双葉電子工業 conducted flight tests in severe weather using its FMC-02Q industrial drone at a public demonstration held by the National Research Institute for Earth Science and Disaster Resilience. Conditions of up to 300 mm/h of rainfall and wind speeds of 12 m/s were recreated to assess the impact on the aircraft's behavior, sensors and voice functions.
At a public demonstration held at the Large-Scale Rainfall Experiment Facility of the National Research Institute for Earth Science and Disaster Resilience, 双葉電子工業 conducted verification flights using its FMC-02Q industrial drone. The objective was to recreate the rainfall and wind conditions found at disaster sites and identify issues affecting aircraft behavior and sensing in severe weather.
The experiment was conducted indoors in a GPS-denied environment. The drone was manually piloted in altitude-hold mode while rainfall and wind conditions were varied in stages. Rainfall of up to 300 mm/h and wind speeds of up to 12 m/s were recreated, and the impact on the aircraft's attitude stability, onboard camera footage and speaker used for voice communications was assessed. The aircraft's specifications, including water resistance equivalent to IPX3, wind resistance of 15 m/s and a maximum flight time of 40 minutes, were also tested.
The results showed that flight was possible in conditions of 300 mm/h rainfall and wind speeds of 12 m/s, with no significant abnormalities observed in the aircraft's behavior or sensor data. However, it was confirmed that raindrops adhering to the camera reduced video visibility in heavy rain.
Going forward, the company plans to improve the information-acquisition performance of the camera and sensors based on the data collected, while continuing to verify the drone's flight capabilities and on-site information-gathering capabilities in severe weather.