French micro civil unmanned aerial vehicle manufacturer Lehmann Aviation has launched its LA300 automatic drone for professional still aerial images in the mining and construction sectors and will start deliveries of the new drone worldwide next month.

The LA300 is used for surface and raw mate- rials volume calculations in openpit mines.
The drone does not require piloting skills and uses a Windows 8 tablet and the 41-megapixel camera of the Nokia Lumia 1020, Lehmann Aviation founder and CEO Benjamin Lehmann tells Mining Weekly.

“Operations have never been easier. Users can programme the flight path on any Windows 8 tablet, transmit the data to the drone using Wi-Fi and launch it by hand. After a flight of up to 30 minutes, the aerial robot will automati- cally land in a chosen location,” he explains.

For flight preparation and mission control, the user enters the area of interest and waypoints on the tablet and Lehmann Aviation’s OperationCentre software will automatically generate missions and program the drone.

The Nokia Lumia 1020 is mounted on the drone’s wing, which is launched by hand. The highly efficient Nokia 1020 camera captures high-quality still images or videos only and the data transmission functions of the phone are also used by the drone.

At the end of the mission, the user can easily process all the images in the most popular ortho- mosaic or digital elevation model software, which is needed to carry out volume and surface calculations. Lehmann says the LA300 is a highly user-friendly, efficient and rugged unmanned aerial system.

The drone range is up to 15 km at speeds of 20 km/h to 80 km/h. It can also be flown in harsh environments, from –25 ºC to 60 ºC, with wind speeds of up to 35 km/h. With the Nokia Lumia 1020, the LA300 weights 950 g. It is 45 cm long and has a wingspan of 92 cm.

The LA300 kit includes two wings, one electronic flying platform, a power system and a set of accessories. The OperationCentre under Windows 8 is included in the kit, which does not include the Nokia Lumia 1020 and Windows 8 tablet.

Lehmann Aviation drones have a one-year warranty and can be regularly upgraded to newer versions.

“There are two major benefits of using this drone in the mining industry. First of all, there is a huge cost reduction, compared with taking aerial images and conducting further image processing from a manned aircraft. Secondly, there is a time reduction, as the drone performs the same task, such as noting all the measurements, compared with an operator who manually records measurements on the ground,” Lehmann says.