Drones attached with speaker systems are being rapidly adopted by law enforcement agencies all over the world to remind communities of social distancing guidelines.  In response, the Netherlands-based Acecore Technologies has introduced a next level speaker drone.

The Zoe drone is perfectly configured for the purpose, carrying a waterproof camera and high quality loudspeaker system under a weather resistant drone that can take off from and land on any prepared vehicle.  Check out the details in the press release below – and watch Acecore’s Zoe in action in this video.

The following is taken from an Acecore Technologies press release.

In regards to the recent Coronavirus outbreak, Acecore Technologies announces an emergency response Zoe with loudspeaker & gimbal camera payload. The drone can be transported on the back of a truck with automatic RTK precision take-off and landing. Flight time is 30 minutes in the real world, even during heavy wind and rain.

Crowd management

Mounted under the carbon fiber Acecore Zoe, the 100 Watts loudspeaker has an audible range of 1 kilometer. At 100 meters altitude, the transmission has a volume of 80 decibels, which is as loud as heavy traffic. This makes the setup highly suited for crowd management, covering larger areas and reaching more people in less amount of time. Operators can either talk to their audience directly, or broadcast audio from a secondary device such as a laptop or a phone through the included handheld intercom.

The configuration includes a waterproof, gimbal stabilized camera with 10x optical zoom for detecting and recognizing perpetrators and groups of people. The camera feed as well as the drone’s control link have a range of up to 16 kilometers in ideal circumstances, using the newly released George Herelink and Surface Go setup. Using this controller, users can fly the drone autonomously through the ‘tap-to-fly’ function of the pre installed mission planner software.

Vehicle take-off and landing

The drone features a remote controlled electro magnetic lock (mag lock) on the landing gear. Combined with its RTK precision GPS antennas, Zoe is able to automatically take-off and land on the back or top of any prepared vehicle. Upon contact, the mag lock secures the drone and the vehicle can drive off to its next mission.

Using 17.000mAh 6s batteries, Zoe has a real-world flight time of a half hour.