# DBOX

- Event: NestGen ’22
- Published: March 3, 2022
- Length: 35:59
- Watch: https://nestgen.org/library/watch/xN7tQ4HaLL4/

> 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, battery-swapping drone docking station DBOX, engineered by DRONETEAM.

## Transcript

**[0:11]** [Music] hello to one and all present here to one of the most awaited sessions of nesgen 22. with the focus on bringing donor in a box to the masses I'm excited to host you all at the launch of the modular battery swapping drones docking station the d-box engineered by drone team this session would give you a deeper understanding of the d-box how it is a compact and affordable drone hanger for your drones that boasts a sleek design and robotic battery swapping capability today we have linus from the drone team dr linus has more than 10 years of experience in the drone industry he has been studying at the north carolina state university in the us as well as the lancaster university in the uk where he got his phd in engineering dr linus leads a team of uav researchers in the aviation faculty at the willians tech university

**[1:12]** where he works as an associate professor being a ceo at drone team he is applying his scientific findings to the industry during his spare time limits loves piloting drones and as well as manned planes so with that I hand it to you venice thank you can you give me yes linus loud and clear hello uh my name is linda skeletonskis I'm the ceo of drone team and today I would like to talk about drone battery swapping docking station solution I will talk about how it all started what are the use cases what the system comprises of what were the design challenges and go through some of the technical features first of all let me briefly introduce the company that I represent or a team of drone professionals working in the field for more than 10 years there are three main activities one of which we will be we're going to be talking

**[2:12]** today we have a huge experience in drone data processing photogrammetry in particular our latest projects include both small and very large projects including city scale modeling more than uh one of the latest projects was for more than 50 square meter square kilometers in one piece another service that we offer is drone shows but this is another story and finally I would like to talk about our main activity the r d of drone in a box solution called d box after two years of hard work we're finally ready to present to you our product so how did it all start in 2018 our team has accomplished city skill for the grammatics 3d modeling project at that time we collected the data using brute force we have scouted the whole city in 10 days using 15 drones in parallel we captured every little bit of the city and gathered more than 50 k photos the resolution or ground sampling distance as we know

**[3:18]** it was less than two centimeters per pixel and the result was astonishing everyone loved it and instantly understood the benefits of such a product of course the city is a changing organism and required and requires updates so we went back every time an old building was demolished or a new one was built but that required a lot of manual labor and to scale it up we started looking for another solution in addition the code 19 virus struck the quarantine came into action so people were not allowed to gather in groups even in the outdoors so my hometown vilnius municipality the capital of lithuania was seeking for a modern solution in to monitor the city from the air and we heard their call we quickly modified our drones to be able to fly for more than two hours on 4g and lte networks this allowed us to launch drones from a central park and reach the outskirts of the

**[4:20]** city the drones were constantly transmitting video to the central office for video processing and identification of gatherings this solution worked as a charm although the batteries needed to be swapped manually again people understood the benefits of such a system only by example now we had two clear use cases so we started looking for a system upgrade at that time there was none so we built our own so without further ado let's deep dive into it and check out new product t-box m2 battery swapping docking station solution people see that seeing is believing so let's roll the video

**[8:14]** so as you can see d-box offers the next level of automation the drones themselves as we know them are in automation level 2 where pilot needs to be on site unpack the drone and swap batteries manually that has now changed with the introduction of the d-box system pilots no longer have to be on site very important in harsh dangerous or cold environments also the system unpacks itself swaps batteries and does the charging all autonomous we went through many design iterations going back and forth from the drawing board to 3d modeling to prototyping we went through everything

**[9:16]** being users ourselves we understand what are the crucial features of the box requires that the box requires to have the final design includes least amount of access to accomplish drone alignment and battery replacement when talking about the whole system there are three main important pieces of the puzzle the first one is the drone docking station itself the second one is the remote ground control software this is where fleet now comes into play last but not least the data needs to be processed so we have the data processing pipelines demonstrated in diagram as we have seen in this NestGen conference fleet now offers an app store for ai data pipelines to demonstrate how it all comes together we have another very short video that's very concentrated and shows all the operations from preparation to takeoff to precision landing

**[10:19]** let's roll the video

**[12:07]** okay so that's how we operate day and night let's dive into the docking station specifications so first of all our d-box has the capability to swap batteries this is the most important feature the swapping time is less than 60 seconds I would also like to add a very important note our box is designed in such a way that neither the drone nor the controller is modified at all this is a very important because our system does not void drones warranty you just take the drone and the controller out of the box and plug it into the box no tinkering put the battery no modifications to the controller the DJI has done a very good job on reliability and it's not worth risking to interfere with the system in any way our box was designed with this in mind so there are seven battery holders installed in the docking station six for parallel

**[13:07]** battery charging all at once and one for the battery to cool down we have calculated that later and later tested that six batteries is sufficiently enough to run constant operations indefinitely it's impossible to run out of power we would also like to point out that we have managed to automate this process to perfection we demonstrated over a thousand battery swaps without any hiccups next let's have a pool um on the control range topic neil could you jump in here and could you maybe help me on this uh yes linus so audience if you [Music] see on your right I have created a poll so what would be the necessary operating range from from the takeoff point of the d-box you have your options you can respond and [Music]

**[14:08]** I'll let yeah we can move on and then and then later we'll check out the results hold it right next slide so uh compatible drones currently we're supporting the whole map DJI mavic 2 drone series range you can use any of them interchangeably for the enterprise series the add-ons are also supported of course for the fullest experience we recommend using the advanced version that has dual cameras I have to say the thermal camera is very impressive for its size you could have seen in the video that we can change from visual spectrum to thermal spectrum we all know how good DJI matic 2 series is but let's take a look at some of the features of the advanced version it has a flight time of 31 minutes although a useful flight time should be considered to be about 23 minutes just to be safe and just to make sure there is

**[15:12]** enough time for takeoff going to the field landing it has unbelievable control the control range and maybe neil we have the transmission range results yes all right so we had a couple of options uh 28.6 of the audience thinks that it's 0.5 kilometers 14.3 percent thinks it's one kilometer uh again 14.3 uh have gone in for the two kilometer range and yeah 14.3 for the three kilometer range and more than three kilometers or 28.6 percent of the audience okay yeah okay so so there's a lot of people that like to have a huge transmission range which is okay uh but considering the uh the flight time I would I would basically recommend to have your operations within the three kilometer range

**[16:14]** okay so another important feature is rtk it gives you a precision flights especially in city environments that's very important in city environments the camera is also amazing giving you 48 megapixels of visible range and 640 by 512 in thermal spectrum so what do you think about this drone or maybe you would like another model to be integrated neil maybe we can prepare another poll let me just do that quickly while you prepare the poll I might tell the audience uh that we're thinking about adapting some new models so talking about drone supports we're preparing other versions of d-box

**[17:18]** to support parrot another ai and DJI mavic 3 which is obviously subject to sdk release from DJI these drones can be controlled using 4g lte connection straight from the drone meaning it makes the system more reliable it also virtually eliminates the transmission range limit just as the audience wanted okay neil maybe we have the results from the models all right so more than 50 percent of the audience believes that the DJI mavic 2 enterprise advanced series is something that everyone would like to see up in the air what would be the other choice next choice all right so it's also the custom design so almost 28.6 percent of the audience thinks that they would like to run operations with a custom design drone with the

**[18:18]** docking stations yeah I guess the audience needs to have uh or to try paritanaki ai we have them in hand we're currently testing it and we'll we'll soon see the results of the photogrammetry applications and we'll we'll try to integrate it to our new box model okay so talking about connection we have partnered with uh world known local telecom equipment manufacturer to ensure reliable for glt communication we have a router installed that's equipped with dual sim that provides a bonded connection meaning we send connection in parallel using two sim cards to ensure reliable operations we have also installed temperature control devices this is very this is the the most important um sensitive part inside the box are batteries so we have to take care of them and for that we make sure they stay

**[19:20]** comfortable by controlling the inside temperature and keeping it in the range from 5 to 25 degrees celsius this can be done while the box is placed in either a called very cold climates that can drop temperature down to minus 30 celsius or b hot climates that can reach up to plus 50 centigrade so the box can cover the full range of temperatures we do that using solid-state peltier elements so there are no no moving parts the the whole system is very reliable many times we got questions from people what will happen if electricity power is interrupted while the drone is still in the air the answer is the answer is the customer would not even notice that the pilot would not even notice that

**[20:21]** to ensure drone mission can be finished successfully we have installed an interruptible power supply only after successful landing the pilot would be informed about the problem and take action to restore power and to be honest the pilot could even continue the next mission because ups can supply power for up to two hours for pre-takeoff and post land inspections we have installed five cameras inside the box so four cameras are facing the drone from all sides and one camera is facing the landing pad the drone can be visually inspected before and after each mission remember safety first we've invented a simple but very robust drone alignment system it is certainly 100 percent reliable and works every time

**[21:24]** the drone can land with a play of about 40 centimeters to each side also we've utilized the whole area for the landing pad meaning the box itself is about 80 centimeters by 80 centimeters and the landing pad is the same size this ensures that the drone is capable of landing on the pad every time even in very strong winds this is very important because the system would not make sense if only partially reliable finally I would like to demonstrate a couple of real world applications that we used our system for during the last six months but before that let's check the last poll results have we I've just dropped in the poll for the various applications box can be used for linux

**[22:28]** okay yeah maybe we can wait a minute or two to check what the audience thinks so I'm very interested what what the audience would use the boxes for whether it's a 3d mapping 2d mapping whether a live video feed is very important whether they do routine inspections and analyze the high resolution videos afterwards and whether they do any ai data processing on either the pictures or the videos wait a little longer linux so that we have all the poll results I guess we can go to the next slide and we'll we'll check the poll results so we have integrated the system with first responders

**[23:29]** to be more specific fire fighters and police so whenever there is a fire in the city the drone is there first providing vital information from thermal camera firefighters now know exactly where to spray saving lives and money we also provide live video feed to police for small car accidents that cause large traffic jams police use drones to collect evidence and allow cars to move more quickly by the way these pictures were taken using our donor box solution in the real world situation we actually caught you know this fire and helped firefighters to um to quickly extinguish the fire maybe we can check the poll results right now uh yes linus so 10 of the audience thinks that it's ideal for 3d mapping scenarios another 10 percent with 2d mapping 30 for live video feed so basically fast reaction times for first drone responder situations

**[24:30]** and the other majority goes with routine inspection so about 27 percent uh think that it can be used to analyze high resolution videos and post data about ten percent with ai data processing from images and videos as well so it's distributed quite evenly so we can see that these solutions can be applied to wide range of applications by the way I'm just showing the the ones that we we tried with our hands using the last six months so you know there are many of other applications for example um talking about traffic you know villains municipality uses video feed to analyze traffic they can count the amount of vehicles crossing the junction per hour they can classify vehicles by type speed acceleration and another uh for example this particular video was was taken by by the drone in a box solution

**[25:35]** and they analyzed the noise pollution and they modeled the noise pollution and did the mapping of noise final third application that we did we're using the system to measure stockpiles and according to our findings the volumetric measurement accuracy is down to one percent we also periodically capture the terrain of the dunes in the coronian split which is in the world unesco heritage list it's very important to monitor natural movement of the sand dunes in order to take early actions also during the hot summer days we find heat spots and help prevent wildfires I'm very curious of what kind of applications do people use but I think that the possibilities are endless

**[26:36]** so what would you use for if you're interested to know even more feel free to contact me via email or meet me at the booth or just drop me a private message in the chat with your email and I'll contact you thank you well thank you linus for sharing your insights and telling everyone how the drone box works so this indeed helps everyone expand the knowledge about the potential and scope of the docking station like drone box d-box and how the d-box unlocks the true potential of autonomy that being said we I'd like to open the house for a q a session the audience you can type in your questions in the q a tab and lynn asks will make sure that he responds to them [Music] okay linus so one of the first questions that we have is uh okay we understood the technical specifications of the docking station and how it can be deployed for

**[27:37]** various use cases uh uh can you help your audience understand uh how much will a uh you know dbox system cost so can you discuss the commercials yeah okay so it starts at 19 triple nine um but we do we also do have um some other options uh to lease or to rent the boxes to help people go to market easily by the way 19 triple nine also includes one year of female subscription all right great uh the second question is what do you think uh about you know using the d-box with uh other drones so you know drones with larger payloads custom designs can can they be incorporated with the d-box for now the d-box m2 model is as I have mentioned is only used for mavic 2 series

**[28:42]** but we're looking forward to include an appy ai mavic air 2 s and mavic 3 model subject again subject to DJI releasing the sdk all right all right so it's good to know that it's in the works and that your drone docking station will be truly uh you know drawn agnostic uh moving on to the next question so a a drone station like this uh needs to be connected uh you know to the software uh 24 7. so uh you would need internet connectivity for this so how are you providing internet connectivity on the d-box okay so there are two options to provide internet connectivity you can either use um two sim card slots uh you can either you can use only one but uh for better reliability where we suggest to use dual sim cards that

**[29:43]** route the internet connection [Music] with bonding okay so you can you can you can send the throughput the throughput is doubled using the bonding the other option is uh is a lan cable if you have a cable connection you can just plug it in and it works so we have one more interesting question so it it's about the journey you've had in building the drone box so what was your journey like what was the hardest part can you elaborate a little more on that and share your story I guess the hardest part is uh is the precision landing and uh making the making the whole uh box reliable building the box is simple but making it very reliable is hard so we had a lot of you know motor failures we we've chosen the right the right motor

**[30:43]** the right manufacturer of the motors um sometimes you know the stepper motors were failing we had to choose the different materials we found the perfect recipe and again as I've said we're running it for thousands of battery swaps without any hiccups so uh one more question I think uh so we the audience would like to understand more about the production capacity of drone team with respect to the d-box so can you help us understand that yeah so the current lead time is about two months um we manufacture after the order but again please feel free to contact us we have a couple of spare boxes that we can give our customers to try uh or while they're waiting for their box to be produced we're actually at at the moment where

**[31:46]** lifting a little bit the box a little bit we're changing materials a little bit and it's gonna come in a couple of months I see there's a question from the audience about the temperature oh yes so can you help us understand what are the operating temperatures of the box can it be deployed in rugged weather conditions yeah so here in lithuania we have very very cold winters it drops down to minus 30 degree degree centigrade so it can easily you know cope with minus 15 centigrade in the summer it goes up to 35 40 and on the rooftop it goes even up to 50 degrees centigrade so we have both cooling and heating systems installed in the box there's also quite a heavy insulation on the box which also helps to control the temperature good to know that the box has been tried and tested tested in good weather

**[32:49]** conditions uh okay I'll move on to the last question so the drone box uses the battery swapping technology uh there are a lot of locking stations that use the charging mechanism as well so uh can you help us understand uh what is the key differentiator differentiator here and why did you as you know the d-box manufacturer go ahead with a battery shopping mechanism as compared to the charging mechanism okay so there are two uh main reasons why we chose battery swapping type the first reason to be that we didn't want to change anything inside the drone we didn't want to avoid the warranty and if you want to charge the drone you have to add some sort of uh contacts you know for for for power like uh put some wires with pogo pins or something like that and we did we just didn't want to do that we wanted to make the drone make the DJI mavic 2 fly and as it can do really well so this is

**[33:55]** one reason and the other reason is we wanted 24 7 flights okay so our battery swapping time is under 60 seconds add another minute for landing and takeoff and you have two minutes uh uh round turnaround time so which is you know which is amazing if you can also combine it with another box to have a constant eye in the sky this is also used here in lithuania all right thanks thanks linus for sharing that uh so again with that I'd like to close the q a session uh thank you so much linus for uh you know coming out here and sharing your perspective uh of sharing the story about the d-box this definitely helps us understand and see the path forward to adoption of drone in a box solutions uh as you said for enabling repeatable and autonomous operations uh would you like

**[35:00]** to share any closing thoughts before we uh wrap up the session yeah thank you very much for all of your attention um I would welcome everyone to drop us a line and book a demo session where really would be really happy to show you how it works in in real world environment all right thank you all for joining us today if you have more questions as linus said uh you can go to the drone team booth and connect with them if you have any more queries related to the box or if you want to book a demo we also have three sessions coming up in the next five minutes so please visit the reception or the other sessions tab to learn more about the upcoming sessions uh thank you again thanks for being a part of this session uh good evening everyone thanks linus thank you very much yeah bye you