The association for unmanned vehicle systems international is the world’s largest non-profit organization devoted exclusively to advancing the unmanned systems community. Ever year AUVSI hosts a major trade show where leaders in both unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV), and unmanned ground and marine vehicles display their latest innovations. This year Draganfly Innovations released the Draganflyer X8 and new hand held ground control station.

These new cutting edge technologies from Draganfly Innovations represent the ultimate in UAV RC Helicopter technology. Draganflys leading edge hand held ground control station incorporates all the features of their already awesome hand held controller with the features of their video base station. You can view live video transmitted from the Draganflyer X6 or the Draganflyer X8 in the palm of your hand while you fly the helicopter. The Draganfly hand held ground control station has an embedded computer running a linux operating system which allows the user to run Draganview software on the 6.3 inch bright day light viewable LCD screen.

Draganfly Innovations has been making big news at the 2010 AUVSI conference in Denver Colorado. For two days in a row they have been written about in AUVSI daily published newspaper Unmanned News. The first article talked about the newly released heavy payload Draganflyer X8, and the second article focused on the exciting new hand held ground control station.

The Denver post has even published an article on the Draganfly X6 being used by the Mesa County Sheriffs department. This article details how the Mesa County Sheriffs department is working with the FAA in order to use the Draganflyer X6 for police operations.

Draganfly Innovations continues to lead the way in UAV RC Helicopter Technology.

Draganfly Innovations has made another UAV helicopter. The new Draganflyer X8 follows the same general layout of the smaller X6, but they’ve added an extra arm and two more rotor blades. The Draganflyer X8 UAV will be flying inside a 10×10 foot octagonal cage, inside the conference hall at the AUVSI 2010 international conference. You can see the Draganflyer X8 UAV in action at booth # 2025 from August 24 to 27 2010. The Draganflyer X8 will also be flying in the aviation demonstration area from 11:00 to 12:00 AM on each day of the conference.

The Draganflyer X8 UAV is larger than the X4 and the X6, and it can carry up to 1 kilogram in camera payloads. The X8′s going to offer some more features, such as compatability with DSLR cameras and digital video transmitters. Check out this video (a computer rendering of the X8 in flight with an SLR camera).

One of the major new improvements to the Draganflyer X8 is the inclusion of support for the new IP video camera systems. IP cameras use the same technology your laptop uses to connect to the internet to communicate and transmit video. Basically, the IP cameras form their own network with your computer, allowing you to view the live video feed over the internet. IP cameras support the following features:

• Simultaneous pictures and video – Each IP camera has an internal memory buffer that stores video before it is transmitted. This means that you can take high resolution digital still photos with the IP camera while it is still recording video, allowing you to get exactly the pictures that you need.
• Security and encryption – The IP cameras operate over their own wireless network, which can be encrypted to prevent unauthorized access to the video stream.
• Reduced interference – Digital video is much less susceptible to interference than analog video. Reduced signal strength usually results in a lower frame rate, but not decreased image quality.

IP video cameras will work with the Draganflyer X8 and X6 sometime in the near future, but can’t be used on the smaller X4 due to weight limitations.

Interested in UAV helicopters? You can learn more about the Draganflyer X8 UAV helicopter on Draganfly’s website. You can also visit the AUVSI website for scheduling, hotel, transport, and entrance fee information regarding the AUVSI 2010 conference.