TEKEVER and Santos Lab announce global strategic partnership

TEKEVER and Santos Lab, the leading Brazilian UAS (Unmanned Aerial System) manufacturer, are announcing a global strategic partnership. Both partners will join their capabilities to integrate technology, offer new products and join commercial efforts at a global level, with particular focus on the South American markets.

The AR2 Carcará is the first product to be jointly launched from this groundbreaking partnership and maked its debut at the Farnborough International Airshow.

The AR2 Carcará includes a water-proof airframe designed and produced by Santos Lab, specifically aimed at maritime and amphibious operations. The UAS is fitted with advanced onboard, communication and ground systems provided byTEKEVER, allowing the system to be fully interoperable with all other TEKEVER UAS products, and providing a new range of operational capabilities.

“We’ve teamed up to offer great products, built upon both our capabilities and technology, at a global scale. Santos Lab has a record of coming up with impressive new product designs, and bringing them to the market successfully“, said Ricardo Mendes, COO of TEKEVER Group.

“With this partnership, we are creating a true win-win relation. By being fitted with TEKEVER’s groundbreaking onboard, communication and ground systems, our products can get additional flexibility, versatility and reliability”, declared Gabriel Klabin, CEO of Santos Labs.

TEKEVER in Futuro Hoje - SIC Notícias

After a year filled with numerous successful demonstrations throughout the World, TEKEVER's unmanned aerial systems are presented to the Portuguese public in the last edition of Futuro Hoje, in the TV station SIC Notícias.

Dedicated to the new technologies and to a vision of the future of today's society, Futuro Hoje and its host Lourenço Medeiros reveal how TEKEVER's unmanned aerial systems (UAS) are being tested with the National Safety Police (PSP) and take the spotlight as a fundamental tactical support asset for public safety and security operations. The images collected by the UAS AR1 Blue Ray that are now broadcasted in this programme show a monitoring operation in the area of Parque das Nações (Lisbon) and it is quite easy to understand the added-value the AR1 Blue Ray brings to law enforcement action, through the gathering of real time images, the capacity to enable remote analysis and the empowerment of an improved situational awareness with respect to available tactical options. 

Exploring the application of 100% Portuguese technology at the service of Public Safety and Security in Portugal, the TV programme Futuro Hoje highlights how TEKEVER's unmanned aerial systems already deliver advantages to the PSP daily operations, for the benefit of the citizens' safety and security. 

You may watch the AR1 Blue Ray at Futuro Hoje, in

http://sicnoticias.sapo.pt/programas/futurohoje/2013/07/09/aparelhos-nao-tripulados-permitem-sobrevoar-zonas-comandados-a-distancia. 

AR1 Blue Ray at SEGUREX 2013 – Technology At The Service Of Security

With the Technology at the Service of Security slogan, the TEKEVER Group presents its unmanned aerial and ground systems portfolio for safety and security operations at the SEGUREX 2013 exhibition, which is taking place at FIL, in Lisbon, from May 7th to 11th. 

"TEKEVER's UAS systems are a real added-value to the Portuguese safety and security forces' current capacity, enabling the integration of an asset that delivers true air superiority to those forces' performance in the field.", explained Ricardo Mendes, the TEKEVER Group COO. Ricardo Mendes spoke at the opening of SEGUREX 2013 during the visit of the Portuguese Minister of Internal Affairs, Dr. Miguel Macedo, to the exhibition area of the Public Safety Police (PSP), where the AR1 Blue Ray is on display.

To signal this event, and in close coordination with the PSP, the AR1 Blue Ray performed a monitoring mission at the Parque das Nações site, accompanying the arrival of Dr. Miguel Macedo and its staff to the site to preside the event's opening. An excerpt of the video footage may be viewed at http://autonomous.tekever.com/ar1.

The AR1 Blue Ray has been at the centre of the strategic partnership between the TEKEVER Group and PSP, namely its Special Unit, with the ambition to provide this Unit with a UAS empowered with the most advanced information and reconnaissance capabilities for safety and security operations, including surveillance and monitoring of wide areas or crowds, as well as search and patrolling of areas and perimeters. Able to deliver high-definition imagery in real time, the AR1 Blue Ray comprises electro-optic and infrared sensors that ensure a broad operational coverage in day and night environments. "TEKEVER has been promoting the training of several police officers with the AR1 Blue Ray, to support PSP's missions and to have state-of-the-art Portuguese technology at the service of citizens' safety in Portugal.", concluded Ricardo Mendes.

The scope of the TEKEVER – PSP strategic partnership also includes the development of autonomous land systems, specifically designed for reconnaissance missions in urban environments. Hence, the LR1 SPYBOT is a small robot extremely robust that collects image and audio information and transmits in real time up to a 250-meter distance (outdoor environment), ensuring the situational awareness of the operational site.  This equipment is also in display at the Ministry of Internal Affairs Pavilion, at SEGUREX.

TEKEVER Conducts Successful Trials of the AR4 Light Ray UAS in Colombia

TEKEVER conducted an intensive one-week set of trials of the AR4 Light Ray UAS to the Colombian Armed Forces, to validate the system's powerful capabilities for intelligence, surveillance, target acquisition and reconnaissance (ISTAR) missions, under the extreme altitude and weather conditions of Colombia.

With very intense military activity against guerrilla forces and narcotraffic groups, the Colombian Armed Forces are everyday faced with the need to carry out ISTAR missions under extreme weather and geographic conditions. The Colombian landscape is poised with high altitude mountains that contribute to a very instable weather, prune to swift changes and speedy winds. These conditions, coupled with very dense vegetation, pose a true ambitious challenge to the use of Unmanned Aerial Systems by the Colombian Armed Forces.

The technical trials carried out by the AR4 Light Ray UAS were performed at high altitudes, around 3000 meters (about 10.000 feet) and right in the heart of the mountainous region surrounding Bogotá, demonstrating the system’s ability to perform in the most challenging scenarios and under the most demanding weather conditions.

"The trials were a complete success," said Ricardo Mendes, TEKEVER Group COO. "We met and exceeded the goals we had planned for, by demonstrating the usage of the system to perform multiple types of missions in one of the most challenging environments in the world."

In partnership with the Aviation Global Group, TEKEVER's AR4 Light Ray demonstration followed a special invitation from the Colombian Armed Forces in November 2012 to see first-hand the outstanding performance of the system, after its global market launch at the 2012 Farnborough International Air Show.

The Colombian Armed Forces retrieved valuable lessons from the demonstrations, which will be instrumental for its ongoing procurement on mini-UASs that are specially designed for surveillance missions and capable of delivering true airborne superiority. 

"After these trials, we are extremely confident that our system will be successful in fulfilling the special requirements of the Colombian Armed Forces.", said Ricardo Mendes. He reinforced that this opportunity to present the AR4 Light Ray UAS to the Colombian Armed Forces represents an important step towards the reinforcement of Portuguese aeronautics in the global aerospace market. 

TEKEVER ASDS Coordinates CHANGE Technical Meeting

Swansea in the United Kingdom was the location elected by TEKEVER ASDS to coordinate the technical meeting of the FP7 Aeronautics research project CHANGE (www.fp7-change.eu), dedicated to a combined morphing assessment software using flight envelope data and mission based morphing prototype wing development. At this meeting, very fruitful ideas were exchanged by the CHANGE Consortium regarding the flight envelopes and desired wing shapes required for the morphing solutions development work.

Morphing in aircrafts has been studied and used throughout recent time in order to increase their flight envelope. This characteristic is of the upmost importance in order to offer a greater efficiency, versatility and performance during the assigned mission. Moreover, an aircraft with the capability to adapt itself to each given situation is prone to achieve positive results to a range of different missions instead of requiring a specific aircraft to conduct one specific mission. The main objective of the CHANGE project is to study and develop a novel morphing system which integrates up to four different morphing mechanisms into in a single wing and to demonstrate this new ability in flight. This system would take advantage of all the performance improvements achieved by adopting its wing shape according to the mission requirements of each flight phase. 

Consequently, CHANGE envisions to mitigate the required energy (and thus fuel consumption) to maintain the aircraft's flight and to perform the necessary flight manoeuvres by offering the capacity to mould the exterior of the aircraft in order to enhance the necessary aspect of flight so as to lessen the required energy, such as lift over drag ratio, efficiency in aerodynamic control, lower stall velocity or to change to a better platform to perform a required manoeuver. 

In order to prepare the basis for an eventual cognitive morphing on-board controller, it is necessary for the CHANGE Consortium, led by TEKEVER ASDS, to develop software that is capable of rendering the most efficient morphed wing based on the information of the current phase. This software would therefore, be able to conduct an assessment of the introduced flight conditions of the wing and display the accordant morphed wing (using a database with all current morphing systems) capable to fly with the highest performance.

TEKEVER ASDS Invited for a NATO Study on Precision Approach Landing Systems

TEKEVER ASDS has been invited to participate in NATO's Industrial Advisory Group (NIAG) studying data generation and broadcast of a Precision Approach Landing System (PALS) based on a Differential Global Navigation Satellite System (DGNSS). 

As a result of previous developed work in the expertise field, TEKEVER ASDS will be Portugal's National Focal Point for the execution of the NIAG DGNSS PALS study, aiming to research a PALS, based on DGNSS technology and comprising modular avionics and ground/shipboard components to provide a range of landing minima and system configurations. 

DGNSS technology has been developed and deployed worldwide in response to the low resolution of the currently available GPS system. The standard DGNSS technique consists of the determination of the GNSS position from an accurately surveyed position known as reference station. DGNSS accuracy is in the order of 1 m (1 sigma) for users in the range of few tens of kilometres from the reference station, growing at the rate of 1 m per 150 km of separation. The word approach is used to describe the phase of flight that immediately precedes the landing. Based on DGNSS technology, the all-weather landing system to be studied shall remain always operational in a wide range of threat environments, exhibiting performance requirements tailored for a highly mobile force operating in a worldwide space.

TEKEVER ASDS's involvement in the NIAG Study Group DGNSS PALS (NIAG SG175) is scheduled to begin next month, when the Study's kick-off-meeting is scheduled to take place.

TEKEVER Unveils AR5 Life Ray in Portugal

TEKEVER publicly presents for the first time in Portugal the latest addition to its family of Unmanned Aerial Systems, the Tactical UAS AR5 Life Ray, at the AeroSpace and Defence Industries Association of Europe (ASD) Annual Convention, taking place on October 10th-12th, in Lisbon. TEKEVER sponsors the most important event for ASD, an Association that has 28 member associations in 20 countries, representing more than 2,000 companies with approximately 80,000 suppliers and bringing together the major players at the ASDS market.

Specifically designed for Maritime and Near-Shore Surveillance and Search and Rescue (SAR) missions, the AR5 Life Ray is an impressive 9-meter wingspan platform, able to achieve a cruise speed of 120 km/h, carry a 90-kg payload for multiple sensors and provide satellite communications, thus delivering a new added advantage to current monitoring activities and rescue operations. 

"For centuries, Portugal has looked towards the Sea for technological, social, cultural and economic prosperity. Once, we led innovation in Maritime environments, and it gave us greatness. Now, we are working hard to really push the envelope of technology with the AR5 Life Ray UAS, and it makes a lot of sense that a great product, primarily targeted to the Maritime Market, comes from Portugal.", commented TEKEVER’s COO Ricardo Mendes. The AR5 Life Ray is scheduled to begin operational tests in 2013.

TEKEVER’s UAS Presented in Las Vegas to the American Market

The AR4 Light Ray, TEKEVER’s fully autonomous UAS, will be present at this year’s edition of the AUVSI Unmanned Systems North America Conference and Exhibition, which takes place in Las Vegas from 6th to 9th of August.

With this international endeavour, TEKEVER positions itself as a potential supplier to the American and every pro-American market, for the United States and Israel have dominated this technology and associated sales worldwide.

TEKEVER’s move onto the American market is the logic, almost compulsory, follow-up after the extraordinary performance of the AR4 Light Ray at the Farnborough International Air Show, in the United Kingdom, where it flew daily between July 9th and 13th, thus becoming the first fully autonomous UAS to fly in this emblematic aeronautics industry.

The official presentation to the United States’ market of the AR4’s advanced capabilities for ISTAR missions will take place at the most prestigious event on unmanned vehicles and systems – the AUVSI Unmanned Systems North America Conference and Exhibition. 

The AUVSI Las Vegas 2012 Show is the ideal stage for that presentation, for it remains the primary forum for exhibiting and debating unmanned systems and technologies, gathering the main players in the market: organisations, companies and governmental entities from more than 40 countries.

TEKEVER’s UAS at Farnborough Stars in BBC Show

The AR4 Light Ray, TEKEVER’s UAS launched into the global market at the Farnborough Air Show 2012, was presented by the BBC journalist Anita Rani, in a prime time live broadcast from Farnborough, as “the example in Farnborough of the growing importance of unmanned aerial systems”. 

In BBC’s “The One Show”, it was also displayed a segment of the video footage produced by the AR4 while in flight, showing Farnborough’s Airport, the exhibition area and the many aircraft in the airfield (http://autonomous.tekever.com/ar4/index.html). 

The attention given by the British media to the Portuguese UAS is coherent with the enormous interest the aerospace industry and aeronautics professionals have expressed in regards to this first aeronautical product from the TEKEVER Group, which surprises for its effectiveness, flexibility and total ownership cost.

Farnborough 2012 sets Portugal’s entry into the world market of autonomous aerial systems, for the four public flights performed by the AR4 Light Ray, from July 9th to 13th, have attained high-performance levels, in spite of the intense rain and 25-knot wind weather conditions. 

Being the first fully autonomous UAS to perform outdoor flight demonstrations at the Farnborough International Air Show, already in its 48th edition, the AR4 Light Ray has granged the attention of clients, partners, government officials and media throughout the entire week.

Ricardo Mendes, TEKEVER Group’s COO, confirms in the meantime negotiations with different organisations in several continents. 

TEKEVER Disrupts The Unmanned Aerial Systems Market !

AR4 Light Ray in Flight

TEKEVER’s presence at this year’s Farnborough Air Show will be focused on the unmanned aerial systems market. TEKEVER’s AR4 Light Ray will be the first fully autonomous UAS to be exhibited in an international Air Show, performing daily flights between July 9th and 13th.

The AR4 Light Ray is a state-of-the-art mini UAS providing advanced capabilities for intelligence, surveillance, target acquisition and reconnaissance (ISTAR) missions in the most challenging conditions. Featuring a broad sensor payload portfolio, this hand-launched modular UAV platform is extremely adaptable and easy to operate, requiring minimum training and providing precise situational awareness whenever needed. Offering multiple modes of operation, from remotely controlled to fully autonomous, “the AR4 Light Ray delivers true airborne superiority, unprecedented operational readiness, reliable communications relay functions and powerful target acquisition capabilities, focused in on-board intelligence and tracking of specific static or moving elements of interest”, announced TEKEVER’s COO Ricardo Mendes. Farnborough will be the stage for the worldwide market launch of the AR4 Light Ray. TEKEVER is already in negotiations with Organizations from several European, Asian and South American countries.

At the 2012 UK Aerospace industry event, TEKEVER will have its own dedicated stand (Hall 2, Booth C6) and will be also exhibiting in the Static Display a 1:1 model of the AR5 Life Ray, a Tactical UAS that “sets new standards for unmanned systems’ performance in Maritime Surveillance and Search and Rescue operations”, said Ricardo Mendes. 

Make History With TEKEVER at Farnborough 2012

The TEKEVER Group invites you to visit its booth C6 in Hall 2 at the Farnborough Air Show, from July 9th to 15th, in the United Kingdom. 

At Farnborough, the TEKEVER Group signals the international acknowledgment of its leadership in the offer of disruptive technologies for the Aerospace, Defence and Security markets, after winning the coordination of eight European R&D projects in the Aeronautics, Security and Space expertise domains, within the FP7 context.

At Hall 2, Booth C 6, the TEKEVER Group will present state-of-the-art technologies in Tactical Communications Systems, Command and Control Systems and Autonomous Systems, entirely developed in Portugal.  

This Farnborough edition will also be a mark in the History of the TEKEVER Group, and Portugal, when, for the first time, an unmanned aircraft will perform daily flying exhibitions, between July 9th and 13th (http://www.farnborough.com/trade-aircraft/trade-flying-display-aircraft).

TEKEVER's AR4 Light Ray will be the first fully autonomous UAS to be exhibited in an international Air Show, setting a world premier and an accomplishment that will surely be remembered in the world's aeronautical market for years to come, reinforcing the Portuguese technology's positioning in the global worldwide Aerospace market.

President Cavaco Silva Signs TEKEVER’s new UAV for Maritime Operations

The TEKEVER Group presented the new Unmanned Autonomous Vehicle for Maritime Operations in this year’s edition of the Sea Forum, visited by the President of the Portuguese Republic Cavaco Silva that kindly agreed to sign the aircraft, which aims to establish a new era for the missions of the Portuguese Navy.

Specifically designed for maritime surveillance operations, the new UAV reveals advanced capabilities in detection, localisation and tracking of elements of interest, producing high-resolution imagery and video. This potential, allied to the possibility to pursue maritime operations under adverse meteorological conditions, is a differentiating element to the importance of autonomous aerial vehicles in the domains of maritime traffic control, coastal surveillance, fishing activity inspection, illegal activities’ detection, piracy combat and search and rescue operations.

In the context of the Sea Forum 2012, the TEKEVER Group presented its portfolio of maritime safety and security solutions that is the result of intense research and development efforts, involving specialised know-how and promising technologies in the areas of autonomous aerial vehicles, future generation communications systems and network-enabled command and control systems.

 

TEKEVER Takes A Leading Role in European Aeronautics R&D

The TEKEVER Group has been awarded two European Aeronautics R&D projects, coordinated by the Group’s subsidiary companies, in the 7th Framework Programme (FP7), in the value of 5 millions and a half euros, reinforcing its leading position as a provider of disruptive technologies for the Information Technologies, Aeronautics, Space, Defence and Security markets. 

In a sector strongly marked by fierce competition of international manufacturers and integrators, the TEKEVER Group invests in technological innovation as the strategy to conquer the international market, developing technologies and products that defy status quo and enable high added value. The two projects now awarded are focused in aerostructures and flight management systems (FMS), introducing new concepts and high potential approaches. 

The CHANGE project explores innovative concepts for adaptive aerostructures, incorporating new composite materials and intelligent materials, with the goal to significantly improve aircraft performance. Project BRAINFLIGHT, which results from the Group’s wide experience with autonomous systems, introduces an unforeseen approach to aircraft control. This new technology allows the shift of the navigation and control paradigm and it is applicable to both manned and unmanned aircraft, in the commercial, military and private contexts, giving way to multiple opportunities of commercial exploitation in the FMS, Flight Control Systems and cockpits international markets.

The two projects’ award, based on their high technological innovation levels, is evidence of the TEKEVER Group’s international recognition in the Aeronautics domain. It also bears a relevant mark for the Portuguese participation in European programmes, doubling the number of projects coordinated by Portuguese entities, and highlighting the TEKEVER Group as the Portuguese entity coordinating the highest number of projects in European Aeronautics R&D.

The results today attained by the TEKEVER Group enable the consolidation of its national leading position in the Research, Development and Innovation for the Aeronautics specialised sector, a market in full growth, and in which Portugal is committing a strategic investment with the creation of a technological cluster of international projection.