08.12.2020 ACAPOL P8 team visiting the company Autonomous Flight Technologies from Romania
ACAPOL P8 team visiting the company Autonomous Flight Technologies from Romania
On December 8, 2020, the ACAPOL P8 team, part of the “Educational for Drone (eDrone)” project, made a visit to the company Autonomous Flight Technologies (AFT) (autonomous / unmanned flight technologies) from Romania.Since October 15, 2016 and until now, the Academy “Stephen the Great” is part of the project “Educational for Drone (eDrone)”, funded by the European Union through Erasmus +, action KA 2 Capacity building in higher education, with the participation of partners higher education institutions and associations from Armenia, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova, Italy, France, Romania and Poland.
The aim of the eDrone project is to define a learning tool to provide more opportunities for access to new skills related to the use of drone technologies in professional activities. On this occasion, the P8 team had a great opportunity to visit this company and get acquainted with its work. This visit enrolls perfectly into the field – Educational for eDrone. It should be mentioned that Autonomous Flight Technologies is one of the pioneers of the UAV (unmanned aerial vehicle) industry in Romania, which has been developing and producing aerial platforms since 2004. Today, AFT is the Romanian company no. 1 in UAV and one of the top in Eastern Europe. It offers complex solutions for civilian applications (the first autopilot was developed in 2006) and for military operations (the first target drone was produced in 2005).In 2017, they obtained NATO recognition for the best implementation of STANAG 4609. The company's mission is to be one of the most important as technology providers in this industry. Its vision is to minimize the importance of piloting skills in relation to the human factor. Drones offer complex solutions in a friendly and intuitive way, based on the highest technologies. The technical details are the success of the UAV.
The company's activity focuses on values, motivation and trust in supporting the team, these being: the passion for what they do, the determination in creating impact innovations and focusing on technical details, and last but not least self-confidence and team. All the above shows that the most important values of the company tend to promote its image among customer teams in the projects they build together. The motto “one team” emphasizes, through the cooperative style, teamwork, trust and tolerance towards the opinions of those who are involved.The company has a staff of 40 people, who by their attitude towards the activity they carry out starting with Monday morning of each week, demonstrate performance and professionalism. The work is difficult, at the same time pleasant. “I get satisfaction from what I do, I create ideas and I laugh”. The company deals with the design, development and production of custom software and firmware. It is worth mentioning that this company creates and produces UAV-like goods and continuously develops all adjacent subsystems without which it would not be possible to have a complete and functional unmanned aerial system. Here we can list: Hirrus Series, Signus Series, Quarrus Series. All these subsystems as: ground data terminal; ground control station; launcher etc., have recently become good independent systems to be integrated into other UAV systems.
Therefore, the use of drones by professionals will open new scenarios that require practical and theoretical knowledge and that go beyond the simple driving and maneuverability of drones. The drones will be used according to the mechanical characteristics, the detection equipment, the processing and use of the obtained information, as well as according to the national and local laws. With the help of drones, information can be acquired that will facilitate the use of advanced ICT solutions, thus acquiring new skills.
At the end of the visit, the ACAPOL team offered Mr. Emanuel Popp, manager of the company and Mr. Remus Dogaru, aeronautical inspector of the Romanian Civil Aviation Authority, a set of promotional materials that included: materials of the scientific session, brochure, calendar, poster and bag. They aim at disseminating and promoting materials both among the institutions involved in the project and those outside.
