Robotic arm for for the placement of small cargo in hazardous environments compatible with drones and other remote pilot aircraft systems

Natural and man-made disasters destroy environments, often making conditions so difficult that relief workers are unable to access areas and provide assistance. Drones have the ability to take on roles where manned vehicles fall short and the main advantage of drone operations at these sites is that staff no longer need be exposed to hazardous situations. In this context there is a growing demand for systems that can help the Drone to deploy and fix specific goods in the affected regions (like instruments or sensors). A research group from a Spanish university has developed and patented a robotic arm that can be easily integrated into remotely controlled unmanned aerial vehicles (Drones) or other pilot aircraft systems that allow the user to position the device remotely. The robotic arm can fix a target body quickly and easily, without the intervention of actuators or control electronics during said fixing. Alternatively, the robotical arm can be controlled manually by an operator, through any means of control (analog or digital), in which the user is in the same location as the system or in remote control, in which the user performs a data transfer to the system, both in different locations. The features of the new robotic arm make its use especially helpful through its integration with a remote pilot aircraft system (drone) for the transport of useful load. Several applications have been detected, the main ones are: • Deployment of outdoor sensor or sensor networks aimed to surveillance, security, access control, firefighting, rescue, precision agriculture or any application related to remote monitoring field. • Positioning and fastening of devices of medium or reduced size in hard-to-reach places, or dangerous areas to personal safety or human health. This university research team that has developed the robotic arm has more than twenty years of experience in robotics development, mainly focused on mobile robotics and Telerobotics for applications in medical or factory automation fields. The research group is mainly looking for licensees but would also be interested in establishing technical cooperation agreements.