“We look forward to rolling it out more publicly in the coming weeks.” “We’ve got a great team of engineers on both the hardware, aircraft side, and also the software engineering side, that are working on the final modifications that will be going into our production version of the aircraft,” Barbieri said. Louis, is working with a larger manufacturing partner in preparation of ramping up its production to commercial scale. The company, which had been using smaller local manufacturing facilities in St. WingXpand has currently entered the optimization stage of engineering to prepare for commercial scale production. Using Barbieri’s patented technology, the young company began building test models, securing FAA airworthiness certifications and conducting flight tests in preparation for its official company launch at AUVSI Xponential. “Bigger wings equal longer flight times and you can carry more pro tools for our professional customers.” So, he invented a drone based on expandable-wing technology. “I knew that there was a real need in the market for a highly powerful, UAV or a small drone that can fly longer and carry more payload,” he said. This allows the aircraft to return to home, or follow a predefined exit criterion if GPS is lost when the drone is on a mission.ĭrone Startup WingXpand is Working to answer market needsīarbieri said he designed the WingXpand craft to meet a need in the marketplace, not currently being filled by commercially available multi-rotor or fixed wing drones. “We actually have a smart computer on board WingXpand so that we can have real-time object detection and also resiliency in GPS-denied environments,” he said. “We have a lot of flexibility with that payload integration, and we can also partner with our clients on custom integrations,” Barbieri said.īarbieri said the WingXpand drones will be equipped with onboard Edge AI (artificial intelligence) software and is capable of controlling fully autonomous flight. In addition to the agriculture and defense applications, the WingXpand’s open modular design allows operators to efficiently swap payloads to configure the drone for multiple uses including surveying, insurance inspection, aerial videography and package delivery. and use only components that are National Defense Authorization Act-compliant, he said. WingXpand plans to manufactures its drones in the U.S. “We’re really excited to start working with the defense and military customers in addition to the commercial customers that we’re already working with.” “We’ve heard from a lot of folks in the special forces community, both here, domestically in the United States and also internationally,” Barbieri said. He said WingXpand also plans to offer its services to the security and defense market and had featured its UAV at the Special Operations Forces Industry Conference in Tampa in mid-May. In addition, the company has been working with potential government and first-responder agency clients to promote the use of its drones for public safety applications such as wildfire surveys and inspections.
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