Drones in the Lone Star

Rory Jackson reports from another successful edition of the Xponential trade show and conference, this time in Texas’ Space City

With a show floor hosting more than 500 exhibitors, Xponential’s 2025 show in Houston presented much for customers, developers, regulators and researchers of uncrewed systems to partake in. New advancements in resilient navigation, efficient propulsion, smart sensing and much more were displayed en masse for the world to see – a selection of which is presented here in the first of our two-part, post-show report on autonomy’s biggest event.

UXV Technologies unveiled its newest sensor gimbal, the Optroxa GMB-450, developed as a successor to its GMB-650 released in 2024, and scheduled to start shipping in September 2025.

“We’ve managed to reduce the weight by 200 g, down to 450 g – hence the product name – while also upgrading to a newer, more precise and STANAG-compliant laser rangefinder and also integrating a laser pointer for target designation,” said Steven Friberg of UXV Technologies.

“We’ve also upgraded its EO camera to a new Sony IMX900C, enabling higher resolution and better low-light performance with Global Shutter. We also have a new LWIR sensor, still utilising a LYNRED system per our strategic partnership with them.”

The Danish company has also upgraded the internal electric motors to a new coreless, frameless custom design, giving much finer control with no torque cogging; this customised motor has also been the biggest source of weight reduction in the new gimbal design.

Its I/Os have additionally been updated to include USB host-out so that data from external USB devices (such as SIGINT data from software-defined radios, or video from other cameras) can be fused with the GMB-450’s own data.

“And perhaps most importantly, for the gimbal’s data processing, we’ve gone from the NVidia Xavier NX to the NVidia Orin NX, giving three to four times the compute power,” Friberg added.

“We’re the only gimbal manufacturer in the industry that takes the raw sensor data directly into the GPU, and also offers an API so that end-users can install and run their own software on the gimbal, while keeping the price at about half that of competing gimbals.”

UAV Navigation-Grupo Oesía has expanded its GNSS-free navigation capabilities with the release of VNS03 – the third generation of its Visual Navigation System. In addition to using an EO camera for visual odometry and template matching, (the use of visible reference points below the UAV it is installed on), the VNS03 comes with an IR camera for continued operations in nighttime and low visibility conditions.

“We’ve also incorporated two new algorithmic features into VNS03. The first enables the use of various types of maps – even outdated or non-professional ones such as freely available online maps – as reference points for UAVs equipped with the VNS to localise themselves. This is achieved by leveraging AI networks that semantically interpret and analyse the content of these maps, allowing the VNS to operate reliably even with imperfect or informal map data,” said Miguel Angel de Frutos of UAV Navigation-Grupo Oesía.

Typically, the VNS would require an up-to-date map, such as one generated by a UAV prior to the mission at hand. However, with this new update, Google Maps and other potentially out-of-date sources can be used by UAVs to track their position, find their way and minimise drift during prolonged GNSS outages.

“The other new algorithm is TERCOM – our Terrain Contour Matching algorithm,” de Frutos continued. “It uses terrain elevation data from both an onboard AGL sensor and a high-accuracy digital elevation model to enhance navigation performance, even in highly challenging scenarios such as low-altitude, high-speed operations.”

The company is also in the final stages of securing a new project, called ‘PNT from LEO’ via the European Space Agency and the Spanish Space Agency, to develop position, navigation and timing (PNT) capabilities using low Earth orbit (LEO) satellites rather than GNSS. It is based on the principle that virtually any LEO satellite transmits and receives signals that can be harnessed for navigation purposes. UAV Navigation-Grupo Oesía notes that such capabilities might be referred to as ‘opportunistic signal navigation’.

The company meanwhile continues to expand its customer portfolio, delivering its autopilot and navigation systems to Tier 1 aerospace and defence companies in the USA, Australia, Europe and the UAE. These systems are integrated into a wide range of platforms – from fixed-wing aircraft and convertible VTOLs used for surveillance, to advanced loitering munition systems already deployed in real operational environments. Some of these munitions can fly at speeds of up to Mach 0.8 and cover distances of 300 km before striking targets with precision.

“As well as delivering autopilots for the Spanish Remote Carrier demonstrator within the European FCAS [Future Combat Air System] program, we’ve also been actively involved in real MUM-T [Manned-Unmanned Teaming] operations,” de Frutos noted.

“In one trial, several of our UAVs flew in formation around a manned jet aircraft. Additionally, our customer Alpha Unmanned Systems has successfully conducted MUM-T exercises using its rotary-wing UAVs in coordination with manned helicopters from the Spanish Army.”

Connect Tech unveiled its new Gauntlet carrier board, which integrates NVIDIA’s new Jetson Thor system-on-module, built for enabling (at the higher end) autonomous control of humanoid robotics.

“As well as integrating Jetson Thor, as the next generation of our embedded Jetson solutions, Gauntlet integrates two

1 Gb Ethernet ports and two 10 Gb Ethernet ports, which are critical for users looking to utilise NVIDIA’s Holoscan Sensor Bridge architecture on Jetson Thor,” said David Pearson of Connect Tech.

“But the vision platform is what stands out particularly across our Jetson product line. We have a high-density camera expansion interface on Gauntlet, as we did on Forge, our Jetson AGX Orin carrier, to enable a modular ecosystem around vision so that customers with varying use-cases – be they around SDI, FPD-Link, GSML or MIPI-CSI2 – can plug-and-play all of those.”

The company also showcased its new Jetson AGX Orin Inference Server, developed in partnership with USES Integrated Solutions. It integrates 12 independent Jetson AGX Orin modules into a server-based chassis, enabling very high computing power for applications such as detailed digital twinning simulations.

“All gigabit Ethernet communications between the Jetson Orin modules are handled by our managed Ethernet switch with 10 Gb uplink capability,” Pearson added.

Baker Engineering originated as a manufacturer of V8 race engines in the 1960s. Today, the US company is an engineering services provider for various engines and propulsion systems as well as a distributor of rotary engines from Wankel SuperTec GmbH in Germany.

“We started r&d into rotaries in 2009 with conversion projects to see how gasoline Wankels could be re-optimised for heavy fuel, with successful flight demos of that in 2023, and we’ve partnered with Wankel SuperTec to commercialise heavy-fuel rotary engines,” said Levi Roodvoets of Baker Engineering.

Under its sales partnership with Michigan-based Baker Engineering, Wankel SuperTec supplies two different modular rotary engine families, with displacements of 350 and 500 cc, respectively, per rotor.

These engines were specifically designed from the ground up to run on heavy fuels, and Baker will be distributing them in North America. On display with Baker at the show was the R350 HO, an uprated version of Wankel SuperTec’s turbocharged, 350 cc displacement engine family that is currently under development.

“It features a high-pressure, common rail direct-injected, spark-ignited combustion system, and the turbocharger gives both increased power density and reduced power degradation at altitude,” Roodvoets added.

“The R350 HO also functions with a dry sump to enable vehicles to roll and pitch freely, and its low-profile design helps it integrate into almost any aircraft or ground vehicle, including as a propeller drive or hybrid range extender for VTOL applications.”

The single rotor version of the R350 HO weighs 22 kg, outputs 35 kW (47 hp) and achieves an optimal specific fuel consumption of 290 g/kWh. The modular, liquid-cooled design allows for an additional rotor to be added, increasing the weight by only 9 kg but doubling the power output to 70 kW (94 hp).

Hottinger Bruel & Kjær (HBK) has launched a new inertial navigation system in its MicroStrain product line – the 3DM-CV7-GNSS/INS. It has been designed for ease of integration via its OEM board design and 38 x 30 mm size, while still providing optimised performance including 0.05° roll and pitch accuracy, together with 0.25° heading accuracy and 1.5° per hour bias instability.

“It also has the ability to be paired with an L-band correction receiver [connected externally, not integrated inside the device itself] to eliminate dependence on cellular-based corrections. This can be useful for autonomous systems to retain navigational accuracy and efficiency in sparse or remote applications, such as agricultural robot operations or swarming drones running wide-area monitoring,” said David Fager from HBK.

“It has a header input, with UART [TTL] communications, given that it’s made to be mounted on a PCB; and for interfacing, we’ve got PX4 drivers, ROS drivers and our own MIP SDK for making integrations seamless and smooth.”

HBK also updated its SensorCloud RTK network correction service, a multi-continent, IP-based cloud network with a more scalable and cost-effective solution, while maintaining high-precision navigation enhancement and reliability, built on Point One Navigation’s correction network.

“It can be used by our products or other navigation hardware that need GNSS corrections via RTCM. Users gain access on rtkapp.sensorcloud.com by signing up for a monthly or annual service plan. All plans provide unlimited corrections along with access to True RTK or Virtual RTK. The other scale-enabling benefit allows users to leverage existing internet-connected platforms to access our RTK corrections via our NTRIP API for reduced costs in high-volume deployments,” Fager explained.

“It’s especially aimed at continuously operating robotic systems and swarms that rely on centimetre-level navigation accuracy constantly.”

We last featured INNengine in Issue 53 (Dec 2023/Jan 2024) for its Rex-B four-cylinder, two-stroke, cam-driven axial engine.

Since then, the company has made a number of updates to both the Rex-B and its larger e-REX engines, based on close feedback across the aviation and automotive spaces.

“The last Rex-B we showed you was the REX-B_125, a 125 cc engine and the initial iteration of this technology was intended to suit high-end model aircraft. For industrial UAV manufacturers, we’ve now designed the REX-B_300,” said Rubén Garrido Requena at INNengine.

“As well as 300 cc displacement, it’s a more durable engine because we’ve improved the lubrication and separated it from the fuel, and we’ve improved the power efficiency.”

The company was prepared to integrate liquid cooling, but found very few customers wanted that, citing extra weight and hassle. Instead, the lubrication has been designed to cycle oil via the cylinder head, which, combined with air cooling, has enhanced the engine’s thermal management and stability.

Meanwhile, the company has iterated its e-REX liquid-cooled automotive engine into the 700 cc e-REX_700, with 300 hours of test bench running accumulated on the e-REX technology, as of the time of writing, to test the wide range of parallel advancements achieved across its subsystems over the past year.

“For example, we’ve switched from port injection to direct injection in its four cylinders, with a high-pressure pump directly integrated onto the engine,” Garrido says.

“Additionally, as an opposed-piston engine, the e-REX needs a scavenging pump to compensate for the constant power generation. So, we’ve integrated a twin-screw compressor, which gives very linear induction across a very wide range of use-cases.”

INNengine is currently engaged with two publicly disclosable projects: one with a large OEM interested in using the REX-B_300 as an APU, and one with Horse (former a sole Renault subsidiary but now merged with ARAMCO and Geely) with an MoU to test and validate the e-REX_700, and then its exclusive licensing and volume-manufacture should all tests be passed.

Power4Flight unveiled its IntelliGen HP, a higher-power version of its IntelliGen PMU (also with an integrated starter-generator controller), developed following widespread customer requests for management of higher voltage and  higher power across aircraft, payloads and hybridised powertrains.

“We learned a lot from the standard IntelliGen, and so we developed a new control schema built around field-oriented control rather than trapezoidal six-step control, which will provide a lot more performance and flexibility in operations,” said Shaun Cochran of Power4Flight.

“We’ve also added internal heat sinks, to better pull heat out of the device and into the housing exterior via direct metal-to-metal contact, so the unit runs more efficiently than in the old design that just used thermal compounds.”

The new IntelliGen HP has also been made more configurable than its predecessor. While the older system could have just two low-voltage DC outputs of either 6 or 12 V (or one of each), the HP is internally software-selectable for different missions and the differing low-voltage payloads (or other subsystems) that a UAV operator might need to hot-swap.

Omnetics spoke with us about two new innovations across its lines of cable assemblies. The first was a new line of Nano-D, high-speed, high-performance interconnects.

“To design that new Nano-D line, we’ve modified the spacing of the insulator for the contacts, and we’re achieving up to 20 Gbits per line with less than 8 dB of impedance losses,” said Omnetics’ Scott Unzen.

“Using parallel-pair cabling, each contact matches two lines to the ground, with spacing between each group of pairings; overall, it will match the data requirements of today’s UAVs well, while also reducing the size and weight of the connector-cable pairing.”

The system will hence enable greater bandwidth for modern sensor packages (such as multi-sensor gimbals and housings), which must run GBs of data via onboard encoders and radios before such mission data can be transmitted to ground or cloud.

The company also showcased a new wired Polarised Nano (PZN) connector integrating magnet wire (also called enamelled wire), which features a significantly reduced insulation diameter over that of the Teflon-coated wire more commonly supplied. Because of this, eight or nine magnet wires can fit in the same space as one or two conventional, 32 gauge wires.

To produce connector assemblies with the new wiring, Omnetics purchased new equipment such as laser strippers, and aims to supply the new products to UAV customers as well as for satellite, quantum computer and medical applications. As of the time of writing, the product greatly reduces cabling weight while increasing price owing to processing requirements, although the company anticipates the price dropping to a level similar to that of their more standard wiring as production scales.

3DR exhibited its new Control N1 autopilot module, its latest highly miniaturised flight controller for both small and large UAVs of varying configuration.

“We’ve designed it as a more dense package than its predecessor, with 12 motor outputs supporting PWM, DShot and GPIO, seven serial ports, two I2C ports and more,” explained Leonardo Garcia from 3DR.

“It integrates TDK InvenSense’s latest generation inertial sensors for maximum stability, and we’ve moved to a single-sided board design for manufacturing, which has been key for putting a low price tag on it. We are proud to assemble and test everything within the US.”

The company also showed the QZPro, its new development kit-style UAV that comes with 3DR’s Micro Companion Computer (MCC) for developing and installing custom and experimental software for vehicles and operations. The UAV comes with a simple architecture (including having all compute subsystems on a single board within a monolithic carbon fibre frame) and peripherals with open industry standards to help streamline developers’ work in bringing products (be they software or hardware) to market.

Additionally, one of the key subsystems in the QZPro, as well as being a new standalone product offered by 3DR, is the Nimbus Pro radio. The system leverages the HaLow (the wi-fi IEEE 802.11ah) connectivity standard, enabling a medium bitrate and range performance between pre-existing alternative standards.

“Nimbus Pro supports between 1 and 4 MHz of bandwidth, brings the IP stack to basic telemetry radios and enables mesh networking,” Garcia added.

“That means you can track up to 600 UAVs or other assets from a single access point. We’re going to provide a web server to enable easy configuration of the IP stack, and it can also be paired to our current product line.”

Septentrio spoke with us about some of the key qualities and developments across its new mosaic-G5 P1, P3 and P3H ultra-compact GNSS modules, starting with their GNSS jamming and spoofing resilience.

“We’ve participated in many resilience tests, and recorded data from across a large plethora of jamming and spoofing scenarios, in order to develop and enhance automatic mitigations and anti-spoofing technologies in our mosaic-X5 module, both in wide band and carrier wave band,” said Francois Freulon of Septentrio.

“We’re working gradually towards implementing that level of anti-jamming and anti-spoofing in our G5 products, and we already have a baseline resilience level, including for example the ability to set notch filters at specific frequencies where interferences are coming from.”

He added that the P3 and P3H already integrate some automatic interference mitigations, such as automatic notch filter generations.

The G5 systems are built on a new ASIC technology developed and manufactured in-house at Septentrio, with the full benefits of that ASIC to be expanded upon across 2026. The company anticipates the next round of expansions will include new features for applications surrounding critical infrastructure and similar high-end industrial work.

Xoar International displayed its biggest propeller yet – a 94 in (238.76 cm) diameter, 22 in (55.88 cm) pitch system – to showcase its new capabilities (stemming from its well-sized, in-house machinery and tooling) in manufacturing and supplying larger (and aviation-certifiable) props for the advanced air mobility market, as well as very large, heavy-lifting UAVs.

“We have different lay-up options to determine the structure of the carbon fibre; for practical purposes, there’s an ASTM standard for testing crewed aircraft components, governing material specs and inspections, as well as production and QC processes,” Kevin He of Xoar told us.

“Here, we’ve used a carbon skeleton across this entire prop, reinforced by structural foams. Depending on the section of the prop, we use a different type and density of foam; the hub normally requires higher-density foam to take the higher torque loads, and the farther out you get to the blade tips, the lighter the foam density you can use, and that also better captures the necessary properties for the prop’s aerofoil.”

In addition to using various materials and controlling standard and custom manufacturing in-house, Xoar can produce such props with a diameter from 72 to 94 in.

Ghost Robotics has expanded the payload integrations of its Vision60 quadrupedal UGV, ranging from a new low-light camera, to a PTZ camera, a manipulator arm and a security payload consisting of Lidar, IR and low-light camera sensors packaged together.

“Each new payload serves a specific purpose. For instance, the low-light camera has a wide FoV to increase the UGV’s situational awareness in nighttime missions, and the security payload has three low-light cameras for perimeter monitoring, enabling it to detect people as far as 200 m away,” said Santiago Gambon Cerda from Ghost Robotics.

“The PTZ camera is suited to ISR operations as well as industrial inspections, and the manipulator arm features cameras on its base, arm and gripper, enabling the Vision60 to grasp and manipulate small objects, including door handles for traversing closed rooms and corridors.”

Ghost Robotics has also released a new software UI update, which allows users to choose the preferred source of odometry during autonomous operations, be it GNSS or Lidar-based maps. In the latter case, the Vision60 will record a 3D digital twin of its operating environment for georeferencing and positioning itself in environments where GNSS is insufficiently available or reliable.

Taisync has made an NDAA-compliant version of its RC7 handheld GCS. “We went through the list of banned countries, and removed and replaced every component that linked back to any of them; now, the RC7’s PCB is fabricated and assembled in Taiwan, and the system assembly is done in Taiwan too,” said Yan Li of Taisync.

The RC7 GCS features a 12 in (30.48 cm) screen, a battery enabling six hours of operation, and a dual band radio with 2.4 and 5.0 GHz links. The system is internationally certified to various standards, as well as being designed ergonomically for handheld interfacing with the mechanical toggles.

“For signal interfacing, it has Ethernet, HDMI, micro-SD and both USB Type-A and -C ports; Type-A is there mainly for dongles, while the Type-C is best used for charging, with a 30 W charger able to fully restore the battery in three and a half hours,” Li added.

Hitec Commercial Solutions came to the expo with two new servo products, broadening its range of actuator capabilities and applications.

For those prioritising safety-critical and certifiable avionics, Hitec has developed its new SR33BL-CAN – the company’s first redundant servo and, effectively, a dual-redundant version of its 90 x 64 x 33 mm, IP67-rated SG33BL-CAN industrial-grade actuator, with a MTBF exceeding 1000 hours.

“It’s essentially two servos built into one housing and output shaft, so if anything fails in either half, be it a signal or power input, a board mount component, one of the two motors or hardened steel gearboxes, it has a backup,” Shawn Spiker of Hitec told us. “We’ve been asked to make something like this for many years, but we’ve engineered it to be less expensive than competing redundant servos.” Owing to the redundancy, the SR33BL-CAN is sized at 100 x 33 x 195 mm.

Hitec also unveiled the SU33BL-CAN, its first underwater servo, which has dimensions of 70 x 33 x 130 mm, and can function down to depths of 1000 m. Rather than an oil-filled design, the actuator is instead designed to continue functioning in the event of water breaching and entirely flooding its housing, which the company estimates will bring its cost down to less than half that of competitor units.

Both new servos are expected to become available by October 2025, and will be manufactured in quantities to maintain shelf stock for fast, short-notice deliveries.

Cobra Aero is continuing development of its Jetfire turbulent jet ignition technology, aimed at enabling spark-ignited two-stroke engines to achieve the thermal and fuel efficiencies of a diesel engine, while retaining high power densities.

“It combines a loop-scavenged two-stroke architecture, with an active pre-chamber ignition system that helps scavenge the pre-chamber with a little bit of air, and as the combustion volume expands, it exhausts out of the pre-chamber as jets into the main cylinder, igniting the rest of the main chamber,” said Sean Hilbert.

This enables engines to run very lean in their main chamber, while better utilising all the contents of the cylinder, including insufficiently mixed pockets of fuel and air, and nearly inert exhaust gases from the previous combustion cycle. Overall, the result is improved power density and power efficiency over conventional ignition approaches, and around 40-45% thermal efficiency.

“The system achieves those levels of thermal efficiency with a wide range of fuels, including gasoline, heavy fuels, pyrolysis oils and hydrogen,” Hilbert continued.

“Hydrogen’s an especially interesting use-case, because Jetfire gives similar thermal efficiencies with hydrogen as a PEM fuel cell does, but without the degradation, and the power goes directly into a shaft without the efficiency losses of a battery, motor controller and electric motor.”

First rounds of testing data have shown that Jetfire increases thermal efficiencies in spark-ignited engines by around 40% during part-load operations (such as loitering), validating that flight times or carrying capacities could be increased by 40% through use of the technology.

“And between now and the end of the year, we’ll be diving into heavy-fuel tests; the system should enhance cold-starting and air utilisation, so there’s a lot of interesting hypotheses we’ll be working to prove-out over the next six months,” Hilbert added.

Trimble Applanix is continuing to expand access to its Trimble CenterPoint RTX correction service for GNSS, across both its APX product line of GNSS-inertial systems and the UAV space in general.

“While CenterPoint RTX has been a staple in the ag, construction, survey and geospatial industries, we’re seeing growing demand for its application in UAV-based mapping, guidance and control as drones extend beyond visual line of sight operations,” said Trimble Applanix’s Joe Hutton.

“The Trimble APX RTX GNSS/INS is designed for mapping payloads, such as Lidar and cameras. It includes subscriptions for both real-time CenterPoint RTX and post-processing, providing high-accuracy positioning and orientation data for generating map products.”

Meanwhile, the Trimble PX-1 RTX GNSS/INS is engineered for accurate and precise guidance and control, especially for UAVs taking-off and landing in confined spaces. It leverages CenterPoint RTX to provide robust centimetre-level real-time position and heading measurements, ensuring superior flight control and navigation.

“With centimetre-level positioning accuracy, UAVs are able to land in the exact same spot, and fly along the exact same flight path, each and every time,” Hutton added.

“Unlike RTK, CenterPoint RTX eliminates the need for a radio link; corrections are delivered directly to the GNSS antenna via L-band satellite. It also bypasses issues with unknown local datums from base stations because Trimble RTX operates on a consistent global datum, and it’s also easily scalable.”

Volz Servos has completed development of its upcoming DA 20-N actuator, designed as a cost-effective middle ground between its small, mass-produced DA 15-N and the mid-sized DA 22.

“We’re now working with a new EN 9100-certified supplier for the DA 20-N’s gears, who’ve done really well in supplying us a very precise, compact gearset enabling up to 2 Nm peak torque and 1 Nm continuous torque,” said Phillipp Volz.

All design work has been done in-house and, as of the time of writing, the servo is undergoing DO-160 qualification testing.

“We’re building the first DA 20-N production units now, as CAN-interfaceable servos; the next variations we produce will be RS485 and PWM devices (28, 12 and 6 V). Normally, we’d make the PWM- or serial-controlled actuators first, but more and more customers are using CAN, and we’ve some huge customers in the US and Germany who prefer CAN, such as Quantum Systems.”

Volz Servos is also working on a next-generation version of the DA 22 servo actuator with new hardware electronics and mechanical components, and is keeping an eye out for certifiable component suppliers who can meet performance, safety and traceability requirements from themselves and aerospace regulators, to meet standards such as DO-160.

“We’re also working on new, CAN-oriented hardware for all of our bigger servos, and proceeding with a range of certification projects,” Volz added.

“That’s driven us to build up quite a huge team across Volz and AEE, but luckily the European market for UAVs and their components is growing really strongly right now, and there’s a lot of talented people up for hire.”

Sightline Applications unveiled the three new mission analytics tools it is now offering through its recent acquisition and integration of Australia-based Athena AI.

“The core strengths of Athena AI are machine learning and multi-stage layering of models; that means, rather than a high-level model relying on levels of confidence to categorise objects, you can go down multiple levels of what that object might be, adding accuracy whilst maintaining speed for tracking,” said Sightline’s Hanni Wehrman.

“We also have a large military training dataset, and can recognise if a vehicle is a tank or armoured personnel carrier, or if a person is holding a gun or wearing military gear, for instance. Our analytics tools for such capabilities can be run on an NVIDIA processor, the Cortex hardware solution, and on our 4100 hardware solution; we expect to roll out new features every six months.”

The first specific tool from Sightline and Athena is the Computer Vision Inference Pipeline (CVIP). This software enables detection and recognition of objects within low-pixel-on-target EO and IR imagery, and analyses events of interest and ‘patterns of life’ based on the distribution and behaviour of people and objects (as well as the vehicle detail analysis just alluded to).

Detected entities can also be plotted on a map when the CVIP is used in combination with the Battle Tracking Service (BTS), which is compatible with the Android Team Awareness Kit software for geospatial and military situation awareness.

The BTS generates cursor-on-target messages over detected targets within a real-time common operating picture, enabling information-rich GCS insights for intelligent evaluation and reaction to data incoming from uncrewed ISR assets.

Lastly, the new Geospatial tool performs quick analysis of geospatial data, outputting AI-augmented 3D digital twins of terrain. As well as capturing elevation and surface features, and classifying and plotting objects precisely within 3D space, these models contain line-of-sight analysis for friendly, neutral and hostile assets, utilising GPU acceleration to plot the 3D visibility of persons and vehicles within the surveyed space.

“By combining Sightline’s low latency, highly reliable video processing with Athena’s AiTR, we get a highly proficient ISR toolset able to not only detect and track, but also to turn that information into actionable intelligence,” added Stephen Bornstein of Sightline Applications.

The Geospatial tool also comes with AI-enhanced mission path planning, targeting scenario simulations and real-time updating of existing maps using incoming data for connected users.

Plettenberg has been working to advance the certifications and certifiability of its electric motors, with its latest milestone being a successful Mil-Std-810H testing regimen on its NOVA 15 and NOVA 4 inrunner, closed-housing BLDC motors.

“810H is the latest revision of military standards on component environmental durability, and since so many customers need that level of ruggedness, we decided to pre-qualify our two best-selling motors to its test standards,” Bastian Greiner of Plettenberg told us.

The test programme took around six months (owing largely to the quantity and frequency of documentation needed), encompassing temperature extremes, temperature shocks and exposure to

sand, dust, salt fog, vibration and more. The two motors passed the testing standards, pre-qualifying them such that certificates can be issued to NOVA 15 and NOVA 4 customers for use during aerospace certification of their vehicles.

Greiner gestured us toward a display of one of the tested motors placed next to a brand-new counterpart for direct, one-to-one comparison. “You can see there’s almost zero visible wear around its closed housing. Naturally, if you’d put an open-housing motor through the same test regimen, it’d be worn beyond recognition – so we’re very happy with the result.”

The company has also reconfigured its product portfolio to better address varying scales of customer needs. Hence, it now offers more than 30 different electric motor product

designs as COTS products for customers satisfied with standardised versions, ‘MOTS’ (modified off-the-shelf) products for customers needing different kV variations of the COTS motors, or ‘FC’ (fully custom) motors that will be ‘built to spec’ as needed, to suit the more complex batches of requirements that some customers will have.

Systel Inc., the Houston-based rugged computer designer/manufacturer, has unveiled a new version of its Sparrow-Strike rugged computer, which integrates an Intel x86 Atom CPU SMARC module, as counterpart to the already-released version running on NVidia’s Orin NX.

“We’ve done the same with our Kite-Strike series computers, now with both AGX Orin and x86 versions available; which one is ‘better’ for users comes down to their software and OS choices,” said Sam Gidel from Systel Inc.

“The x86 version will especially appeal to customers that have thin-client applications, or need to run Windows, or have legacy software, or just a low-power control application like talking to some I/Os and monitoring some sensors. In general, the x86 CPU is lower-power and a little less pricey than the Orin NX.”

The new x86-based Sparrow-Strike is product-coded as the EC2010 (the Orin NX version is the EC2000), with both products weighing 3 lb (1.36 kg), running on 28 VDC input, and ruggedised to mil-spec standards for safe operations in environments from -40 to +55 C.

Kyle Cameron from Systel also commented, “We’ve also added a Sparrow-lite model, that incorporates weight-saving practices that have allowed overall weight down to roughly 2.5 lbs [1.34 kg], popular with UAV customers.”

Calian has expanded its product portfolio with two new antennas. The first is the TW5398 Full Band Smart Antenna, which integrates u-blox’s new ZED-X20P GNSS receiver, offering triple-band L1/L2/L5 multi-constellation GNSS functionality, plus Galileo E6 HAS and L-Band services.

“By integrating the u-blox ZED-X20P with our 60 mm full-band ceramic patch technology, we’re able to offer full-band GNSS capability within the same compact housing portfolio, offering a seamless migration to higher performance,” said Bruce Shields at Calian.

The company also discussed its new AJ977XF+, a low-elevation fixed reception pattern antenna (FRPA) for anti-jamming applications. The FRPA system functions using a fixed radiation pattern to attenuate (or ‘null’) signals from the horizon up to 15° above the horizon, offering 20 dB (approximately) wideband suppression for low-elevation interfering signals allowing systems to operate up to 10 times closer to sources of destructive interference or jamming.

“The AJ977XF+ is a multi-constellation [GPS/Galileo/GLONASS/Beidou] triple-band solution encompassing L1, L2 and L5, which integrates our XF+ technology with sharp rejection of out-of-band interference, above, below and even between the upper and lower GNSS signal operating bands. Pre-filtering and extended IP3 LNA stages help to prevent LNA saturation and separate upper and lower band signal chains to mitigate cross-band saturation,” Shields added.

Scorpion Power System exhibited a range of its newest products, including those in its new Tribunus III series of ESCs produced in Taiwan (as is the case with all of its ESCs, and its motors upon request).

“Following the release of the first Tribunus III motor controller about a year ago, we’ve now expanded the line-up to range from a 6s-80 A ESC up to a 16s-320 A unit, and many sizes in between including 220, 160, 150 and 110 A motor controllers,” said Kyle Dahl of Scorpion Power System.

“The Tribunus III series integrates an all-new PCB design and layout, new heat transfer and dissipation techniques, additional protection features, additional telemetry protocols and features, and upgraded motor control algorithms over the Tribunus II series.

“It also comes with a new, fully enclosed case and a stronger capacitor arrangement for mitigating voltage fluctuations stemming from lengthy wires.”

The company has also opted to expand its IM-Series of motors for multirotor applications, now with e-motors suitable for propeller sizes ranging from 8 in (20 cm) up to 48 in (122 cm) props to achieve 45 kg of thrust.

Scorpion has additionally started manufacturing and supplying complete motor pods, integrating their IM-Motors with their Legatus field-oriented control (FOC) ESCs, pre-wired and pre -programmed to enable plug-and-play integration.

“One customer reported a 20% efficiency gain using our motor pod, compared with the motor-ESC he used before,” Dahl added.

“Half of that gain comes from the motor’s optimised design and magnetics, and the rest of it comes from our proprietary FOC algorithm that goes beyond the more widely used, industry-standard algorithms and stock chipset algorithms most companies use for FOC.”

LightWare LiDAR has announced the release of its new DroneCAN Adapter, designed to simplify and accelerate the integration of its laser rangefinders into UAV systems. This launch follows the growing adoption of DroneCAN as a leading communication standard across the drone industry.

The LightWare DroneCAN Adapter enables plug-and-play connectivity for the full range of LightWare sensors – including the SF000/B, SF20/C, LW20/C, SF30D, SF30/C, SF45/B and GRF-series gimbal rangefinders – with DroneCAN networks onboard UAVs.

“DroneCAN is built on the robust and reliable CAN bus protocol,” said Mohit Morar of LightWare. “By supporting the standard DroneCAN message and instruction set, our adapter allows engineers to integrate LightWare sensors quickly, assigning nodes and identifying devices on the network within minutes. This dramatically reduces development time and speeds up deployment.”

The adapter is fully compatible with popular flight controllers such as ArduPilot and PX4, both of which offer native DroneCAN support. As part of its design philosophy, LightWare has

aimed to design the adapter as ultra-compact (weighing 3.14 g) and energy-efficient (consuming 0.075 W) for to suitability in size- and power-constrained UAV applications.

uAvionix brought three new product announcements for aviation safety, first of which was skyAlert, a wearable (belt or shoulder-worn as standard) dual-band ADS-B receiver and audible alerter, designed for warning UAS operators when other aircraft enter the vicinity of their own UAVs and conserving operator awareness in the meantime.

“If an operator doesn’t want to constantly track their UAV’s position in their GCS, or wants to focus on other work, they can configure skyAlert for their preferred ‘alert zone’, maybe a 1 km radius and 100 m altitude cylindrical geofence around the UAV, and skyAlert will blast an alarm to tell them to look at their map – no app or subscription required,” said Christian Ramsey of uAvionix.

“Rather than connect to the GCS directly, it has a GDL90 and a wi-fi interface to connect with the user’s optional Electronic Flight Bag, thereby reflecting information from the map in real time, even if the operator has moved a short distance away from it.”

The company has also expanded the capabilities of its muLTElink C2 module, which was developed to analyse and adjudicate among multiple integrated data links, to select the best at any given moment. Previously, the system was designed to only use uAvionix radios and transmit C2 data; however, based on extensive customer feedback, muLTElink can now also transmit payload data (such as wide-area EO/IR maps or full motion video) and use third-party radios.

Lastly, the company unveiled Trakr, a highly SWaP-optimised transmitter for broadcasting UAVs’ real-time positional data to uAvionix’s FlightLine cloud-based platform for detailed, private display of air traffic information.

“Trakr enables users to track their UAVs privately – unlike ADS-B that shares information publicly – and to bring their private operating data into the same common operating picture with public ADS-B data, to really maximise operators and allow customers to get full situational awareness from one complete display in FlightLine,” Ramsey added.

While Trakr installs onboard the UAV as a standalone device (chargeable with USB-C), uAvionix’s TrakrStation and TrakrStationLTE are the ground-side portion of the system; of those two, the former connects to a network using a Power Over Ethernet interface, while the latter functions using LTE.

“Imagine something like wide-area utility inspections, with multiple contractors and managers in addition to the flight operations team – Trakr and FlightLine enable everybody to see where everything is at every step of the way,” Ramsey concluded.

We previously featured Wave Engine’s J-1 pulse jet engine in Issue 58 (Oct/Nov 2024). Since then, the company has updated the engine in a few key technical respects.

“For one, we’ve been working to improve the operational ease with which the engine can be started in cold weather. With some minor hardware updates, we can make start-ups quick and consistent regardless of the climate,” said Andrew Geltman from Wave Engine.

“We’ve also tweaked the software to enable better performance out of the ECU, which also contributes to how fast and smooth the start-up procedures work now.”

Hargrave Technologies unveiled several new ESCs within its microDRIVE and megaDRIVE product lines, to cater for efficient electric motor control at a variety of power outputs and in several different applications.

“To start with, our new microDRIVE MP sits in about the middle of the overall product range, being a 15-60 V controller, with 120 A phase current – you can compare that with our microDRIVE LP that does about 60 A continuously when working amid 8 m/s air flow,” said Dominic McAuley from Hargrave.

The company also showed us its new microDRIVE HP that outputs 200 A of phase current, as well as a new megaDRIVE HP that provides 200 A continuous phase current over a 120 V output bus for 28S-level battery packs.

“Additionally, the first firmware update after release will enable a dual redundant CAN bus, as well as Dshot and PWM, in the megaDRIVE HP – as we’ve done in all our earlier products,” said McAuley.

“We’re also releasing the megaDRIVE HPf, which is a water-cooled version, its 2 L/min flow rate enabling an extra 100 A for 300 A continuous phase current output at 120 V in total.” Hargrave sees particular potential for the megaDRIVE HPf in USVs, given the easy access to water and the low incidence of water cooling in UAV avionics.

Future firmware plans for Hargrave’s ESCs include enabling the ability to run on a DroneCAN input, but default to Dshot or PWM in the event of the DroneCAN line failing, as well as other functions such as controlling ESCs via PWM, while still outputting DroneCAN telemetry for uses such as performance monitoring and maintenance logging.

On top of its many ESC developments, the company also unexpectedly unveiled the microFLUX 4LP, a DC/DC power distribution unit, developed because of the lack of SWaP-optimised, easily configurable units (in Hargrave’s view) for stepping voltages.

To that end, Hargrave’s power distribution unit is configurable using DroneCAN for converting a 60 V input to 3.3-5.3 V or 12-24 V outputs (or similar), to power servos, flight computers, IMUs and various other avionics with up to 5 or 10 A, as well as stepping up to 120 V for newer electric motor drive systems.

Embention showcased a range of its latest and best-selling avionics solutions, with the newest among them being a radar altimeter, designed to DO-178 and DO-254 certification standards to achieve the same mission-critical reliability as its Veronte autopilot series.

“We’ve engineered this radar altimeter to be as small as possible without risking falling short of the certification standards for consistent performance and safety; it offers a reliable detection range and communicates with the autopilot via CAN or serial interface,” said Javier Espuch of Embention.

The company also exhibited its visual navigation system. This system integrates a downward-facing camera to monitor the ground to georeference the aircraft’s position and tracking changes therein in the event of GNSS outages. If the terrain below a mission area is pre-mapped, the visual navigation system can achieve 5 m positioning accuracy (with no drift). Even without pre-mapping, the system maintains positioning performance, thereby ensuring safe and stable navigation.

“The current visual navigation hardware is built around an FPGA, and we have full control over both hardware and software to optimise the performance to the specific application and to generate all the certification-critical data,” Espuch added.

Lastly, the company also discussed its Veronte Extender with us, which is designed to communicate with the Veronte autopilot via CAN bus (be it a single or dual-redundant link), and then connect to peripheral devices via PWM, serial, I2C and other interfaces.

“That allows end-integrators to greatly increase the number of ports connecting to their autopilot across their flight control networks, or optimise the number and lengths of wires across their aircraft with respect to signal integrity, or to isolate failures in non-critical peripherals from the main CAN bus,” Espuch explained.

Intelligent Energy spoke with us about the latest integration capabilities of its IE-SOAR 800W fuel cell, showing us the integration of that fuel cell into the nose cone of Aurora Flight Sciences’ Skiron-XLE UAV.

“The IE-SOAR 800W is typically aimed at fixed-wing, STOL and VTOL-transitioning integrations, like the Skiron-XLE, and also Zepher Flight Labs’ Z1 drone [featured in Issue 36], both of which are Group 2 UAVs,” said Andy Kelly from Intelligent Energy.

“To make the fuel cell easier to integrate into the Skiron-XLE, we split the fuel cell stack module from the power electronics – one solid brick makes for a good turnkey product but it’s harder to fit into narrower fuselages – and the separated subsystems can be mounted as the end-user likes.”

The company’s fuel cell systems also come with varying hybridisation options to cater for how weight, energy storage, voltage buses, charge rate, data tracking and other requirements of different uncrewed vehicles and missions can change.

Silvus Technologies spoke to us about its SL5200 MANET radio OEM module, which since its release late last year has become the radio of choice onboard Quantum Systems’ new Twister short-range, reconnaissance, backpackable eVTOL UAV.

“Quantum Systems tested our SL5200 against many other radios on the market, and found it delivered the highest throughput and longest effective range. It’s also natively compatible with all StreamCaster radios, thanks to our common MN-MIMO waveform – allowing the UAV to seamlessly act as a comms relay for ground forces, vehicles, and other airborne platforms,” said Brad Carraway at Silvus.

“The SL5200 is Silvus’ most miniaturised MANET radio to date, featuring an I/O board designed for easy integration of USB, Ethernet and RS232. This makes it plug-and-play compatible for small form factor UAVs.”

Developing and SWaP-optimising the SL5200 took extensive iteration (including the product team “throwing out” the first board it produced due to falling short of requirements on speed, power, and thermal management). A key deciding factor for Quantum was the SL5200’s lower thermal signature compared to the predecessor SL4200, despite the SL5200 being smaller and more densely packed than the SL4200.

“We’re also gaining more and more traction for Silvus’ Spectrum Dominance suite of EW resilient capabilities, which includes LPI/LPD [Low Probability of Intercept/Low Probability of Detection] and Anti-Jamming capabilities. Together, these enable StreamCaster radios and MN-MIMO waveform to thrive in RF-congested and EW-contested environments without sacrificing performance,” Carraway said.

“SL5200 can take all of those features onboard as a software license, so that operators can be confident that their uncrewed vehicles will stand up against electronic attacks from any kind of adversary and in any operational environment.”