When there are damage to energy infrastructure, such as electricity pillars or gas pipelines, expensive helicopters are often used to inspect them. The aircraft have begun to replace some of these inspections, but the flight time for them may be limited. Now a new company has produced a drone with a wide range to fill this project and, while the company has retreated to any “dual -use” request, it is clear that it could be used in a political environment to inspect the infrastructure that has been damaged by the war.
Hamburg, based in Germany Beagle It uses long -range drones to capture data on energy infrastructure. It has now increased a round seed of 5 million euros co -existed by Aenu (through Fabian Heilemann) and PT1 (via Nikolas Samios partner). Prior to this it had increased the € 1.9 million funding to pre-spades, as well as 2m euros in grants and subsidies.
Co-founder Oliver Lichtenstein says he and his team have spent five years by developing what they pay for a “wings” computer complying with strict EU airspace regulations for large-scale flights and no personnel in the hotel-the drone is literally increasing from housing.
“Our customers pay us for data with the pipeline kilometers. We are positive in Germany with the current team and the functions,” he said. “We plan to use this business funding to accelerate growth.”
Here’s how it works: A operator sends geographical data of their grid to Beagle and gets an excerpt based on the price per kilometer for one or both Beagle products (methane detection or risk detection).
Of course, Beagle has competitors, including Intero, the Adlares Charm helicopter (which detects methane emissions), as well as a local helicopter or small plane services. In addition, Nearmap (US) is similar to the business model.
However, Beagle claims to have 75 times the satellites, it is cheaper, has lower emissions than planes and is allowed to fly repeatedly to fly long distance.
The “Made in Germany” solution also means that it has full control of data and software, which has an advantage in today’s world where systems outside the EU can appear against geopolitical heads.
In addition, Lichtenstein said: “We have operational approval for EU airspace flights and we can cover 80% of the EU region, except for densely populated areas.”
The market is of course large. In the EU it is worth 2 billion euros Only, given the regulation of the EU methane requires Monitoring methane emissions and the US is planning follow The same path.
But while the company is limiting its aircraft to political applications at present, Nikos Samiou, chief executive on PT1, commented that it could be used in other scenarios: “In a world where critical infrastructure attacks, it was never more important for real-time monitoring for Infrastructure.
Lichtenstein was previously with the Drone Advisory Council at the German Ministry of Transport and is now Deputy President of UAV Dach. He has joined Jerry Tang (Robotics Engineer), Mitja Wittersheim and Bendix Böttger (former Dach for Trustpilot sales head).
While at the Federal Ministry of Transport working to implement the EU Regulation, Lichtenstein met with Tang and turned the idea of the company.
