Alexandr Novotný is one of the two founders of DronPro, a company that offers drones for fun, work, rescue and government. Additionally, he runs a flight school where you can learn to fly drones or perform specialised assignments such as high-altitude inspections or photogrammetry. Over the past year, DronPro has also provided drones worth tens of millions of Czech crowns to Ukraine.
Unmanned aerial vehicles – or dronesare not only for entertainment but also a means of doing business. What added value do you offer your clients?
At DronPro, we can train professional drone pilots within our flight school, who can then offer their services, such as altitude inspections, thermal inspections, photogrammetry, and creating maps and 3D models, as independent entrepreneurs.
On the other hand, we can design complex turnkey solutions for companies looking for smarter, faster and cheaper ways to address maintenance of their facilities and buildings; companies that want to monitor the performance of solar parks, monitor facilities, perform rescue missions, deploy unmanned technologies in agriculture and forestry, or use them for mapping or modelling.
Drones are also being used in the gaming industry to model reality-based virtual environments or in heritage conservation, where imagery can reveal problematic areas and help, for example, to create a replica of a historical feature. We also design scenarios for transporting shipments around manufacturing sites using drones and other revolutionary applications of drones in everyday operations.
In today’s world, drones are leaving a mark both in the air and online, and thus are becoming part of the defence industry as well. What potential do you see here?
The potential is great; with it, organisations’ concerns about drone attacks or airspace intrusions are rowing. At DronPro, we respond to these concerns, and thanks to our technological expertise, we can design tailored solutions to provide passive or active defence against drones. We can deploy detection systems that only detect the drone or outright elimination systems where special equipment interrupts the drone’s signal, and it either falls to the ground uncontrollably, or you take control of it. Another option is a special drone that captures an enemy machine (most often in an ejection net) and brings it down to the ground. Interestingly, this drone “eagle”, which can catch enemy drones, was also developed by a Czech team from the Czech Technical University in Prague.
Since safety is the most important element in the operation of drones, and especially in their future integration into U-Space flight operations, we at DronPro are developing our own software technology to ensure the safety of operations. This is the first-ever application under the new European drone rules, which should mean something similar to FlightRadar24 for “big aviation” in the drone world.
Drone footage of historic sites and nature is a tourist attraction. What do you offer in this area?
Photos and video from our drones are, of course, part of the service we offer. We can shoot anything from bird’s eye shots for film crews to an intimate wedding in nature or at a castle. Cities and municipalities often approach us about promotional videos for tourism, event organisers who want to capture the atmosphere at an event from an unconventional perspective, or real estate agents who wish to present their projects as effectively as possible. Also possible are 3D or 360˚ photos and footage for virtual reality or 3D tours.
Thank you for the interview.
