# CounterDrone - OmniDock

- Event: NestGen ’23
- Published: March 24, 2023
- Length: 30:51
- Watch: https://nestgen.org/library/watch/q2hzJgvndQU/

> 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

Explore the all-new OmniDock - a drone-agnostic, weatherproof, and climate-controlled charging station for your drone(s).

## Transcript

**[0:08]** thank you hello hello and welcome to one of the most anticipated sessions of the day the unveiling of one of its kind drone docking stations the Omni talk but before we dive in please share with us what you do where you're from and what makes you excited the most about this session while a lot of docking stations are enabling baby loss operations countertrones omnidoc does something that will trust me blow you away omnidoc comes with the capability of having two drones that can be operated simultaneously on one single docking station it's the world's first drone agnostic multi-uav talking station today we have with us Sean Sean is the co-founder and CTO of countertrone and for the past six years he has provided Engineering Services to multiple U.S government agencies under under counter unmanned aerial system contracts he has designed and built custom drones for nine years and his drone expertise extend extends Beyond

**[1:12]** design to include complex real world operations and regulations Sean is a former U.S Air Force pilot and FAA certified commercial pilot Sean is originally from Salt Lake City Utah and holds bachelor's degree of Science in mathematics from the University of Utah he currently lives in Albuquerque New Mexico now before we dive in I have a few housekeeping rules to announce uh if you have any questions for Sean please use the Q a tab and I will ask him to address this address those questions at the end of the session these sessions are being recorded and they will be sent to you over an email very soon if you thought that these sessions bought you some invaluable insights please don't forget to share them on LinkedIn or Twitter with hashtag neston23 and hashtag opendip movement and last but not the least I would like to thank our sponsors for their continued support throughout this journey uh title sponsor DJI Enterprise and platinum sponsor

**[2:15]** volatis Aerospace with this I would ask Sean to take over the proceedings thanks Gene I appreciate that the great introduction um I'm Sean jafarian founder CEO of counter drone and we're excited to feature our Omni doc drone agnostic docking stations here at NestGen this year so I'd like to uh Jump Right In to our presentation hey G can you tell me if that's showing up correctly for you yes that's perfect thank you so this is our Omni dog dockie stations uh some of you may have been with us last year when we featured our uh prototype version of this unit that we call the counter

**[3:18]** Dome uh in the past year that has evolved considerably into this production unit that we call the omnidoc the omnidoc is designed to be drone agnostic and as Jeep mentioned uh it it is capable of accommodating two mavic sized drones simultaneously or it can accommodate one larger matrice size or approximately 650 millimeter frame size copter and we accomplished that by swapping out the charging floor so we designed the omnidoc using a clamshell Dome primarily out of weather considerations so the clamshell Dome gives us uh a lot of wind resistance from from all directions moisture will not accumulate on the top of it and it also takes up the same footprint whether it's opened or closed as you can see here in this

**[4:22]** video it doesn't get larger when it when it actuates and the dock also is fully climate controlled with electric heater and air conditioner one of our primary focuses when we designed the omnidoc was the security safety of Life missions Public Safety missions and so we wanted the drones to be able to deploy very quickly so the dock opens in less than two seconds while it's closed drones can maintain a GPS fix if they're powered up the uh the dock is radio frequency transparent and we use a dual SIM LTD router for internet connectivity and the dock also ships with a weather station and here we see a matrice m30

**[5:27]** so we decided to accommodate two mavic sized drones again for these critical missions like security safety of life and uh and Public Safety having two drones in the dock at once gives you more Airborne persistence it allows one drone to charge while the other goes off and flies its Mission they can both charge simultaneously but it also just allows for the drones to um mutually assist one another for certain Mission types so in security applications you can have one drone flying a pre-planned Patrol while the other is waiting to fly a triggered mission here we see the perspective of the Drone that's in the AFT position while the forward drone comes home to land and that and then the rear drum can launch to

**[6:28]** resume the mission Tommy dock also fits nicely in the back of standard size pickup here it is in uh a Dodge Ram and in this configuration we have a custom built pixhawk based drone in the rear position while a mavic Enterprise is operating out of the forward position and when used in a truck like this the dock is powered off of the DC port in the truck

**[7:29]** and here we see the matrice m30 launching out of a truck foreign the charging floor is swappable so that the users can switch from a two drone to a single drone configuration or switch to different type of single drone configurations so um we have integrated pixhock based graph using PX4 and RG copter flight Stacks uh basically our philosophy is if the copter will fit inside the dock we can integrate it to operate so when the charging floor is removed there's an area for you user accessible components like the LTE router and there's some storage space under the floor for things like additional batteries so for charging we use a conductive charging system we attach a small kit to

**[8:32]** the Drone that doesn't require any modifications to the Drone here we see two mavic two Enterprise drones simultaneously charging so the kits attach between the Drone and the battery and to the rear feet so it is a smart charger system that allows to to float charge if drones are remain powered up like in a security type mission where a quick response is necessary we can charge at different rates per per station so we can have a 4S battery drone like a mavic in one position and still charge a 6S like a pixhock based drone in the other position or we can go all the way to 12s in a single drone configuration and the charge stats are reported and logged in real time and the system is fully protected against short circuits over volts over currents Etc

**[9:36]** so the office has just powered off a standard 120 volt AC or 240 volt AC it has multiple temperature humidity sensors and it is fully climate controlled with an electric HVAC system there's also a battery backup that is installed in the dock so that in the event of a site-wide power failure the drones can still be brought back safely to the block depending on the uh the climate and how much actuation and charging is required those batteries should provide about three to four hours of uh of backup and later this year we are going to be offering a solar powered version of the dock for truly Off the Grid uh deployments and there's also a wide angle camera integrated uh into the weather station as well as into the dock itself for pre and post flight inspection

**[10:38]** public drones so safety was uh one of our primary considerations in designing and building the omnidoc we realized early on that with how quickly it actuates we needed to build in some safety features so um if the uh if the doc senses that there's an obstacle in the way of the leaves the leaves will stop moving and the dock only closes once the Drone is in a position to charge so we we designed the spacing of the drones such that if the feet are in position to charge then we know that there is no conflict between the drones propellers and the clamshell leaves so if the Drone sets down and is not in a position to charge we know that we may not be clear to close the leaves so the dock remains open and the Drone it can then take off again to a three foot position and reattempt its landing

**[11:42]** and once it's in position to charge then we know we're deconflicted from the leaves and the uh dock will close now as mentioned before the charging system has multiple safety features built in we have redundant power supplies and multiple sensors throughout the dock that report issues before they become actual mechanical failures so the amagaki is fully integrated with FlytNow Auto in this video we see some two drone operations we um we launched the Drone that is in the AFT position and manually control it so that it can be maneuvered into a position to observe the launch of the forward drone which is going to be flying a pre-planned mission that we've built here in FlytNow

**[12:57]** so the operator launches the AFT position manually and then assumes manual control using FlytNow's controls at the bottom of the screen and now we tell the Drone in the forward position to fly a pre-planned mission that

**[13:58]** we've built there very short mission and these are mavic two Enterprise drones in this video however we have integrated the mavic 3 Enterprise series as well

**[15:09]** and here we see that the first drone that was taken off manually is observing the dock while the autonomous drone returns home and now that drone begins a process of searching for its um fiducial marking tag on the dock and this was the Drone in the forward position so it's going to look for that tag that was in the forward position and land there

**[16:09]** has now found its tag and orienting itself for the landing foreign integration with FlytNow Auto Plus we've also done some custom Integrations specific to security missions we integrated FlytNow Auto with Milestone xprotect which is a widely used VMS video management system for security applications so

**[17:10]** in this video we see a security camera looking out behind our building in the upper left the Drone feed is in the upper right and then a moving map display in the lower left that we integrated such that we can actually build the FlytNow missions right here in Milestone Expert Tech so in this video this depicts an algorithm that we developed that autonomously launches the Drone based on motion being triggered on the security camera so once the security camera registers motion the Drone launches and is vectored autonomously to a position to put the source of that motion in its camera so the operator is going to put the Drone into alert mode that tells it you are free to launch as soon as there is motion detected on a camera

**[18:10]** then the upper left you'll see a person will come out from behind that building on the left side of the camera view there's the motion it gets registered there in the list of events and automatically launches the Drone very quickly and then we've developed an algorithm that sets a a latitude and monitoring position that the Drone is going to fly to in order to put that subject in its field of view and this is a short Mission due to the space limitations but in a larger area the Drone will continue to receive updates as the person in the security camera continues to move the Drone will receive updates as to where they're at and will position its camera to observe them so this is just one of the Integrations that we developed alongside FlytNow specific to a security and Public Safety type missions

**[19:12]** foreign so here's the specifications of the omnidoc so it weighs right around 100 pounds so it was really meant to be rooftop mounted but it could be modern Tower or it can sit on the ground and it can operate from -10 Fahrenheit to 120 degrees Fahrenheit so most uh parts of the world it can safely operate and keep the the drones and batteries uh within an ideal temperature range so that is the Omni dock what uh questions can I answer sold let's see all right so let's go to the Q a section now and look at what are the questions that

**[20:14]** are inquisitive audience has asked uh so there's a question uh do you have any sensors for detecting bad weather Does it include our station uh yes the weather station does uh detect um rainfall and it does detect barometric pressure so that it can help determine if uh if a storm is coming okay and then it has a wind sensor when wind speed and wind direction okay uh can we have drones like parrot and Auto with the Omni talk yes so we are currently integrating the latest version of Parrot uh enoughy um and we have not started with the Autos yet but we don't see any reason that we can't integrate them we do plan to integrate all tells later this year all right uh how can we get in touch for the omnidoc

**[21:20]** ious question yeah how can we get in touch with the Omni talk for the Omni talk so you can email us at info at counterdrawn.com in fact let me put this slide up here foreign so the next question was how does the charging mechanism work I think if press it maybe you can touch it touch upon it a bit again sure so we use contact charging so a kit is attached to the Drone between the Drone and its battery and then it uh also

**[22:25]** attaches to the drone's rear feet in the case of mavic uh it's actually attached to the forward feed in the case of the m30 but it is a smart charger based system that uses contact charging so once the drone's feet are in contact with the charging pads on the floor then charging commences so in the case of of DJI craft we charge at the same rate that the DJI Chargers charge at which is approximately 1C uh so it takes about an hour or so to get a full charge on a DJI drone on custom built drones like things that use pix Hawks and PX4 flight Stacks Etc uh we can charge faster so the only limitations are really the Drone itself you know djis don't like to charge at fast charge rates the the batteries are protected against

**[23:26]** that but in other custom configurations we can charge as fast as 2C which allows us to to get a full charge in about 30 minutes all right I hope that answers the question uh can we integrate any adsb devices with the Omni talk uh yes so because of the open source nature of our software and Hardware um if if you desire to install adsb in uh in the dot that uh that is something that's that's definitely doable now obviously the newer DJI drones all have a dsb in already um and so that you know can be observed through your uh your flight management software but but yeah the installation of additional Hardware like that is exactly the kind of thing that we had in mind in designing the on the dock and so it is um

**[24:28]** open source and modular in that regard Sean talking about you know the modular nature of the counter drone I would like to quickly ask you a question that you know we are asking all of our speakers here at nesting today um if you can share your thoughts on the open dib approach where you know each company uh contributes to a different layer a separate layer of drone autonomy stack uh what do you think its benefits are and how it can help the industry grow together but yeah so I think that's a great idea and it's very much in line with with the way that we've uh developed omnidoc so this really is um a community right and so to we can't all take on all of the challenges associated with drone autonomy ourselves so we each kind of need to take a a certain piece um and so for us that that piece is a modular open source dock that can easily adapt to a wide range of drones uh so I think that that approach is is important because

**[25:33]** uh for instance the the regulatory landscape uh here in the United States is is complex and and rapidly evolving and so as a drone docking station manufacturer there's only so much we can know about that right so our we try to focus just on making good quality docs for for multiple drones so while there's other experts we work with that are tackling the regulatory piece and these things all overlap so we all kind of have to know a little bit about what each other uh what our respective partners are working on but um but it seems like it's it's extremely helpful for us to to narrow down and focus on one specific area and how that area aligns with and fits with the larger drone autonomy picture so yeah I think that is the the right approach I think the community is is really uh

**[26:36]** moving in the right direction when it comes to that how we are all taking our our our own respective pieces and becoming experts in those while at the same time communicating with each other to uh to build a a future of total grown autonomy okay Sean I think that was a great answer um and I agree with what you said uh next question uh there are a couple more questions um in the meantime if the audience has any more questions feel free to add them in the Q a um so the next question was about does the Drone so he does the docking station have GPS GPS sensors inside of it it does so the doc uh the doc is is incorporated with a u-blox F9 gnss receiver so it is fully capable of acting as an rtk based station so so yes has it has a receiver it's a very high quality receiver that is well

**[27:38]** suited to rtk Applications okay um what is the time it takes for the Drone to take off they're asking so the drones can be in the air in three seconds from the time that a launch command is received providing the Drone is powered on is left powered up 100 there's a question I wish to fly a drone with a DRS system will I be able to use it with your product I'm sorry with which system is a DRS system uh yeah it can mean many things but yeah all right I think

**[28:41]** it should be great if the audience member can you know elaborate a bit on the question uh in case uh you have any more questions feel free to put them in the Q a um I think we have answered most of the questions right so as Sean mentioned it you can uh contact them on info info countertrone.com is that correct Sean that's right G all right so uh with this we come to the end of the session you can connect with Sean on the email address mentioned uh thank you Sean you know for sharing with us uh introducing us to the omnidoc it is really an uh revolutionary system and you know I can imagine all the different use cases where it can be deployed uh so thank you uh to all the audience that joined us today for this session uh

**[29:44]** thanks everybody thanks Gene I appreciate the opportunity and uh reach out to us on our website counterdrome.com or email us at info counterdrawn.com sorry that's glitch on um so to the audience I have another uh a couple of things to say um so again thank you for joining us and next we have for you some networking sessions and both visits um counter drone also has a booth so you can head to the Expo section and check out the booth uh by counter on and you can also interact with Sean over there um then we have some uh sessions uh that include uh applications like power generation with the armors and DJI then there are applications for security which is uh hosted by uh which will have speakers from aeroscan and then we also have a FlytNow 101 session where you will get to learn how flight now works and you know the various use cases it is being deployed in so thank you

**[30:46]** again everyone for joining us and uh you know looking forward to seeing you all