On December 14, 2021, KDDI, KDDI R & D Laboratories, and Prodrone held an unveiling of the "Water and Sky Combined Drone" at Yokohama Hakkeijima Sea Paradise. A water-air combined drone is an aircraft in which an aerial drone that can control flight remotely carries an underwater drone to the sea and lands on it, and by remotely controlling the underwater drone from land, it is possible to check underwater images in real time. After the work is completed, the aerial drone collects the underwater drone, then separates it from the water and returns. The fact that underwater inspections can be easily carried out from land has attracted a great deal of attention from businesses that are worried about arranging ships and divers. In the future, it is said that it will continue to demonstrate in various scenes, promote the development of commercial machines while listening to the demands of the site, and aim for commercialization by the end of 2022.
At the unveiling, Mr. Tomoaki Matsuki, G Manager for Drone Business Promotion, Business Development Department, KDDI Business Creation Headquarters, Mr. Kiyoichi Sugaki, Executive Vice President of Prodrone, and Ryoichi Kawada, G Research Manager for Innovation Collaborative Creation, KDDI Research Institute Innovation Center. He took the stage one after another. Mr. Matsuki talked about the outline of the smart drone, which is the basis of the water-air combined drone, and the future possibilities. Mr. Sugaki explained in detail the specifications and structure of the aircraft. Mr. Kawada explained the acoustic positioning mechanism developed to grasp the position of the underwater drone.
After that, the scene where the aerial drone actually took off, flew, landed, took off, flew again and landed was released. The underwater drone dive and underwater video after landing could not be unveiled due to the equipment trouble just before, but according to the demonstration video in Kitakyushu City released on the same day, the underwater drone was released after the aerial drone landed. It was clearly shown that the images acquired by diving can be confirmed remotely in real time.
Where the water-air combined drone will take off after landing