Sony unveils Aerosense drone prototype

A logo of Sony Corp is pictured at an electronic store in Tokyo May 14, 2014. Sony Corp said on Wednesday it expects to log a 50 billion yen ($489 million) net loss this financial year, its sixth in seven years, and plans additional restructuring measures that include its loss-making PC operations. REUTERS/Toru Hanai

Sony has unveiled the prototype of its first drone, an unmanned aerial vehicle, as part of its enterprises campaign. Aerosense, the joint-venture company between Sony and Japanese robotics firm ZMP, developed the aeroplane-shaped vehicle to offer services such as inspecting old infrastructure and land survey. It will also be used to look over areas that are difficult to access such as regions devastated by accidents or natural disasters and for rescue operations.

This partnership project brings together Sony’s camera sensor technologies, telecommunication services with ZMP’s automated driving and robotics technologies. The drones would be piloted automatically based on the specific requirement.

But the primary use of the drones would be capturing images from the sky. Then, those images would be processed to provide a wide range of services to businesses such as measuring, surveying, observing and inspecting, says The Telegraph . However, the aerial drones are also reportedly capable of carrying objects weighing up to 22 pounds and flying for more than two hours at a maximum speed of 106 miles an hour.

Aerosense unveiled a number of videos of the two prototypes, the AS-DTO1-E ‘experimental machine’ and the AS-MCO1-P prototype, seen below. The former looks like a miniature plane. It will be able to take off and land vertically. The AS-MCO1-P is a quadcopter which is comparatively smaller. It is loaded with a camera, GPS and navigation system.

“By making it automated, drones will be considerably safer because many of accidents today are caused by human errors,” said Hisashi Taniguchi, chief executive of Aerospace and ZMP at a news conference, as quoted by The Wall Street Journal .

Aerosense will aim to roll out these services in early 2016. The company is targeting Y10 billion (AU $115.7million) in revenue by 2020.

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