French drone technology specialist Parrot on Monday revealed its Anafi UKR family of compact UAVs for intelligence, surveillance, and recognition roles at the Paris Air Show. The platform was initially developed for Ukrainian forces and is now being offered for wider defense and public safety missions. It is also highlighting a platform-agnostic autopilot.
The Anafi UKR, which encompasses a spoof-proof multiband frequency hopping radio, as well as real-time optical navigation to operate in GNSS-denied airspace, is priced at $19,000. Priced at $15,000, its Anafi UKR GOV unit for civil applications does not have a radio but uses 5G and Wi-Fi connection instead.
At the airshow, Parrot is demonstrating the 959-gram Anafi UKR micro UAV to convey how they can fly pre-programmed missions individually or in clusters and be ready to deploy in two minutes. The company anticipates interest from law enforcement agencies, first responders, and emergency relief operators.
Also this week in Paris, the company is launching its Chuck 3.0 autopilot, which can be integrated with multiple drone architectures, including quadcopters, VTOLs, airplanes, and helicopters. The compact unit uses artificial intelligence to support autonomous flight and meets sovereignty requirements with no Chinese components.
According to Parrot chief revenue officer Chris Roberts, the Chuck 3.0 module provides other drone developers with an accelerated path to market by avoiding the need to develop their own autopilots. “The combination of sensors, optics, and AI algorithms makes it a lot easier to fly and also to process data gathered,” he told AIN.