Safety First With ParaZero Drone Parachute SafeAir
Photo: ParaZero
ParaZero (Booth #552) is debuting a drone safety product that will keep people on the ground safe in case of a malfunction.
Called SafeAir, the solution outfits a 14-gram chip onto a platform that can sense if a drone is going into a freefall. ParaZero, based in Tel Aviv, Israel, works with manufacturers to determine how far into a freefall the system will deploy a parachute — usually about a half-second.
Traditional parachutes cannot deploy in a timely fashion for drones, which are typically limited to a 500-foot ceiling. So the company built a proprietary solution, where gas is pushed out of a tube, and at the end of the tube, the gas deploys small weights fastened to the perimeter of the parachute. The heavier a platform, the more gas is added to the cylinder to prevent a fall.
“Even if something is flying or has a problem 30 or 40 feet above the ground, in 10 to 20 feet, we will have it again in control,” says Oren Aviram, chief marketing officer for ParaZero.
The company, which just received a patent for the product, has worked with DJI and 3D Robotics to outfit some of its systems, as well even manned aviation company Martin Aircraft for its Jetpack product, used by first responders.
The company also makes an airbag for drones, which protects expensive payloads prominent in industries like cinematography, where a camera might cost up to four times as much as the platform flying it, says Aviram.
“We’re on the verge of an amazing market that’s developing. … We need to build together — all our industry should be responsible for a safe approach and build the right infrastructure for this thing to work and do well for everyone. That way, the industry will grow exponentially,” Aviram says.
