New Israeli Company Unveils Lightweight UAVs

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Innocon – A Success Story and a Technological Tour De Force!
ISRAEL - 14 DECEMBER 2009

ISRAEL --- Innocon, a young company designing and manufacturing a line of groundbreaking UAVs, unveils its line of remarkable UAVs that share the company’s technological and performance breakthroughs. Established in 2001, Innocon already boasts a record of products featuring technological solutions to challenges that have eluded the global UAV industry since its inception.

Innocon’s line of UAVs range from 6kg to 900kg and feature unique technological solutions designed to meet the needs of various specific missions. Innocon has been able to distinguish itself by its exclusive information management capabilities featured across the company’s UAV line. The company’s core technology computer, the Naviator Flight Computer, is equipped with Innocon’s unique data analysis and control software and provides each UAV with capabilities and flight parameters that set it apart.

The company’s combination of onboard and ground-based computers control and manage all flight parameters including take off and landing, and constitute the lynchpin of the company’s unique UAV capabilities. This core technology is incorporated in every Innocon UAV and both flight computer and ground station are universal, able to fly any UAV on the market. Furthermore, each UAV’s airframe offers the capability to perform tasks that are noteworthy for its weight and size class. The result is broader applications and tasks range for each Innocon UAV.

The Naviator Flight Computer is responsible for all flight aspects including take off and landing. This core technology computer provides the UAV with capabilities that include: Short distance and highly accurate landing, self correction, optimized landing through data collection and processing during flight, 50 meter landing area requirement which is a quarter the distance required by competing UAVs, landing capability on wide-ranging surfaces utilizing a variety of landing gear including wheels, skids, or parachute.

Examples of advantages offered by Innocon’s UAVs include: altitudes and airborne durations of 18 hours and 15,000 feet respectively, normally associated with a large UAV, offered by a 90kg mid size platform, high precision automatic landings on unpaved and difficult terrain, real time airborne information dissemination to multiple systems users, simultaneous data management for multiple platforms with the use of the company’s ground based mission control station, and the list goes on.

With a rapidly growing global UAV market, Innocon is drawing considerable interest from international active participants looking to capitalize on its development in the near term and beyond.

Innocon’s CEO Michael Armon, says, “Innocon is proud of its rapid success in the design and manufacture of superior UAVs in a competitive global marketplace. Using our unique technologies, we’ve been able to offer UAVs that feature truly singular and exclusive, proven capabilities. Our UAVs are able to perform tasks that continue to challenge other UAV companies in their efforts to solve these longstanding problems.” He goes on to add that, “Innocon is a private company owned by its founders. At this time we are looking to leverage our technological and business success to reinforce the next step in our growth. To that end, we’re currently reviewing and weighing a variety of investment and cooperation proposals.”


Source: Innocon

 

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In its introduction to the international press the company highlights four UAVs as well as its ground control station.

--Micro Falcon – The Company’s lightest UAV at 6kg. Designed for soldier level missions of over the hill observation, this UAV operates at an altitude of 1000 feet and stays airborne for 2 hours day or night. Remarkably rugged, with boxed type wings, the Micro Falcon can land upside down using a parachute thereby increasing survivability and cutting down on redeployment time cycle.

--Mini Falcon I – A medium size UAV weighing 90kg with payload included, Mini Falcon is capable of 18 flight hours and 15,000 feet of flight altitude. Featuring a superior weight to payload ratio, this UAV can carry 35kg of payload which constitute over half its original unloaded weight (at 65kg). The Mini Falcon’s unique aerodynamic shape minimizes fuel consumption and increases flight durations which translates into a technological solution enabling large platform performance in a small size air frame.

With Mini Falcon, Innocon has had to combine into a single working unit an extremely short means of takeoff, a platform protecting means of landing, and a way of analyzing and processing the complex variables involved in making it all work as intended. Innocon’s solution overcomes all these challenges. A catapult launch shortens takeoff distance, the landing uses skids for platform survivability (unlike commonly used pneumatic cushions or parachutes that regularly result in platform destruction); and most importantly, a powerful computer makes it all work together. The computer enables precision landings by conducting a large number of high speed ongoing computations during flight. Environmental conditions (altitude, wind velocity and direction, etc.) are received online and automatically analyzed by the computer during flight, enabling it to direct an optimized landing location and attitude. And it’s all done without a parachute. The implications of such capabilities are many. They include a longer platform life cycle, greater survivability rates, and a greater flexibility to carry out successful missions. Survivability is bolstered by rugged construction, the use of skids, and a high precision landing. In fact, the UAV requires a mere 50 sqm of landing area, and only 7m for gliding to a stop on the ground. This constitutes just a quarter of the area and distance needed by competing UAVs.

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--Mini Falcon II - A medium size UAV weighing 150kg and capable of 18 flight hours and 15,000 feet of altitude, this UAV carries a wide range of payloads for a variety of functions including day/night observation, photography, target location and acquisition, laser designation, etc.

--Falcon Eye – A relatively large UAV weighing 800-900kg the Falcon Eye has 24 hour airborne capability at altitudes of 15,000 to 18,000 feet. This platform is a UAV version of a manned platform, which Innocon created specifically for intelligence missions carried out with the use of the company’s sophisticated onboard flight computer and working in concert with its ground station. The Falcon Eye demonstrates Innocon’s technological prowess in converting manned civilian aircraft into UAVs. This UAV operates with a civilian license and is therefore able to be airborne over densely populated urban areas without requiring special permits.

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--Naviator Mission Control – Innocon’s advanced ground station. A military portable computer containing a multitude of sophisticated, proprietary, company developed software, this station can operate from any ground installation or in the open requiring no ancillary equipment. This system can control multiple airborne platforms simultaneously while operating a variety of specialized pods such as cameras (including map images of flight mission targets displayed on screen) enabling the UAV to optimize flight parameters automatically. This multiple platform information exchange with the ground Naviator enables critical real time two way data dissemination for maximizing mission success.

Since its inception in 2001, INNOCON Ltd. has been developing and manufacturing UAVs (unmanned aerial vehicles) ranging from micro-UAVs weighing a mere 6 kg. to 1000 kg. full-size UAVs, equipped with the company’s proprietary command and control systems. The company delivers either complete systems or major sub-systems.

These technological achievements offer clients the advantages of a cost effective, flexible and varied use of their own platforms. These advantages include the option to operate a small and economical UAV for missions normally associated with large and heavy UAVs, the use of a particularly lightweight UAV for missions that demand flight altitudes and durations normally associated with much larger and heavier UAVs, heavy UAV take-off and landing capability on unpaved and uneven terrain, and superior UAV-to-payload weight ratios.

 

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Innocon's Micro-Falcon UAV Highly Successful With STAMP Payload Onboard
ISRAEL - 25 MARCH 2010

Micro Falcon's test-flight proven day or night capability, utilizes the same Controp camera payload selected by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) for its Sky Rider program

(Israel, March 25, 2010) -- Innocon, designing and manufacturing a wide range of innovative and unique UAVs, announced successful conclusion of flight tests for its lightest UAV, Micro Falcon, featuring STAMP day or night stabilized camera payloads onboard. A Controp Precision Technologies product, STAMP (Stabilized Miniature Payload) systems have been selected by the IDF (Israel Defense Forces) for its Sky Rider program.

With a high quality day and night vision capability, Innocon's Micro Falcon has now proven its flexibility in carrying both less expensive lightweight payloads as well as the heavier payload required for day/night applications. Before this successful conclusion to the new payload tests, Micro Falcon was already recognized as a remarkable UAV featuring Bental's MicroBat stabilized payload onboard. With Controp's STAMP, Innocon has now been able to increase Micro Falcon's payload carrying capacity to 1Kg thereby demonstrating a substantially increased versatility for its ultra lightweight UAVs. The tests were conducted with Controp's payloads of D-STAMP type for day vision, and U-STAMP for night vision.

Innocon's lightest UAV at 6kg, Micro Falcon was designed for soldier level missions of over the hill observation. Along with the company's other UAVs, Micro Falcon features Innocon's Naviator Flight Computer which is responsible for all flight aspects including take off and landing. Naviator frees operators to concentrate on payload tasks exclusively thereby optimizing mission success. Operating at an altitude of 1000 feet the UAV can stay airborne for 2 hours day or night. Remarkably rugged, with boxed type wings, Micro Falcon can land upside down using a parachute for increased survivability and reduced redeployment turn-around times.


Source : Innocon