Yuneec Typhoon H Drone with Intel RealSense Now Available for Pre-Order

Yuneec International has announced the pre-order availability of its Typhoon H unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) with Intel RealSense technology.

First shipments to customers will begin within four weeks. The Typhoon H comes with a factory-installed Intel RealSense R200 camera and Intel Atom processor; an ST16 controller and Wizard controller for dual operator mode; two batteries; extra propellers; and backpack.

As installed on the Typhoon H, the Intel RealSense R200 camera and quad core Intel Atom processor module work with the flight control firmware to add intelligent obstacle navigation. According to Yuneec, this is a major advancement over ultra-sonic collision prevention, which automatically stops the drone short of obstacles but cannot model the environment or intelligently re-route around obstacles. The module also adds downward-facing sensors to improve stability, which enables flight indoors or outdoors close to the ground, even with poor GPS reception.

“Intelligent navigation and obstacle avoidance in complex environments powered by Intel RealSense technology expands creative possibilities and enhances safety for our customers,” says Yu Tian, CEO of Yuneec International. “Now, users can confidently operate Typhoon H with RealSense technology in a wide variety of environments that previously required highly technical piloting.”

Intel and Yuneec announced a $60 million investment in August 2015 for product collaboration. The first collaboration was to power the ST16 ground station, which employs the Intel Atom processor.

Yuneec announced the expansion of its Typhoon series when it unveiled the Typhoon H UAV at CES 2016 in Las Vegas earlier this year. Typhoon H is equipped with six rotors and a 360-degree gimbal, which allows unlimited panning for 4K video and 12-megapixel stills with the CGO3+ camera. In addition, the landing gear retracts during flight to remove itself from the shot for unobstructed views.

Typhoon H also has a variety of flight and image-capturing modes, including point of interest, orbit me, curve cable cam, journey mode and team mode. New safety features include ultrasonic proximity detection to assist in avoiding large obstacles (which is operational when Intel RealSense is inactive) and a six-rotor safety fail-safe system, which allows the UAV to remain stable and land if a motor should fail.

A separately available Intel RealSense technology module for Typhoon H owners will be released in the near future.

Typhoon H with Intel RealSense technology is available for $1,899 at retailers and on the Yuneec website.