UAS Drones
National Center for UAS/Drones
CATEC is the main national technological center for the development of UAS/drone technologies and an international leader in various technologies applied to unmanned aerial systems.
CATEC has a large multidisciplinary team that allows it to develop customized technological solutions based on UAS.
In addition, CATEC is a UAS operator, which allows it to validate technologies in operational environments and support companies in the deployment of new services and products.
CATEC’s main capabilities in UAS/drones are oriented towards:
- Tailor-made solutions and qualification support
- Airborne data processing with AI
- Airspace integration
- Tailor-made payloads
- BRLOS communications systems
- Autopilot and Ground Station
- HAPS
Applications with UAS/drones
CATEC has extensive experience developing customized UAS/drone-based solutions for the following applications:
Inspection and maintenance of infrastructure, both high and low
Environmental monitoring
Surveillance of large areas
Construction support
Agriculture
Emergencies (search and rescue, forest fires, etc.)
Processing and exploitation of aerial data
CATEC has significant experience in developing and exploiting aerial data for multiple applications, using both multispectral cameras and LIDAR technology:
Infrastructure inspection: automatic detection of defects in power lines, bridges, roads, tunnels, wind turbines, etc.
Forest fire monitoring
Generation of high-precision 3D maps
Agriculture and land management
CATEC develops key technologies for the safe integration of UAS into airspace:
- Automatic detection and avoidance (DAA) systems.
- Technologies related to U-space/UTM.
- Surveillance systems and network ID and ADS-L beacons.
- 4D tactical trajectory planning and replanning systems.
- Automatic detection and resolution of conflicts at both strategic and tactical levels.
Tailor-made payloads
CATEC develops customized payloads to meet specific requirements not found in commercial products.
CATEC has the capacity to:
- Mechatronic design of the stabilization and pointing system.
- Embedded SW for generating video streams (H.265) and sensory fusion with telemetry data.
- Onboard processing for automatic detection, tracking, classification, identification, and geolocation of objects of interest.
- Design and integration of the RLOS and BRLOS communications system.
- Ground mission station design.
- Custom SW for complete mission management.
BRLOS communications system
CATEC designs and integrates BRLOS communications systems based on the following technologies:
LTE and 5G mobile communications, including multi-SIM systems
Satellite communications systems (Iridium and Starlink)
Datalink-based LOS communications with multiple repeaters
Flight control system technology
CATEC has its own rapid prototyping technology for autopilots (FCS) and ground control station (GCS) software.
- Facilitates immediate implementation of the system.
- Hardware developed entirely by CATEC and used in various projects since 2012.
- Generic GCS implementation in C++ and Qt (multi-OS platform) that allows high customization.
- Guidance and control algorithms for aircraft with different configurations: fixed wing, rotary wing, multirotor, and VTOL/VCA.
- Reuse of already implemented and tested functional components.
CATEC develops key technologies applied to HAPS
- Technologies for control and planning oriented towards “station keeping”
- Custom flight control systems
- Planning trajectories taking into account weather conditions (especially wind)
- Design and development of payloads and mission-specific systems for HAPS
- Procedures and systems for safe integration into the airspace during the climb and descent phases
- Systems of coordination and cooperation between multiple HAPS
Qualification support
In addition, CATEC has experience supporting companies in qualifying UAS to enable industrialization and scalability of the solutions developed, especially in the open and specific categories (up to SAIL IV).