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UBIQ Aerospace’s D•ICE was reported as an in-flight ice-protection system for unmanned aircraft, combining autonomous icing detection with electrothermal panels that heat the wing’s leading edge. IEEE Spectrum reported in February 2020 that the company had delivered a wing panel to its first customer the month before. That historical milestone does not establish the system’s current availability, certification, compatibility, or performance in routine operations.
How D•ICE was reported to work
In its 6 February 2020 feature, IEEE Spectrum’s account of UBIQ Aerospace’s D•ICE described an autonomous electrothermal system: it detects icing and heats selected aircraft surfaces to remove or prevent ice. Its initial focus was the wing leading edge, where ice can disrupt airflow.
The panels were described as installable during aircraft manufacture or attachable to existing wings. The article outlined two icing-detection approaches:
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- Aerodynamic changes: estimating parameters such as lift and drag, then detecting degradation associated with icing.
IEEE also reported that UBIQ was working on control algorithms and an energy-control unit to manage onboard power use. These are details reported in 2020, not a current technical specification or confirmation of what a presently offered system includes.
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- 【Quick to Assemble】 Velcro installation will not damage the drone body. Simply thread a velcro strap into the adjuster hole, adjust it to a suitable position according to the size of your drone, and fix it (the strap avoids the drone bottom sensor). Hang the matching sling onto the thrower lock to load the item (hang it according to the weight of the drone) and it is installed and shaken by hand, not loose, confirm as Best state.
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- 【Super Long Standby】 Weight about 28.3g design will not increase the load on the drone and damage the drone. Maximum Load: 750g, Built-in Battery Capacity: 350mAh, Standby Time: about 12 hours, Self-Charging Time: 1.5 hours. When the position of the hook under the airdrop deviates, you can press the black button on the side to the appropriate position to better control the airdrop items.
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Why ice is a flight hazard for drones
Ice can affect more than a wing’s shape. IEEE’s account identifies accretion on wing and stabilizer leading edges, propellers, and sensors. Ice on a wing adds weight and can reduce lift; on a propeller it can increase drag and reduce thrust. Iced sensors can also interfere with autopilot readings of speed and altitude.
A separate 2022 study by Oswald, Enache, Hann, Glabeke, and Lutz examined glaze-ice aerodynamic penalties on an RG-15 airfoil used in medium-sized fixed-wing UAV contexts. The researchers compared wind-tunnel measurements of a clean and artificially iced airfoil with computational results. They found limits in the selected turbulence model’s ability to capture stall onset and maximum lift, while it generally predicted the order of drag and moment penalties. This study provides context on icing’s aerodynamic effects; it did not test D•ICE or establish that D•ICE prevents those effects. Read the NTNU-hosted 2022 airfoil study.
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- 【Simple and Reliable Installation Method for Drone Airdrop】use Velcro to bind the belly of your drone body, (adjusted according to the actual model of your drone), the binding is mainly firm, and it is installed and shaken by hand, not loose, confirm as Best state! !
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- 【The Hook Under The Airdrop Can Be Adjusted in Position】When the position of the hook under the airdrop deviates, you can press the black button on the side to the appropriate position to better control the airdrop items.
NTNU AMOS’s 2019 news page likewise described drone icing as a severe hazard and referred to wind-tunnel research on icing and ice protection, without publishing a quantified result for D•ICE. See NTNU AMOS’s 2019 news and events page.
From university research to a first customer delivery
IEEE traced the work to a 2013 discussion between researcher Kim L. Sorensen, his adviser Tor Arne Johansen, and U.S. Coast Guard representatives about ice accumulation on UAVs. Sorensen continued the work as a visiting researcher at NASA Ames in 2014. In 2015, a prototype was tested aboard a UAV flying from Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson. The feature said the technology was later tested regularly in wind tunnels and on UAV flights, but did not provide a test count or full protocol.
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- USB CHARGING: Drone dropper with USB charging, quick release, 2.4G remote control, one button start quick release, remote control one button control.
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Johansen, Sorensen, Kasper T. Borup, and NTNU’s technology transfer office founded UBIQ Aerospace in Trondheim in 2017. IEEE reported that the company delivered an electrothermal wing panel to its first customer in January 2020. IEEE Entrepreneurship republished the story on 11 February 2020.
The first-customer report establishes a dated delivery milestone, not broad commercial deployment. The historical articles do not identify the customer, aircraft model, order size, price, or regulatory status.
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- Sensor Type: Rainproof airspeed sensor with dual temperature deicing system 35W 12 to 36V.
- Rain : Sealed structure resists moisture for outdoor flight use.
- : Intelligent dual temp prevents ice blocking the probe.
- Dual Read: Measures airspeed and temperature for flight data feedback.
- Drone Fit: Connects to suitable drone flight controllers for easy install.
What the evidence does—and does not—show
The 2020 IEEE coverage called D•ICE the first drone de-icing system to market. That is the article’s characterization; the sources cited here do not independently establish that no other system existed anywhere. They describe the system’s approach, development history, and reported delivery, but do not provide a named measurement of its ice-removal rate, energy consumption, effect on flight time, reliability, safety improvement, or adoption.
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Energy use is a particular design constraint for UAVs, whose available flight time is limited. Borup, identified in the 2020 IEEE article as UBIQ’s CTO, put the concern this way: “We need to be smart about how energy is used onboard an unmanned aircraft, because of its short flight time.” This is a contemporaneous explanation of the engineering challenge, not a measured battery-life result.
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- 【Broad compatibility】Universally Drone Airdrop System, for DJI Mini4/Mini3/Mini2/Air2/Air2S/Mavic 3/Mavic 2 DJI Series Drone/Spark.(Note: but not suitable for DJI phantom 3/4 &Inspire1/2 drone)
- 【Simple and Reliable Installation Method for Drone Airdrop】use Velcro to bind the belly of your drone body, (adjusted according to the actual model of your drone), the binding is mainly firm, and it is installed and shaken by hand, not loose, confirm as Best state.
- 【Effective Release Distance Exceeding 1km】The effective release vehicle of the drone is controlled by a separate remote control, and the remote control signal distance is within 1 km,and a more stable and reliable human-computer interaction experience
- 【Wide range of applications and anti-interference】The airdrop device uses a micro motor drive that is rechargeable, has an extra long standby time, and shields it from interfering signals that could interfere with the drone.Can be used for advertising, throwing fishing bait, throwing gifts, delivering meals, delivering wedding rings, etc
- 【The Hook Under The Airdrop Can Be Adjusted in Position】When the position of the hook under the airdrop deviates, you can press the black button on the side to the appropriate position to better control the airdrop items
The IEEE story also noted conventional aircraft methods such as inflatable boots and electrical heating, alongside mechanical, chemical, and electrothermal approaches. It said electrothermal equipment can be lighter than mechanical and chemical systems, but offered no quantified head-to-head comparison for D•ICE. Without comparable data on mass, power draw, protected surfaces, integration, and representative UAV flight performance, the sources do not support calling D•ICE categorically superior.
What is known about buying or using D•ICE now
The cited reports document a first-customer panel delivery in January 2020, but they do not establish present-day availability, public pricing, certification, aircraft compatibility, or a current sales channel. Nor do they identify consumer retail parts or a D•ICE manual. A consumer drone is not a substitute for this specialized aircraft ice-protection system.
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