Drone Aviation Holding, a US-based drone manufacturer, has won a patent from the US Patent and Trademark Office for its electric tethered aerial platform (ETAP) technologies, which are currently being used in its WATT and BOLT tethered drones.

Entitled ‘Apparatus and methods for tethered aerial platform and system’, the new patent will enable Drone Aviation to expand its intellectual property (IP) portfolio.

Currently, the company's IP portfolio features an exclusive commercial license for a number of unmanned vehicle technologies developed by Georgia Tech Research, US.

"This new patent delivers a significant competitive advantage for the company while expanding the value of our existing IP portfolio."

The unmanned vehicle technologies include the Georgia Tech UAV Simulation Tool (GUST) autopilot system, as well as vision-based navigation and autonomous flight management software used on the WATT and BOLT tethered platforms.

Drone Aviation Holding chairman and CEO Jay Nussbaum said: "As drone adoption accelerates, it is vital that we protect the key enabling technologies and innovations that are at the heart of our tethered solutions and provides for their safe and reliable operation.

“This new patent delivers a significant competitive advantage for the company while expanding the value of our existing IP portfolio which includes an exclusive commercial license to vision-based navigation and advanced autonomous flight management software that we acquired in 2015.”

The company said that its WATT ETAP is an electric tethered drone, designed to provide secure and reliable aerial monitoring for longer periods.

Equipped with a Kevlar armoured tether, the platform provides unjammable command and control, as well as an uninterruptible power and secure collection and distribution of sensor data from altitudes of up to 400ft for up to eight hours or more.

WATT ETAP can be used for various government, news gathering, as well as industrial and emergency response applications.