Drone ground station

The control of the helicopter is done from the ground using the groundstation which shows the status of the helicopter and the payload. It shows for example the position, velocity and direction of the helicopter, and also the amount of fuel and the voltage of the onboard battery so that an operator can plan the mission accordingly. To enhance the situational awareness, the position of the helicopter is shown on the map and if a camera is present, the direction and field of view of the camera is also indicated.Main characteristics of the groundstation: Extended temperature computer Real-time Linux operating system Transflective LCD screen, sunlight readable Industrial watertight joysticks and pushbuttons Industrial watertight push-pull connectors Internal backup battery for approx. 30 mins operation Watertight flightcase Watertight external battery for approx. 8 hours operation Constant battery monitoring Live camera-view Main screen switchable between camera and mapdisplay Camera coverage shown on mapdisplay Video-out on BNC connection Live streaming video via ethernet according to STANAG 4609 (optional) Storage of streaming video according to STANAG 4609 on harddisk (optional) screen capture in lossless TIFF format with metadata (optional) Constant flight data recording Suitable for one-person operation