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Focus on...

Connectors

The number of connections needed in an uncrewed vehicle for power and comms means that connector designs often reflect the nature of the vehicle itself. Lighter connectors help to make it less heavy, for example, while more rugged ones help it to better...

Digest

Accession Class USV

Adaptability through modularity was central to Unmanned Survey Solutions’ concept for its Accession Class USV. The craft can be operated in its 3.5 m-long base version, or extended to 4.25 or 5 m by inserting a modular hull section either 0.75 or 1.5 m long...

Insight

USVs

Tailoring an autonomous vehicle to match the geography and altitude of its mission environment is most often the primary determinant of its success in operational and sales terms...

Digest

Stanley Robotics Stan UGV

The advent of self-driving cars is predicted to bring benefits such as more energy-efficient mobility, traffic reduction and reduced collisions, and all the necessary technology to do so has probably been invented by now...

Focus on...

Lidar Sensors

Lidar sensors are a key element in the design of many uncrewed platforms. A near-infrared laser, invisible to surrounding people, can provide detection of obstacles at distances of up to 300 m for driverless cars and trucks, or at ranges of 10-50 m for industrial robots...

In Conversation

Jakub Weglarz

Hybrid vehicles that can operate in more than one medium are always tricky to develop. The demands of flight, to minimise weight for example, conflict with the requirements of a vehicle that can operate on the ground and successfully negotiate different types of terrain...

Dossier

Xer Technologies X12 and X8

Rory Jackson traces the development of these electric multirotor UAVs that feature gasoline two-strokes for range extension...

Platform One

Auto-cables

Researchers in Germany have developed a process for the automated manufacture and assembly of cable harnesses. The process, developed at the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering and Mechatronics at the Karlsruhe University of Applied Sciences...

Platform One

Off-road UGVs simulator

Intel has won a project to develop simulation technology for uncrewed off-road vehicle development. The Robotic Autonomy in Complex Environments with Resiliency – Simulation (RACER-Sim) project has two phases over 48 months...

Platform One

AutoSar Ethernet switch

Vector has developed the first Ethernet switch for driverless car designs that uses the safety-critical AutoSar standard software. The veSwitch software runs on the Brightlane switches from Marvell, and follows the AutoSar methodology with respect to model definition...