of additional drones so we're not we don't want this uh the solution to to only work with the DJI platform we are aware of the um the limitations for certain uh companies or uh or um or operators globally and their restrictions on working with uh with DJI drones um so we have taken that into consideration and with the the methodology again of our our our proprietary robot that works with image processing and doesn't require certain mechanical constraints of the drone in order to work with our system we can allow for uh quick and r or with the rapid of additional drones so even as for example DJI comes out with additional models in the coming years we'll be able to

**[26:14]** integrate those into the product as well so that the product will not be obsolete and we will be able to provide the the customers with only um you know a slight modific modified components that would need to be easily modified in the product to allow for a future-proof drone integration but again we're looking to integrate additional drones like autel and and others um so we're always as well looking uh for the feedback from our customers um and and are always happy to uh to take into consideration their requests and if there is a need for a specific type of drone or if you are a company that's manufacturing a drone uh that you would like to see created with our product then please let us know and we'd be happy to facilitate as well I can't hear you vinnie I think you're on mute thank you so much diamond again so yeah I hope answers

**[27:18]** the chat sections users I'll I do have one more question coming up it says uh like does your uh drones require any on-board computers to be plugged in or is it just like with the uh yes rc and the different drone or something yeah go ahead yeah that's a fantastic question um so the answer with our new mini product the answer is no it does not require any on-board uh component or like I said it doesn't require any mechanical or physical modification to the drone in order to work with our product the only thing that you would need to do in order to get the solution set up you would need to acquire our docking station which we would send over to you and you would need to have the the uh the drone that works with the system so again a mavic 2 series or or the enterprise advance and the only thing that you would have to do in order to allow for the product to work is you would take a sticker that we provide as part of our solution

**[28:20]** or several stickers that we provide and and stick them onto the battery pack of the drone so that's really the only thing that is is required and there's nothing special about this sticker it's uh it's just a sticker that is used for our our computer vision algorithm so we can locate the precise location of the drone after it's landed so we can correct the angle and we can and power the drone on and off and provide the battery swap um so that's really the only thing necessary and that again from our perspective is a very big advantage because we're not making any physical modifications or any electric electrical modifications to the drone that could potentially modify or or prevent the flight from being successful so we really wanted to steer clear from anything that can really interfere with the flight of the drone and that was also again for regulatory reasons um so that's uh

**[29:20]** that's how it works really a straightforward integration process and and judging by the fact that the mavic 2 series is the most widely used drone available um close to 80 on market share um a lot of people already have this drone and have used this drone and and and know to trust this drone including the regulatory bodies so we see the fact that um being able to implement this drone without any changes uh to how you would normally use it is very advantageous so that's that's the route we took okay right right that's great to hear like uh your iscord mini is really easy to integrate in terms of we don't have to get some extras hardware stuffs to mount it on the drone and get it done right so um there was one more uh question regarding this uh so it's regarding the so uh since your escort mini can be a very useful product in the these kind of industry so what is I mean basically what would be your

**[30:21]** plan for development like in terms of scaling and clicking sorry sorry can you repeat that event okay right yes sure so I was just saying um since this has been a this would be a very good product for this kind of industry where it can be used this the size and the compact uh and the easiness of the system uh what would be the plan for your development right I mean the manufacturing yeah yeah so um so we've been working on this product um for a little while already and and have uh had very very successful results with our prototype um we actually have have gone through uh several iterations of our prototype and have made various tweaks and modifications in order to make sure that the product that we will be providing once it is professionally manufactured and ready to be deployed will be the ideal solution and some of those modifications over the time of our development

**[31:22]** have have uh have come into play um some of them being the uh the additional um space for the landing during the precision landing in the actual allowable deviation space um so we've noticed that with that capability we've really allowed uh for a much higher uh rate uh of success during the precision landing but we've also been able to do it while maintaining a as compact as possible form factor of the docking station another critical aspect that we've learned over the time of developing this uh prototype is the the fact that or the importance of allowing the drone to take off and land at the highest point of the docking station to ensure that there are no obstacles uh that can interfere with the drone uh during those critical times of flight um other other advancements that have been made are um are to the the internal lighting system for operations at night um so really we we instead of uh

**[32:28]** manufacturing and deploying and selling an early version of a product that we weren't going to be confident enough with in its operations we we took our time in the r d phase and our really at the very final stages of during our first batch of the professional uh manufactured unit um so within two to three weeks we'll have the first units here ready and assembled and ready for the remote operations and testings with the interested potential customers so now again is a very good time to start scheduling your remote demos we already have a lot of um of demos in the pipeline set up so in order to ensure your spot please even today it would be really great to reach out and we'll get you set up with that demo so you can see the whole process and experience how the drone industry is going to be revolutionized through the mini product all right thank you so much for that too so right so as that I did mention you can

**[33:33]** reach out to him over uh uh this the contact details shared over the screen also you can join the discord channel and ping your message or you can join the networking sessions and you can also hop on to the uh escort mini booth also and you can just click on interested and it I will get an email on that and he will be available during the booth session time so you guys can schedule those sessions like okay right so uh thank you ty before moving on would you like to share any closing thoughts uh yes I would like to say that we are so happy to have a partner like FlytBase um and very very thankful for this amazing uh conference that you guys have put so much time and effort into um really everything uh about your company is all about professionalism you guys are really really uh amazing and we're so happy to be partners in your journey in our journey together joint journey to enabling the full

**[34:36]** potential to draw through complete autonomy um so we're very excited for the future together and again hopefully we'll make a lot of potential customers very happy with our mutual products so thank you everyone and again please don't hesitate to reach out you have our contact information if you're ever in israel you're obviously more than welcome to come visit us at our facilities we're located in the center of the country right between the two major cities jerusalem and tel aviv and always happy to meet new people so thank you guys and we'll be in touch right so I'll just uh with the closing thoughts so whoever like uh remaining q and a's will be shared with the type he'll be getting back to you within answers and you can also reach out to them directly and uh like all those questions can be answered over there right uh right so uh we have also three uh sessions upcoming in next five minutes please visit to the reception or the sessions and tap to learn more about

**[35:39]** the upcoming sessions over there see you thank you so much everyone for joining this call thank you thank you so much bye thank you bye