New Danish drone company

A new drone company has landed on Funen. It offers autonomous surveillance of ports, airports, or, for example, power plants or other critical infrastructure.

The company is founded by former SDU researcher Kristian Husum Laursen, who has now left the university.

He has spent the past year and a half developing the company based on his research into safe autonomous drones – drones that can fly safely without a pilot.

- Creating something, launching it, seeing it become something, and having others use it – that drives me, says Kristian, who developed the surveillance drone.

- There is a lot of talk about national security, and this type of surveillance can mean that we can better monitor the assets we have.

Safe drone surveillance 

Drones must generally have a pilot and are not allowed to fly over people. These are rules that apply throughout the EU.

However, together with his partner Jarl Møller Banke, Kristian has found a solution to get their surveillance drone in the air, even without someone controlling it. The drone is connected to a docking station with a cable. If the drone falls, it is automatically pulled back into the box so quickly that it cannot fall on anyone.

The surveillance drone can film – and, not least, disturb – people who come at night to, for example, a port or a combined heat and power plant.

Researchers contribute with companies

The University of Southern Denmark runs an entrepreneurship program – in collaboration with the country’s other universities – that gives researchers the opportunity to use their extensive knowledge in various fields to start new companies.

Kristian Husum Laursen is the first of eight Southern Danish researchers to be accepted into the project. He has spent a year and a half developing the product and learning how to create a company. Now he is ready.

- We are cutting the strings to SDU and standing on our own as a company. Now we need to find the first customers, says the entrepreneur.