'Cooperative Lift' enables drone teams to share heavy loads

Australian drone technology company Freespace Operations has achieved a breakthrough with so-called ‘Cooperative Lift’ technology, which enables the company’s heavy-lift drones to work together to safely carry loads of up to 100 kg — four times what a single drone can manage. This enables Freespace to complete missions previously limited to helicopters or large bespoke airframes, and has already resulted in a multimillion-dollar contract with an international defence customer in the Asia–Pacific region.

“Whilst we’re used to seeing drones fly in patterns for light shows, getting them to physically work together to carry weight is a completely different challenge that we call Cooperative Lift,” explained Freespace Operations co-founder Ken King. “Universities and leading drone manufacturers worldwide have tried for years to solve Cooperative Lift, with limited success.

“Our breakthrough proves it can be done safely, reliably and at scale. We can now multiply the lifting power of a single drone up to four times while retaining all the flexibility of smaller, modular systems.”

At the heart of the breakthrough is the Callisto 50 — Freespace’s flagship heavy-lift drone platform, designed and manufactured in Australia. Combining advanced hardware with control software designed by Freespace co-founder and CTO Leonard Hall, the Callisto 50 is designed to deliver reliability and flexibility across the defence, infrastructure, mining and energy sectors.

“Cooperative Lift was an incredibly difficult technological challenge, both from a hardware and software perspective,” Hall said. “Because the Callisto 50 is already one of the most capable and reliable platforms in its class, we were able to unlock Cooperative Lift by building on a proven system that we knew was capable of being scaled in this way.

“It might seem intuitive at first, but accounting for all the different variables of flight across two or more drones is no small feat. The movement of the weight, and of course the wind and weather, make it one of the most difficult challenges in drone flight.

“We are immensely proud to bring this capability online; a world-first in our industry.”

By taking on jobs traditionally performed by helicopters — from delivering cargo at sea to moving equipment in hazardous environments — Cooperative Lift is said to offer a safer, cheaper and faster alternative. Helicopter pilots and aircraft can thus be redeployed to critical missions, while drones handle more repetitive, dull or dangerous tasks.

“This development will significantly increase the range of tasks that can be assigned to drones in a variety of heavy industry and defence applications,” King said. ‘Whether it is carrying supplies to a moving ship, mineral exploration, mining logistics, stringing new powerlines or delivering life-saving supplies in an emergency situation, this breakthrough will mean our customers can get more done with their drone fleets than ever before.”

Image: Supplied