# CounterDome

- Event: NestGen ’22
- Published: March 3, 2022
- Length: 43:40
- Watch: https://nestgen.org/library/watch/kC7_w7gnVpE/

> 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 CounterDome, engineered by Counter Drone.

## Transcript

**[0:12]** hey everybody welcome to another one of our much anticipated demo arena sessions here at tesgen 2022 within the next year next hour I guarantee you're about to be blown away because you will be the first to view the launch of the modular docking station counter room engineered by counter drone if you aren't yet overwhelmed let me quickly change that for you you're about to witness the world's first multi-drone docking station to understand better counter dome is a hemispheric enclosure for autonomous drones it can it can uniquely accommodate most commercial drones including two mavic sized drones for twice the missions redundancy and threat response to enlighten us on this game-changing product I would like to invite mr sean jafarian sean is the founder and cto of counter drone counter drone as an enterprise has helped create multiple cus also known as counter unmanned aerial system programs for the us military for the past six years sean has provided engineering services to multiple u.s government agencies under counter unmanned aerial system contracts he has designed and built custom drones for nine years his

**[1:17]** drone expertise extends beyond design to include complex real-world operations and regulations sean is a former u.s air force pilot and FAA certified commercial pilot while I can gladly and good go on about sean and his many other accomplishments I understand the audience here is really looking forward to his presence with that over to you sean thanks abish I appreciate that uh introduction I'm going to share our uh presentation so hello everybody I'm sean from counter drone thank you for joining us for this introduction to our new drone docking station the counter dome we've been developing this system for a little over a year now and it is part of our effort to fill autonomous drones in the security and safety and life safety missions that said the daca station is suited to a wide variety of

**[2:21]** autonomous drone operations from surveying to surveillance to inspection missions and more we believe a docky station needs to be highly reliable in a wide variety of climates weather resistant and adaptable to an assortment of different drones the software that operates the station should also be composable and should readily integrate into other existing infrastructures such as security video management systems the station should also not be married to one particular craft for instance an lte-equipped drone should be able to launch from one station and land in a different station several miles away so we decided to develop a single modular docking station that can be used around the world for a host of different missions and with many different drones

**[3:29]** we selected a clamshell dome for our docky station for several reasons first it is wind resistant from all directions for several autonomous drone applications a rooftop mounted station is desirable therefore being able to withstand high winds without moving or tipping over is very important the clamshell dome will also not accumulate moisture or debris on top each leaf nests within the adjacent leaf and weather stripping helps create a tight seal so the system is highly resistant to precipitation and dust particles the clamshell dome also allows the system to actuate wherever it fits it has essentially the same footprint when it is open closed or actuated so it fits in the back of the truck as easily as on a rooftop the dome can open or close in about a second and a half allowing for rapid launches and minimizing the time the inside is exposed to the elements

**[4:31]** the circular floor is area efficient important for our drone agnostic and multi-drone approaches for security and some safety of life missions drones should be powered on and have a gps fix at all times for this reason and also for the sake of command and control links we needed the station to be radio frequency transparent fiberglass provides this capability while also being strong and highly weather resistant this allows us to have all antennas internally mounted enhancing the station's weatherproofing and it also just looks cool and is right at home on a modern rooftop mounted on a tower or in the back of a truck we set out to develop a system that could accommodate different types and sizes of drones and as we did that we quickly realized that there are lots of new emerging autonomous drone missions that would benefit from having two drones in a single

**[5:35]** docking station this has obvious benefits in the security mission as two drones can provide better situational awareness while also making their presence known to potential intruders imagine a scenario where one drone equipped with a loudspeaker is at a lower altitude confronting a trespasser while the second drone is orbiting the scene at a higher altitude providing illumination of the scene from an onboard floodlight furthermore redundancy is important for any mission critical task and having the ability to operate a backup drone in the event the primary ground malfunction seems very useful during our integration development with the widely used security integration software milestone xprotect we tested a drone methodology whereby one craft would fly a pre-planned autonomous patrol while the other would stand by on alert waiting for a triggering event such as motion detection from a security camera or some other ad hoc trigger door alarm

**[6:37]** fence intrusion etc two drones can essentially act as partners dual craft in a single docking station also facilitates more time in the air by allowing one to recharge while the other assumes the previous mission with certain custom drones the counter drum station can provide a charge rate of greater than 2c which means two drones can provide a near persistent airborne presence for example if each drone has a 30 minute flight time and the batteries can safely charge it over 2c the battery takes less than 30 minutes to replenish allowing for the drones to relieve one another and resume the mission there are also missions that can benefit from two completely different types of drones pictured on the right is a pixhawk based drone running argencopter in the aft position of the station and a mavic 2 enterprise equipped with a loudspeaker in the forward position so as another example for some agricultural missions a site could benefit from a

**[7:39]** drone with a multi-spectral sensor for crop yield analysis and another with a general purpose camera for surveillance and because the counter dome uses two independent charging systems we can charge the drones at different voltages and currents all in the same station the two drone configuration is for drones of approximately a 350 millimeter wheelbase so about mavic sized uh or the size of the custom rg craft seen in the picture in the following two videos we see the two drone concept at work from two perspectives

**[9:06]** so a little history about uh how we developed this docking station uh this has been in the works for uh about 16 months now the first prototype was completed in july of last year and tested at the university of new mexico it was about 10 larger than the production version and used a chain drive system the prototype opened or closed in about four seconds it did not include a climate control system in september of last year the university campus police agreed to deploy the prototype system in support of campus security operations the lessons learned from the prototype included better weatherizing through improved sealing of the dome and internalizing all of the drivetrain components into the dome subfloor fiberglass manufacturing processes improved and the entire drivetrain has been redesigned for the production version

**[10:12]** for the production system we developed a brushed motor linear actuator drive system that uses four motors and redundant power supplies two motors drive one side of the clamshell leaves the linear actuator system is considerably faster than the prototypes chain drive opening or closing in less than 1.5 seconds linear actuators also tend to be extremely reliable they're often found in critical aerospace applications such as aircraft landing gear and control surface actuation by shrinking the base of the prototype dome and reducing the space between leaves we were able to reduce the overall size by about 10 percent while increasing the total area of the landing floor landing floor is 10.5 square feet or about one square meter the production version uses an electric heater as standard equipment with optional refrigerated heat pump for air conditioning in hot climate deployments our testing with the original prototype also led us to offer multiple router options

**[11:17]** including dual band and dual sim units so the counter dome docky station features contact charging a charging kit is adapted to the drone that allows for the corrosion resistant charging pads in the floor to provide current to the drone's battery in the case of DJI drones this kit connects to the drone's battery and both of the rear legs DJI drones can also be equipped with a modified battery we provide that allows for remote reboots of the drone in the two-drone configuration the station uses independent power supplies that can simultaneously charge two drones at different voltages up to 8s batteries are supported the charging rate is user configurable most DJI batteries tend to prefer about 1c charging rates however higher rates can

**[12:18]** be set for custom drones batteries as appropriate battery status including voltage instantaneous current and total current over time can be reported via software another unique feature of the counter dome is modular charging floors the floor can be easily swapped out for a replacement of a different configuration a single drone floor is available that can accommodate drones with a 550 millimeter wheelbase or smaller charging pads and fiducial landing tags can be easily arranged based on your specific applications for 650 millimeter framed drones such as the matrice series we are going to be accommodating this later this year via a frame and prop centering floor this is currently under development and consists of robotically actuated levers that ensure the drone is clear of the dome's leaves during actuation

**[13:31]** the dome can be powered by 120 volt or 240 volt alternating current the drivetrain uses redundant power supplies as does the charging system onboard temperature and humidity sensors report the internal climate and an electric heater is standard equipment a heat bump based refrigerated air conditioning module is optional equipment with that unit we can keep the inside below 80 degrees fahrenheit when the outside air temp is as high as 120 degrees the system is equipped with an lte router for internet connectivity an ethernet connection is available for sites where cellular is unusable or undesirable the router is housed below the modular charging floor allowing for easy sim card swaps this customer accessible area can also be used to store additional hardware such as batteries drone accessories or even folded up drones this can be advantageous battery health can be extended by rotating them as

**[14:35]** appropriate for the site's operational tempo safety and reliability have been our top priority in the development of the counter dome several methods are employed to ensure that the clamshell leaves did not close when a drone could be damaged or when another obstacle is present in the case of the mavic 2 in the two mavic 2 configurations seen throughout this presentation the charging pads are sized and spaced in a manner that provides clearance between drones and clearance from the clamshell leaves when the drone is in the proper charging position if a drone does not land in a position that allows charging to begin the dome will not close and the drone will be instructed to reposition via a short climb followed by another precision landing command due to the speed at which the clam shell actuates it's important for the leaves to

**[15:38]** stop if an obstacle is detected the system will also send an alert to the user that a clamshell obstacle has been detected upon landing the system tests for polarity and continuity the charging system has multiple safeguards built in to prevent damage to drone batteries and the docking station hardware this includes short circuit protection overvolt and over current safeguards and all four docking station power supplies are fuse protected being the dome is equipped with its own internet connection it can report to the user when potential issues are starting to manifest for instance if the current being used by one of the linear actuators is higher than expected over multiple actuations an alert is sent calling for inspection of the actuator in question

**[16:39]** later this year we'll be offering additional capabilities and upgrades for the counter dome station we continue to test integrate new drones and next on the list are the mavic 3 series the autel evo line and parrot drones as mentioned earlier we are developing a modular floor with a robotic centering system for 650 millimeter frame craft such as the DJI matrice series expect to see this in the summer this year we also build custom drones at our facility using the open source arduino and px4 flight stacks including lte connected drones which will soon become commonplace in a broad range of applications DJI has now entered the lte arena with a dongle kit for the mavic 3 line the flexibility that lte drones provide means we can launch from one counter dome station and land another for instance a scenario where drones are patrolling a large area that includes

**[17:39]** one-way travel from one station to the next or a pursuit scenario where one drone is tracking a subject into an area where a second station is located then when the second drone launches to join the pursuit the first drone replaces it in the docking station to recharge the point being there's no reason that drones must recover to the same dock they launched from and this is something we intend to implement via software this year we envision a future where a network of connected drone docking stations can provide multiple users access to a wide range of robotic airborne capabilities in time drones will become subject to the same network effects that other tech advances have been defined by and part of the infrastructure that will support this is an expansive array of drone docking stations that can accommodate a variety of different types of craft this summer we will also offer a battery backup option as well as foldable solar

**[18:43]** panels for off-the-grid applications stay tuned to our website for these updates late last year we began testing starlink internet with FlytNow cloud-based application as the starlink constellation matures its speed and latency is proving to be more than adequate for autonomous drone operations and the associated video streaming so the combinations of solar panels and starlink will provide a true off-the-grid capability for deployments in very remote locations and lastly we will also be integrating an external weather station uh by the end of spring of this year so these are the dimensions of the counter dome station you can see behind me one one that's open one that's closed the height values can increase by a few inches if optional feet are installed and

**[19:46]** this is something that uh this really depends on the location that the customer intends to deploy the unit currently all counter dome units are made to order for instance certain customers may not ever need to deploy DJI products in which case several hardware components are omitted other options include the air conditioning system and the use of a single drone floor so at this time we we do encourage people that are interested to reach out to us so we can talk about your specific applications and get you accurate pricing uh for the

**[20:46]** unit that is best tailored to your needs so that concludes our introduction to the counter dome yes thank you sean as a viewer and a drone enthusiast myself I have found this thing to be very interesting like I don't think in the current lineup we actually had any documentation with two drones supported at this stage and right now this is probably one of the most futuristic and fascinating products that we have so let us start with the polls during the during the presentation I had put up two polls and I have the results for it so the first was uh if the audience so the first was the drone docking station right and five people have voted that they see but only with two drones while uh varying amounts of other people have voted that some of them don't see any value in any of

**[21:48]** the any uh more than one drone one person has voted that they see value in three drones and two people have voted that they see value in more than three drones so what are your comments on that like how did you decide that by building a multi-drone docking station two was the right number to go for well it seemed like the the best starting place particularly for craft that are of the the mavic size or thereabouts because it it it kind of gives a hybrid approach to the the contact charging versus the battery swapping because it could be argued that it's actually a faster response as far as getting this second drone in the air than the battery swapping can offer but at the same time it has the same benefits of the contact charging so so that's why we started with two um but the fact is the

**[22:48]** industry is is so new right this space is just getting started yeah and I guess we're trying to to foresee um new missions before they're they're being implemented in the field and and we do think that particularly in in certain security missions the two-drone approach will prove to be very advantageous given that part of our our thought process here for security was that this could help to remove human security guards from certain dangerous situations right and having two drones responding to a situation could be a greater deterrent uh than a single one right um and so that was part of that that calculus um however you know as we mentioned the station is large enough that uh if someone so desires we uh we offer the single drone floor instead right and also I believe the idea that you put up that if

**[23:55]** for response to any incident you would send two drones while one of them is hovering lower and maybe talking to the person and the other one is high is flying higher with a point of view this again is something that really uh unique that has I think happened throughout nesting and that's really great to know so as drone capabilities increase particularly using machine learning techniques those two drones will be able to assist one another so what do you mean when you say that they would be able to assist one another so well like you mentioned the the scenario whereby one is engaging at a low altitude yeah and the other is engaging in a manner that puts the entire engagement in its field of view so that the bigger one is kind of giving a good perspective of the things that are happening down below yeah yeah so the drone which you mentioned which is going to be engaging at a lower altitude is it going to be one of the like one of the DJI enterprise series which which has a

**[24:58]** speaker on board or which has a which has lights on board something like that yeah so that's one example is an is a dual enterprise configuration where one drone has a speaker the other has uh the flood lamp but you know similar tactics could be employed with custom built craft as well so do you mean uh one can have some sort of a net which can be used to catch one of the drones and the other drone kind of records the whole process and kind something like that yeah yeah I mean there's no reason you couldn't use this system in a in a counter uas style mission if you had drones equipped for that as well right right okay so one of the other cool questions that we had was that do we want a docking station which can support more than one type of drone and the audience has unanimously decided that yes they definitely do want a talking station which can support more than one type of drone

**[26:02]** uh can you like so the question would be like every single different type of drone has a different battery capability right so they would require their own different battery chargers and things like that so how would you accommodate this variation in your docking station which is which could be room agnostic going forward yeah so there's several ways that we can do that the first is through the placement and spacing of the charging pads which obviously we can also um move the fiducial landing tags as needed right we can also assist with the development of custom-based drones that have the ability to charge natively on board without any kind of kit so we've built a pixhawk based craft here in-house that that was meant to charge off of this station you know from the beginning oh right so and that's that's going to be important going forward so DJI makes makes incredible drones there's no question about it but

**[27:06]** we also have to take into account that there are other drone manufacturers out there that are up and coming and there's also a political uh climate in certain countries that are not so welcome to DJI drones okay um so we don't know exactly what this landscape is going to look like in a couple years from now it's it's not likely that DJI is going away but their dominance could start to decline through the rise of other drone manufacturers around the world and this this political action to sort of stifle DJI so we've had to take that into account and working with the DJI sdk as as FlytNow well knows it it isn't necessarily the most friendly yes um DJI's are not really built from the ground up for true autonomy and and that's been stated by the company itself right there there was an article uh on medium last year or

**[28:07]** skydio uh kind of called out DJI for this that you know DJI's mindset is that they want an operator present all the time okay so we've had to kind of tweak things in order to get these DJI craft to be autonomous in the way that we want them to for certain missions now for building our own craft using px4 stack hard copter uh open source hardware this isn't nearly as much of an issue so um so that's that's really one of the the biggest reasons why we focus on um on a drone agnostic approach right um because the drone industry is is just in its infancy right now uh we didn't want to get married to one particular product right so it's a very it's a it's a smart decision on the business side too right you're not putting all your eggs in the same basket if DJI fails it still

**[29:10]** means that you're okay and and as we all know DJI is also working on their own docking stations right right um and chances are excellent that when DJI releases their docking station it's going to work better than any aftermarket station that is dedicated to a DJI product right so um again that's another reason that we we aren't really married to them we we like pgi drones but the customer wants to use them by all means yeah if a customer doesn't want to use them then we can work with that too so that's that's really our philosophy regarding that drone agnosticism that's great so uh we have a bunch of questions from the audience like the first one is what is the price range I mean you did mention that it would be custom fitted and you they would have to get in contact with you but can you just give a overall price range for how much would one of these devices cost with a double drone configuration which is I guess the most popular one yeah so uh we are going to be doing um a

**[30:13]** separate launch event in late march early april where where this will get spelled out uh specifically however uh right now I we're comfortable stating that uh options dependent so the the most basic option station uh will be thirty thousand us dollars okay and that will go up to thirty five 000 us dollars for uh for more advanced uh options and accessories all right okay that's great uh so the next question is like what manufacturing capacity do you expect to achieve this year and how many systems do you believe you can deliver by the end of the year if let's say you had enough sufficient orders of course so presently we're anticipating being able to produce one complete system per week by the summer of this year and we are we do have multiple systems being built now so

**[31:14]** our goal is to is to have 40 to 50 systems by by the end of this year that's great and uh some of our some one of one of our audience has a really unique question so they're asking if you are still in beta testing and he would actually like to provide your test bed for testing if interested um that's something we would be open to um is that a question listed here in q a uh I can I can approve it just give me one moment yes I think it should be visible to you now so the uh it's actually under an anonymous id so I don't think it should you would be able to get in okay can you can you just read it one more time yeah so the

**[32:16]** question is are you still in beta testing I would be open to testing yeah um yes we are and uh yes um in fact if uh if that individual wants to reach out to us on our website via the contact page that'd be great um if we don't have contact info forum but um yes we're interested in getting more testing accomplished um you know the more that we can feel these systems the more we're going to learn about uh the customer needs and ways that we can improve upon our processes yes yes so uh which industries are you seeing the most uh potential for such a system right now in so we did originally set out to uh to provide a a security and safety of life enhancing capability however there's really no reason that this system couldn't be used for 2d or 3d surveying

**[33:19]** for agricultural missions for crop yield analysis you know the sky is the limit when it comes to these autonomous drone applications uh and we just haven't even gotten started as an industry right it is so early so um we our philosophy is to be as flexible as possible and and try to uh provide a a product that can enhance the overall autonomous drone industry I don't think people realize just how many drones are going to be in the air here in just a few short years I do believe we're going to see exponential growth in certain parts of the world and for this exponential growth drone autonomy is extremely important right you can't expect each of those drones to be piloted by an actual human user the drones are simply more capable when they're flying themselves that's that's really the bottom line and and as I mentioned earlier with the the network effect there's so many neat

**[34:21]** things that can be done with an interconnected network of drone docking stations and drones right right so one of the questions is can you place this dome on a back of a truck and kind of serve mobile applications yes yes so it does fit um in uh in a standard truck bed is at its widest point it is I believe 52 inches so it will actuate it'll open and close just fine in the back of the truck it has a gps receiver on board so it can report its position uh if if the drone needs to land in a different place if the trucks move so yeah that is something that um that we have been working on and expect to see media reflecting that capability on the website here in the coming weeks right so one of the interesting points you mentioned during the presentation is that you used materials which are like fiberglass because they allow the electromagnetic radiation to pass through and the reason for this is so that the drone would always

**[35:24]** have its gps location even when the enclosure is closed right yes which application is this uh pointed towards that's primarily to rapid response to security and safety of life missions so we we developed an integration with uh the security software milestone xprotect whereby we can trigger a launch out of the dome based on some other sensor on the ground triggering that event so if someone is trespassing on the property you want a fast response right and if the drone needs to be powered up well as we all know that can that can take upwards of a minute for it to um go through its checks and get a gps fix so um we we really want the craft to be powered up and have a gps fix the the fiberglass enclosure is is more or less radio frequency transparent so in addition to the gps fix it can communicate with its rc unit in the case of a of like

**[36:27]** a legacy DJI product um but the the dome also has its own lte router so by by using rf transparent materials we don't need to put any antennas on the outside so um uh please continue I'm sorry for interrupting good and that's helpful right because without having antennas it's one less thing to worry about getting getting damaged by weather so does this uh counter dome contain the rc or is it a separate unit in the case of a DJI deployment the rc unit is inside the dome it can be placed in that storage area if the customer desires or it can be placed um below in the in the mechanical section right we also have the ability to remotely restart the DJI rc unit because you know we've found that DJI products need to be restarted

**[37:29]** once a day it seems about the minimum so okay um so we can do that with a with a battery a DJI battery that we can provide and also we can do that with the rc units so um and and we're not limited to DJI's when it comes to having an rc unit inside the dome so we can do that with with other manufacturers or with custom craft that use uh like dragon link radios or crossfire radios all of that can be integrated and this does not affect the range of the flight range of the drone right placing the rc inside the dome no not not so long as you have line of sight which so it really comes down to the the line of sight between the dome and the drone so it's just like any other time you're using a handheld rc unit you still need line of sight um we if need be if requested by a customer we do have the ability to uh to use higher gain or amplified

**[38:30]** antennas for some applications if if the landscape dictates that but ultimately the solution to all of that is is lte um and if uh if lte is unavailable then to use starlink is really what we're uh looking at for uh for later this year all right okay so uh you know the uh one uh just a couple more questions before we finish this right so obviously you have you know outlined a lot of benefits to having a two drone system have you found any you know disadvantages to this system I'm sorry I said that last part again have you found any disadvantages or you know risks to the system of having two drones so it is a little more complicated um you know we did have to devise a method by which we can deconflict the two craft from each other um but you know we're

**[39:33]** we're confident uh that as configured uh the two drones can operate without without uh causing one another a problem so it has been developmentally a little a little more difficult um when we started this project it was going to be a single drone system but we found that using a circular floor gave us a lot of options right and we found a configuration that that comfortably fits two 350 millimeter wheelbase drones so um I don't think it's a disadvantage uh going forward but it did take some some unique development I guess you would have to coordinate the take off so that both drones don't take off at the same time the both the drones don't land at the same time all of this coordination would be handled by your software right so in the case of the landings we know that if if one drone is in a in the correct charging position the other drone will clear it right upon takeoff and

**[40:35]** landing so basically that's the that's the gate for for further actions is are the drones in the correct charging position and if not then they reposition so that spacing is built into the charging system okay and the counter drone I guess the software it also makes sure that when the drones are flying they do not get into uh any sort of collision paths with each other yeah we're they're they're not going to recover at the same time that um that that would be hazardous I think even given how uh how much improvement we've seen in the precision landing capabilities that's something that we do not recommend attempting so um yeah they deconfliction between the drones at the docking station is built in by virtue of the fact that they're not allowed to land at the same time right all right uh the last question is if somebody was to give you an uh place an order with you today how soon would they be able to get it and obviously are you

**[41:38]** ready to ship it globally uh yes yes so um if an order were placed today we anticipate delivering systems mid to late april um mid april in the u.s late april um like in the asian or australian markets but that's our that's our current timeline and there is no problem about no problems with delivering globally right you have your customers all over the globe globe and yes we we absolutely intend to ship globally great so I think uh sean that brings us to the end of the session uh and if anybody has even more questions for sean uh you can just uh you know visit his booth at 6 30 pm utc uh sean will be there live and he will be there to answer your questions you can have a one-on-one conversation with sean and clear your doubts and be you know fully updated about what counter dome is and what is counter drone doing so lastly sean I would like to thank you for joining us today your insights and expertise have really blown a lot of people's minds I'm sure and uh uh

**[42:43]** you know would you like to share any closing thoughts before we end the session uh yeah I really appreciate the opportunity avish and uh if folks want to visit our website and and uh they can use the contact form there but uh we'll also be in the virtual booth here shortly uh to answer questions but uh we look forward to being a part of this emerging industry and are grateful for this opportunity so thanks everybody great so I too would like to thank uh conclude by thanking everyone for joining us today please visit the reception and the sessions tab to learn more about the upcoming networking crown roundtables which are going to start soon and the booth visits so yeah thank you have a great day see ya thank you sean bye