From land to sea with the PD4-AW-AQ waterborne drone - Seaweed distribution surveys made easy

PD4-AW-AQ provided by PRODRONE

PRODRONE Co., Ltd. (President: Shunsuke Totani, hereinafter referred to as PRODRONE), together with Aomori Prefecture Industrial Technology Center (Chairman: Katsuji Narita, hereinafter referred to as Aomori Sangi), has begun testing the PD4-AW-AQ, a water-landing drone that is compatible with applied research for underwater environment surveys. Aomori Sangi is developing a ``hanging device'' that allows you to take pictures of deeper fishing grounds and hang small water temperature meters. This device makes it possible to acquire data more flexibly than before, enabling efficient fishing ground environment surveys. By equipping the PD4-AW-AQ with a "hanging device with a camera," it will be possible to conduct more mobile and convenient surveys, and it will also be possible to pinpoint the distribution of seaweed and check the growth status of sea urchins, which cause sea denudation. In this demonstration experiment, the Aomori Industrial Science and Fisheries Research Institute will confirm the operation of the hanging device and verify underwater photographic data during seaweed distribution surveys. The Aomori Industrial Technology Inland Water Research Institute will confirm the operation of the suspension equipment and verify water temperature and salinity data during lake environment surveys. Aomori Industrial Technology/Hachinohe Industrial Research Institute will develop a "hanging device." PRODRONE will implement a "suspension device" on the water-landing drone PD4-AW-AQ, and will provide the actual aircraft and support its operation. PD4-AW-AQ does not require piloting with a radio thanks to the newly developed control system "Tap Flight". Easy operation allows you to fly to a preset destination, land on water, take off, and return with just a touch operation. Currently, we are able to capture underwater images of eelgrass and sargassum using the PD4-AW-AQ and the camera installed on the aircraft. In the future, we plan to implement a "hanging device" and confirm and verify the data obtained from cameras, small water temperature meters, etc. suspended from this device.

Test flight of PD4-AW-AQ

PD4-AW-AQ landing on water

Sargassum photographed by PD4-AW-AQ

Eelgrass photographed by PD4-AW-AQ

■PD4-AW-AQ Product link: http://www.prodrone.com/jp/products/pd4-aw-aq/ ■Research inquiries: (Land-Government) Aomori Prefectural Industrial Technology Center Fisheries Research Institute Resource Breeding Department 017-755-2155 Inland Water Research Institute Research and Research Department 0176-23-2405 Hachinohe Industrial Research Institute Mechanical Systems Department 0178-21-2100 ■About Prodrone Co., Ltd. Prodrone Co., Ltd. is a B2B company whose goal is to become the world's number one industrial drone system manufacturer and change the world. We provide a one-stop service for many companies entering the industrial drone market, from research consulting, aircraft development, control software development, service application development, and mass production. ■Prodrone Co., Ltd. Company Profile ・Company name: PRODRONE Co., Ltd. ・Representative: Shunsuke Toya, President and CEO ・Capital: 100 million yen ・Head office location: 1-115 Nakahira, Tenpaku-ku, Nagoya, Aichi Prefecture 468-0014