Interview conducted and published by RPASLife AERTEC Solutions' Director of Aerospace and Defence Systems.
What do you think of the evolution of the RPAS sector?
I would differentiate between recreational use and business or industrial use. Of course, in the last few years, the progress at the recreational level has been impressive. Three years ago, practically nobody knew what the word drone, RPAS, UAS or UAV meant. Today, anyone in the street knows something about any of these devices.
Its presence in society has become widespread, which is a positive thing, understood beyond the leisure activity itself, because this has allowed many companies to seek technological or industrial applications to optimise and make more efficient activities that were formerly carried out with certain means and can now be carried out in an alternative way.
We always talk in a generic way about RPAS and I think where the real interest lies is in the application.
From the point of view that I am most familiar with, which is the industrial one, I think it has served to generate a certain demand for services from potential customers that companies that are dedicated to technology may be able to offer in a more optimal and efficient way. In conclusion, I think that the boom that this technology has had over the last few years has been quite positive.
It is also true that we always talk about RPAS in a generic way and I think that the real interest lies in the application. The RPAS is still a means to an end, the focus is often placed directly on the platform (whether fixed or rotary wing), but perhaps the most interesting thing is the applications that are mounted as a payload on that platform and that allow things to be done that could not be done before or that could be done before but were very expensive and can now be done more economically.
It is also important to highlight the different possibilities of reaching the market either via the product itself or through the provision of a service. Beyond the platform itself and the expertise of the pilot to perform certain aerobatics in flight, the key is what can I offer to the market, what can I do with my equipment that others cannot. For example, I can now record images for a musical event in real time, performing a function that used to be done by 6 operators and a crane. It is about making an economic benefit to provide a service of the same quality or even better at a lower price; this proposal is not at all a novelty, but the technology we use to achieve our goal is.
What about the current status of the regulations governing them?
Although professionally I do not know this niche, I understand that for small platforms up to 2Kg the trend should be to liberalise the operation as much as possible. There is a certain real demand for services, for needs that are not being met in many aspects such as video recording for sporting events or cultural activities, topographical surveys, support for civil engineering, leisure alternatives, advertising, etc. that need more or less flexible regulation to be able to take advantage of all the initiative of entrepreneurs, SMEs and micro-SMEs that are investing and trying to find their market niche.
For larger aircraft, it is true, and speaking from my own experience, that the administrative procedure required to get a platform with a maximum take-off mass of more than 25 kg into the air is naturally more complex. Of course, it is logical to expect the authorities to demand all the safety and quality guarantees from operators who are going to put into the air a platform that could cause any kind of damage if the flight does not go as well as expected.
I understand that there are likely to be several iterations in the adjustment of the regulation and this should involve both the administration, manufacturers and of course end-users.
In short, we will have to wait and see what the new regulation says, and companies will adapt to it by trying to optimise our internal production processes in order to remain competitive.
Will RPAS then be seen in a non-segregated airframe?
Well, I think that soon we will enter a shopping centre with the children and a quadrotor will pass by offering you discounts in a clothes shop. If we think about it, it is quite possible that an 80% of the commercial applications that we could think of right now could be covered without any problems with platforms weighing less than 6 kg.
Historically, the larger RPAS were usually oriented towards military applications for rescue, surveillance, etc. and their initial focus was to operate in segregated space, but recently there are several very powerful civil application-oriented initiatives that are trying to move towards integration in non-segregated space, so I understand that it is a matter of time.
There is now a huge proliferation of small drones, do you think they can also be integrated into this space?
I suppose so, as I mentioned earlier, small "drones" oriented towards leisure or commercial applications understood as a service provided to an end customer, not between companies, I think so, and it won't be long before we see it. We will be walking down the street and we will be offered a tailor-made advertisement flying around us because the platform has connected to our mobile phone and knows that we like a certain type of soft drink or a certain brand of cologne. That sounds very futuristic but it is closer than we think.
His company, AERTEC SOLUTIONS, is involved in the RPAS sector.
We are focused on the segment of RPAS weighing more than 20 kg and on intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance applications. We have been working on this type of RPAS technology since 2007 (although at that time we all called them UAVs), initially through R&D programmes and for several years now we have been involved in industrial programmes.
From that moment on, we focused mainly on the development of on-board systems: control and navigation, power management, payload, etc. and from there, we built up a powerful engineering team that grew in knowledge and capabilities and was able to develop its own technology.
Although the start of the activity was focused on systems, there came a time when we had all that technology of our own and we thought why not also develop our own aerial platform made of composite material. Today that intention has become a reality and we have our TARSIS-25 and TARSIS-75, so we can offer the market several complete solutions.
What kind of projects are you currently undertaking and do you plan to undertake?
As I mentioned earlier, we now have two 25 kg and 75 kg carbon fibre products, designed and manufactured entirely by AERTEC, which also integrate our own on-board systems.
For the future we are working on improving the performance of our platforms by integrating different payloads to make our solution offering more complete, we want to extend the applications we deploy right now to go further, with more power and with more flexibility to perform tasks in a more secure and efficient way.
What kind of staff and/or professionals work at AERTEC?
AERTEC is an engineering company focused on the world of Airports and the Aeronautical Industry. Approximately 75% of the company's staff are engineers, from all possible specialities: industrial, aeronautical, telecommunications, IT, electronics, etc.
The aircraft is really a large system of systems and in an RPAS there is mechanical engineering, materials, software, electronics, of course a lot of aerodynamic and structural calculation and on the production side we have technicians specialised in the manufacture of electronic components, electrical wiring and specialists in systems validation.
Fortunately, we have our own capacity for the entire product development life cycle, from the design and development of both software and hardware, simulation and prototyping to the manufacture of carbon fibre parts, ground integration and flight testing. In short, an amalgam of activities that require highly qualified personnel in different technical disciplines.
We could not end this interview without asking you, what do you think of the CEUS project and what do you think of its current situation?
Honestly, I would have liked to have seen its development and implementation accelerated much more. CEUS will come, I believe that all the work that has been done cannot be lost and I also believe that it has a very interesting potential market niche, especially focused on certification and qualification of medium and large RPAS, and I believe that in Europe there is nothing like what the CEUS project offers.
The experience of the INTA staff with many years of experience in launching white aircraft is unparalleled internationally. In addition to this, the weather conditions are excellent, allowing flights to take place at its facilities almost all year round.
Of course, the starting conditions are unbeatable, but the project is slowing down too much and other initiatives that, in principle, did not have such a powerful proposal to start with are doing very well and establishing themselves solidly. In short, we need to get our act together now.
