This Is the Automatic Hover-Drone

Whether one defines it as a “hover-bot” or a “robotic hover-drone”, the Rooster is an innovative development. When one sees it standing on the ground, it appears as if it invites a Rorschach test. Among the associations it raises: a video camera standing between two metal wheels, an agricultural harvesting tool, and even two spiders facing one another. But once receiving the signal, the Rooster begins to hover in the air with speed and grace, enters though doors and windows, rolls in the air, rolls on the floor, and leaves as easily as it enters – it reminds one of a bird more than anything else.

“This combination permits it to surmount difficult obstacles, enter subterranean tunnels, and operate in urban or industrial landscapes and other crowded or dangerous spaces. It combines unique structure and combination of capabilities”

Robotican was founded approx. a decade ago by graduates from the Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, and is situated in the town of Omer, out of a Zionist goal of bringing high-tech industry to Israel’s south. And, indeed, it constitutes today one of the pillars of the Negev high-tech ecosystem. The company specializes in autonomous robotics, and its vision is to lead autonomous technologies of robots and hover-drones for military, HLS, and commercial applications. The company’s 45 employees, all Negev residents, mostly work in R&D, focused on software and algorithmics required by autonomous robotics. Recently, the company even won Israel’s Ministry of Defense’s National Hover-Drone tender. “Robotics is a global trend, which grew during the COVID-19 era, and the demand it brought for operating systems without human presence, in an autonomous and automatic manner, or by remote control”, notes Balshai, and says that the Rooster was developed by the company over approx. five years, during which it was tested in varied scenarios, while the company developed and implemented unique solutions for adapting the system to its users, until it reached sufficient and optimal maturity.

Performing complex tasks
The Rooster platform comprises a small, smart hover-drone, which is at the system’s core. The hover-drone is wrapped by a cylindrical cage, composed of two unique flexible cylinders, permitting its rolling on the floor and protect it from physical impact with obstacles – both when flying in the air and rolling on the ground. A HD camera and various sensors produce information transmitted in real time to its operator using local Mesh communications, in which each of the three hover-drones serves as a communications relay for the others, to help coping with difficulties and disturbances inside structures or underground.

Since its launch, the Rooster is operated by a variety of clients in Israel and abroad, mostly from the defense sector. The tasks are varied and grow per the clients’ needs – defense, policing, rescue, and even scanning canisters, piping, and tight spaces. “Anyone required to search and monitor a place humans cannot, or should not, enter can use the system – it is user-friendly, easy for use, and produces excellent results”, emphasizes Balshai. “Think, for example, or security forces facing terrorists holding hostages in a big building. The Rooster will scan the building to receive real-time intelligence about the building and terrorists’ locations. Security forces could listen to evens inside the building and make critical informed decisions in real time, saving human lives”.

“Another use is in a partially collapsed building where there is need to locate survivors. The Rooster will locate the survivors by its camera, with its microphone and speaker permitting communication with the survivors and accurate triage, as well as planning their rescue. All of this is done without risking the rescuers. An optional gas sensor can help the rescuers avoid entering areas in risk of explosion”.

Robotics advance all the time. What makes the Rooster unique in this rapidly developing market?
“Several things: its small physical size, its unique structure, and its varied innovations in both hardware and software permitting it to both roll and fly, while producing required information. By the way, its name, Rooster, hints at an animal living in a group, capable of both ground movement and flight. Its planning and materials grant exceptional resistance to damage due to impacting walls, door frames, ceilings, or even falling down stairwells. This power grants its operator with great operational confidence and permits quick and efficient operation, more than any other system. Furthermore, the combination and systemic operation of a trio of hover-drones, operated by a single operator, permits operational flexibility, with optimal utilization of the force. The control unit permits controlling all three hover-drones, while watching their transmitted video”.

And if we look a bit ahead of us?
“The Rooster has several directions of development. On one vector, we will continue to combine various sensors as per our clients’ requirements, and on another vector, we will combine autonomous capabilities into the system, both for mapping, navigation, and movement within buildings and performing the overall mission. This means operating sensors and drawing conclusions from their information by an AI, to make things easier for the operator, as well as to permit operations when no direct communications are possible and streamline operation by reducing the required operation time and improving the visual product from the robot’s sensors. We expect that these development will broaden our variety of clients, especially in the commercial market”.

Towards full autonomy
Another example given by Balshai is of chemical plants required to monitor closed areas and detect hazardous material leaks. “This task may be performed by the Rooster, which features a material detector capable of detecting such leaks. The product can also reach tight areas and small openings in the plant, where a human employee cannot enter”.

What is the vision? Where is the company heading?
“The world of robotics is a rapidly growing field in terms of uses and applications. Robotican will continue realizing its vision of combining autonomous capabilities to create a safe autonomous future. The company has a variety of products as part of this vision, such as the ‘Goshawk’, an autonomous hover-drone intercepting hostile hover-drones by catching them in a net. The entire process, from take-off to landing, is autonomous. The system is intended to defend against hostile hover-drones, while preventing collateral damage caused by using electronic jammers or falling hover-drones. The company also has an autonomous kit, including unique sensors and software, permitting the transformation of any ‘dumb’ robot into a ‘smart’ autonomous robot capable of mapping its environment and obstacles and autonomously navigating between any two points in that environment. The company also developed a unique simulation used to develop autonomous capabilities with machine learning to build the appropriate AI. We expect a significant growth in the commercial use of robots, and this thanks to safety and autonomy improvement, and this is why we are there to allow growth and development in these directions”.

In collaboration with Robotican