Read all back issues online www.ust-media.com UST 44 : JUNE/JULY 2022 UK £15, USA $30, EUROPEe22 Sensor sensibility Focus on new Lidar sensor designs Linked in Tailoring connectors to specific vehicles Range rovers How Xer Technologies’ X12 and X8 blend battery power with gasoline range extenders
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48 3 June/July 2022 | Contents Uncrewed Systems Technology | June/July 2022 04 Intro We’ve changed our name embracing the gender inclusivity that’s essential to our industry’s continued progression 06Platform one: Mission-critical info A new drive system for flapping wing micro-craft, a method of using radar data to protect marine vessels from GPS spoofing, an algorithm for predicting the behaviour of pedestrians and cyclists around driverless cars, and much more 20 In conversation: Jakub Weglarz DroneHub’s UGV-octocopter project manager explains how his education and professional experience has enabled him to address the challenges it raises 24Dossier: Xer Technologies X12 and X8 These multi-rotor UAVs include gasoline two-strokes to give them the range for surveillance, inspection and public safety applications. Here’s how they were developed 38Focus: Lidar sensors Fresh developments in Lidar technologies have improved their performance and widened their range of applications 48Digest: Stanley Robotics Stan UGV Valet parking at airports joins the uncrewed age with the unveiling of this autonomous turnkey mobile robot 58 Insight: USVs How new maritime vessels are being designed to survive the unforgiving environments of the open ocean 66Show report: AUVSI Xponential 2022 The first part of our in-depth review of the latest systems and technologies on show at this pre-eminent event 78Dossier: Cobra Aero A99H The developers of this three-cylinder liquid-cooled engine explain what makes it ideal for the high-end UAV market 88Digest: Accession Class USV Modularity enables this vessel to be adapted for roles ranging from port authority operations to offshore surveys 94Focus: Connectors Uncrewed vehicles have special requirements when it comes to their internal connections, but suppliers can cater for them 104Show report: Oceanology International 2022 Our round-up of the mission-critical uncrewed systems that were on display at this marine-focused exhibition 114PS: Seabed 2030 project Details of how this project aims to map the entire seabed in high resolution by the end of the decade 24 58 78 88
Read all back issues online www.ust-media.com UST 44 : JUNE/JULY 2022 UK £15,USA$30,EUROPEe22 Sensor sensibility Focus on new Lidar sensor designs Linked in Tailoring connectors to specific vehicles Range rovers HowXer Technologies’X12 andX8 blend battery powerwith gasoline range extenders 4 Founded in 1972, the AUVSI is recognised globally as the leading industry body representing autonomous vehicle technology. Celebrating its 50th anniversary this year, it was announced that following an online survey of their considerable membership, they would change their ‘U’ from Unmanned to Uncrewed. They are not alone, with many other organisations around the world similarly updating their name and marketing material, both at the recent Xponential show in Orlando and indeed on the advertising pages within this magazine. Here at High Power Media we couldn’t agree more that gender inclusivity is essential to ensuring our industry’s continued progression. To that end, Unmanned Systems Technology magazine has now become Uncrewed Systems Technology. All 43 back issues of Unmanned Systems Technology dating back to issue 1 in 2014 will be accessible online at www.ust-media.com, and to buy as hard copy printed editions at www.highpowermedia.com As always, your continued support is greatly appreciated, and we look forward to continuing to write for, and work with, you and all the members of your crew in the future. Simon Moss | Publishing Director Change is in the air – and on land, and at sea Editorial Director Ian Bamsey Deputy Editor Rory Jackson Technology Editor Nick Flaherty Production Editor Guy Richards Contributor Peter Donaldson Technical Consultants Paul Weighell Ian Williams-Wynn Dr Donough Wilson Prof James Scanlan Design Andrew Metcalfe andrew@meticulousdesign.com UST Ad Sales Please direct all enquiries to Freya Williams freya@ust-media.com Subscriptions Frankie Robins frankie@ust-media.com Publishing Director Simon Moss simon@ust-media.com General Manager Chris Perry Intro | June/July 2022 June/July 2022 | Uncrewed Systems Technology Volume Eight | Issue Four June/July 2022 High Power Media Limited Whitfield House, Cheddar Road, Wedmore, Somerset, BS28 4EJ, England Tel: +44 (0)1934 713957 www.highpowermedia.com ISSN 2056-9823 Printed in Great Britain ©High Power Media All rights reserved. Reproduction (in whole or in part) of any article or illustration without the written permission of the publisher is strictly prohibited. While care is taken to ensure the accuracy of information herein, the publisher can accept no liability for errors or omissions. Nor can responsibility be accepted for the content of any advertisement. SUBSCRIPTIONS Subscriptions are available from High Power Media at the address above or directly from our website. Overseas copies are sent via air mail. 1 year subscription – 15% discount: UK – £75; Europe – £90 USA – £93.75; ROW – £97.50 2 year subscription – 25% discount: UK – £135; Europe – £162 USA – £168.75; ROW – £175.50 Make cheques payable to High Power Media. Visa, Mastercard, Amex and UK Maestro accepted. Quote card number and expiry date (also issue/start date for Maestro) ALSO FROM HPM THE COMMUNICATIONS HUBOF THE RACING POWERTRAINWORLD DANIELLESHEPHERD: HarnessingCadillacgrunt MAY/JUNE 2022 UK £15,US/CN$25,EUROPEe22 AM ISFINISHED Post-processingmatters GREENENGINEOILWAYS Sustainable lubricants for racing STEAMROCKETPROPULSION The Force ofNature record bike www.highpowermedia.com ISSUE014 | SUMMER2022 UK£15 USA$30 EUROPE€22 E-MOBILITY ENGINEERING THE COMMUNICATIONS HUB OF THE ELECTRIFIED POWERTRAIN Bestbehaviour Timetopack them in? How toensure fastandaccurate batterymonitoring Potentialbenefitsofcellto-packbatteries No restriction Green-G’s refusecollectionEV fornarrowstreets The USE network Having now provided several enterprises around the world with the support and connections they need to implement efficient and sustainable technological solutions, we’re keen to continue expanding this free service. If the uncrewed vehicle and/or system you’re working on could benefit from some independent advice, from engineers specialising in the appropriate field, then please do get in touch. Email your question/challenge/dilemma/predicament to thenetwork@uncrewedsystemsengineering.comor visit www.uncrewedsystemsengineering.com and raise a case with us. All questions will be treated in the strictest confidence, and there’s no obligation whatsoever to follow any recommendations made.
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6 Mission-critical info for uncrewed systems professionals Platformone A new drive system for flapping-wing autonomous craft has been developed at the University of Bristol, in the UK, using a new method of electromechanical zipping that removes the need for conventional motors and gears (writes Nick Flaherty). Until now, typical micro flying robots have used motors, gears and other complex transmission systems to achieve the up-and-down motion of the wings. That has added complexity, weight and undesired dynamic effects. The researchers, from the university’s Faculty of Engineering and led by Professor of Robotics Jonathan Rossiter, have successfully demonstrated a direct-drive artificial muscle system, called the Liquid-Amplified Zipping Actuator (LAZA), which achieves wing motion using no rotating parts or gears. “With the LAZA, we apply electrostatic forces directly on the wing, rather than through a complex and inefficient transmission system,” said Dr Tim Helps, developer of the LAZA system. “That gives better performance, simpler design and will unlock a new class of low-cost, lightweight flapping micro air vehicles for applications such as autonomous inspection of offshore wind turbines.” The researchers developed a pair of 50 mm-long LAZA-powered flapping wings with a specific power of up to 200 W/kg, enough to fly a robot across a room at 18 body lengths per second. The wings provide a net directional thrust of up to 5.73 mN while consuming only 243 mW of power. That gives a thrust-to-power ratio of 23.6 N/kW, similar to state-of-the-art flapping aerial vehicles, helicopter rotors and commercial UAV motors. The researchers also demonstrated how the LAZA can deliver consistent flapping over more than a million cycles, which is important for making flapping UAVs for long-haul flights. This could pave the way for smaller, lighter and more effective micro flying UAVs for applications such as environmental monitoring, search & rescue, and deployment in hazardous environments. By greatly simplifying the flapping mechanism, the LAZA system is expected to enable future miniaturisation of flapping UAVs down to the size of insects. “The LAZA is an important step towards allowing autonomous UAVs to perform environmentally critical tasks such as plant pollination, and emerging roles such as finding people in collapsed buildings,” said Prof Rossiter. Airborne vehicles Miniature flapping drive June/July 2022 | Uncrewed Systems Technology The Liquid-Amplified Zipping Actuator could pave the way for UAVs the size of insects
7 Platform one Researchers in Japan have developed a 3D-printed radiation shield to allow mainstream low-cost UAVs to be used to gather vital data on climate change (writes Nick Flaherty). Numerical weather predictions (NWPs) rely on mathematical models that use data collected by telemetry systems on weather balloons. However, the radiosonde networks are limited in polar regions and can be costly in terms of sensors, energy and human resources, and they can leave electronic equipment as waste over the land and oceans. UAVs could potentially fit the bill as a replacement but are limited in the quality of data they can collect by radiation effects from the Sun, the UAV’s body, precipitation and cloud droplets, as well as the position of the sensors relative to wind direction. To address that, the researchers investigated the possibility of collecting high-quality atmospheric data using a conventional low-cost UAV equipped with a radiation shield. “Sustainable observation networks for NWPs are essential for preparing for weather disasters in our warming climate,” said Dr Jun Inoue from the National Institute of Polar Research. “Since the number of radiosonde observations has hardly increased in a long time, because of the costs of resources, continuous observations with UAVs are a highly desirable alternative to achieving sustainable development as well as meeting the need for improved forecasts.” Working with Kazutoshi Sato, an assistant professor at the Kitami Institute of Technology, he used a DJI Mavic 2 Enterprise Dual UAV to assess the horizontal distribution of wind and heat exhaust below the craft to gauge the ideal location for the sensors. Then, using 3D printing and a heat-reflecting coating, they developed a radiation shield for the sensors that also maintained ventilation and prevented the deposition of precipitation on the sensor. The UAV was used as the main craft in the study. It costs less than $4000 including meteorological sensors, making it affordable for small research groups and local government. It has an intelligent battery self-heating function that helps it to operate in polar regions, warming the battery to its optimum operating temperature even in temperatures as low as -10 C. Because of the relatively small size of the UAV, it can be kept warm in a car just before the launch, which increases the probability of successful measurements in cold conditions. An onboard infrared camera is also available, making the system suitable for operation during the polar night. The official maximum duration of operation is 31 minutes, although the typical flight time in the study was about 15 minutes. The study used an aerosol counter from Alphasense to monitor the aerosol size distribution in the 0.34-0.40 µm range and an iMet-XQ2 sensor from International Met Systems to record the air temperature, relative humidity, air pressure and GNSS satellite position at 1 second intervals. Together, these weigh 200 g. The researchers found that the optimal location for the meteorological instruments on the UAV is just below the downwash from the propellers. That led to a radiation shield located about 5-10 cm below the propeller and at a distance of one-third of the length of the propeller from the propeller tip. A parachute system from Flyfire was installed on the top of the body for safety. The researchers tested the modified Mavic against two other UAVs specifically adapted for meteorological measurements, an ACSL-PF2- R-SWM and a Meteodrone MM-670, and against the existing radiosonde system. The Mavic with the radiation shield operated up to an altitude of 500 m and provided high-quality data equivalent to that of the two other UAVs and comparable to radiosondes. “Our findings demonstrate that it is possible to make the existing polar observational networks sustainable with UAVs. This could significantly boost their observation frequencies and spatial coverage through citizen science programmes,” said Dr Inoue. Airborne vehicles Anti-radiation shield Uncrewed Systems Technology | June/July 2022 The shield could allow low-cost UAVs to be used to collect atmospheric data in polar regions
8 Platform one Cambridge Pixel has developed a technique for using radar data to support global satellite navigation systems, protecting USVs or ASVs at sea against GPS spoofing, jamming and interference (writes Nick Flaherty). Spoofing is where a GNSS signal from a GPS or Galileo satellite for example is deliberately overwritten with data giving a different location. “If GPS is jammed or spoofed, that presents a real problem for an uncrewed vessel,” said David Johnson, managing director of Cambridge Pixel. “We use information from the radar already installed on the vessel, which gives us information on what is around the craft. We compare that data with a database of terrain and coastline information, and the system can match the data to give an approximate location.” The database uses public data from the Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM) project at NASA. This has elevation data on a near-global scale using radar interferometry from satellites in 1 x 1º tiles at 1 arcsecond, giving a resolution of about 30 m. The database is held on the onboard radar computer system, and when the GPS signal is lost the server starts looking in the area of the last known position and uses the terrain data to create an image. This image is then compared to the radar image to provide a location. “We maintain a store of this on a file system on the computer, creating a picture of what the terrain looks like at that particular position, and it is this image that we compare with the radar data,” said Johnson. “There are two applications for this. We are always making that comparison in the background and comparing it with what the GPS says. If the data is significantly different then we can generate an alert that GPS might be being spoofed. “If the GPS is jammed or unavailable, we can generate a pseudo-navigation stream. That might not allow the mission to continue but will give the craft information for navigation.” The advantage with this approach is that it doesn’t use any extra equipment on the vessel, such as a camera. The terrain server sits alongside the target tracking and data fusion servers on the onboard rugged PC, and feeds into the mission computer. “We provide the data in a way that fits with our algorithms, and that is taken as an input by the mission planning algorithm,” he said. “We deliberately try not to do something that is specific to the mission planning software.” The accuracy of the positioning is determined by the resolution of the maritime radar, which can have a precision of hundreds of metres. “That just means it takes longer to build up the confidence that there is a problem, maybe a minute or so,” said Johnson. “It’s never going to be a replacement for GPS.” Naturally it doesn’t work in the open ocean, where there is no coastline to monitor. “There has to be coastline around you for this to work, so the technology is best suited to operations in the littoral [coastal] environment,” he said. Marine vessels Data helps stop spoofing June/July 2022 | Uncrewed Systems Technology The technique uses data from a vessel’s onboard radar to prevent GNSS spoofing
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10 Platform one The Khronos Group has released a standard for safety-critical GPU graphics and computing (writes Nick Flaherty). The group has already developed a range of standards for graphics used by key developers such as Nvidia, but the Vulkan Safety-Critical (SC) 1.0 API Specification is designed to support safety-critical industries that use the latest graphics and AI processors. It has also developed an open source Conformance Test Suite, and multiple vendors have developed Vulkan SC 1.0 implementations. The API is aimed at automotive developers developing ISO 26262 ASIL D high-reliability systems as well as RTCA DO-178C Level A/EASA ED-12C Level A avionics systems. To streamline system-level safetycritical certifications, system components such as acceleration APIs should be streamlined as far as possible to reduce documentation and testing surface area, have deterministic behaviour and predictable execution times to simplify design and testing, and implement robust and unambiguous fault-handling. The Vulkan SC 1.0 specification uses the Vulkan 1.2 API to meet these requirements, decoupling software and hardware development for easier integration of new hardware components and software reusability across platforms and system generations. Various GPU IP and chip providers are supporting the standard, including ARM and Imagination Technologies in the UK and Nvidia in the US, which is using the standard in its Drive driverless car software. “Functional safety is paramount for any autonomous system deployed in vehicles, robots, factories and beyond,” said Tom Conway, senior director of product management, automotive and IoT line of business at ARM. “Through our partnership with CoreAVI and the Khronos Group, we’re addressing the complex requirements of autonomous use-cases using ARM’s safety-capable GPU, the Mali-G78AE, and ISO 26262-certified Vulkan SC drivers, Mali-G78AE VKCore. “The release of Vulkan SC 1.0 marks an important milestone in enabling developers to use the full capabilities of safety-capable Mali GPUs and create robust code for safety-critical use cases. Steve Viggers, chair of the CoreAVI and Vulkan SC working group, said, “Vulkan SC 1.0 enables detailed design and control of device scheduling, synchronisation and resource management for developing the next generation of safety-critical graphics and computing applications targeting modern GPUs.” Vulkan SC removes functionality from Vulkan that is not needed for safety-critical markets, increasing the robustness of the specification by eliminating ignored parameters and undefined behaviours, and enables enhanced detection, reporting and correction of runtime faults. Vulkan SC 1.0 is also aligned with the MISRA C automotive software development guidelines. It also increases determinism and reduces application size by shifting preparation of the runtime application environment, either offline or into application set-up, as much as possible. This includes offline compilation of graphics pipelines that define how the GPU processes data, together with static memory allocation, that together enable detailed GPU control that can be rigorously specified and tested. All the Vulkan SC pipelines are compiled offline and can be statically analysed to understand the data flow and the amount of memory used by the pipeline processing. The memory needed for pipeline execution can then be reserved at device creation time to minimise memory usage and avoid the need for runtime memory allocation. Safety-critical standard Hardware safety June/July 2022 | Uncrewed Systems Technology The offline pipeline for compiling safety-critical GPU graphics
UAV Factory Octopus ISR Systems Epsilon 180MG ISR Payload The most advanced surveillance system 4 sensor – 4K EO, MWIR, LRF, LP Payload 180(D) x 215(H) MM 3.25 KG Installation: nose or belly mounted Onboard h.265 compression / Stabilization in 3 axis / Real time Target GEO location / MGRS system support / Onboard target tracker / Moving target indicator / Onboard video recording 32GB / Unicast and Multicast video stream / Picture in Picture dual video / Onstallation: nose or belly mounted. www.octopus-isr.com Watch video presentation: To scan QR code and see the video, open your phone’s camera application and point it steadily for 2-3 seconds towards the QR Code. A capacitive fuel level sensor from Reventec is being used to provide realtime level data from a Martin UAV V-BAT tactical UAS (writes Nick Flaherty). Reventec’s LS200 has a solid-state capacitive sensor with no moving parts and measures the full depth of the fuel tank to an accuracy of ±0.5% to provide critical fuel level data to operators on the ground via both analogue and CAN comms protocols. It is built from aluminium with a simple, two-hole mounting flange and has an operational temperature range of -40 C to +150 C. The V-BAT is powered by a 183 cc two-stroke EFI engine and is fuelled with an 80:1 gasoline-oil mix; it has a maximum range of 350 miles. It has been selected by the US Army as a potential replacement for the Shadow tactical UAS. “We’ve built lightweight, highaccuracy fuel level sensors for toplevel motorsport for many years, and the crossover of the technology into UAS applications isn’t surprising given the similar requirements for high data accuracy and reliability, with minimal impact of the sensor mass on the payload-carrying capacity of the UAS,” said Neville Meech, managing director at Reventec. Real-time fuel level data Airborne vehicles The solid-state capacitive sensor is being used in the Martin V-Bat UAS
12 Researchers in the US have developed a way to predict the behaviour of pedestrians and cyclists around a driverless car (writes Nick Flaherty). The algorithm, developed at MIT, breaks down the problem of predicting the action of multiple users, each represented as an individual agent, into smaller pieces and tackles each one individually to solve the problem in parallel in real time. The behaviour prediction framework first guesses the relationships between two road users – which car, cyclist or pedestrian has the right of way, and which agent will yield – and uses those relationships to predict future trajectories for multiple agents. These estimated trajectories were found to be more accurate than those from other machine learning models, compared to real traffic flow in an enormous dataset compiled by autonomous driving company Waymo. The MIT technique even outperformed Waymo’s recently published model. Because the researchers broke the problem into simpler pieces, their technique used less memory. “This is a very intuitive idea, but no-one has fully explored it before, and it works quite well. The simplicity is definitely a plus,” said Xin Huang, a member of MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory. “We are comparing our model with other state-of-the-art models in the field, including the one from Waymo, and our model achieves top performance on this challenging benchmark. This has a lot of potential for the future.” The researchers’ machine learning method, called M2I, takes two inputs – past trajectories of the cars, cyclists and pedestrians interacting in a traffic setting such as a four-way intersection, and a map with street locations, lane configurations and so on. Using this information, a relation predictor infers which of two agents has the right of way, classifying one as a passer and the other as a yielder. Then a prediction model, known as a marginal predictor, guesses the trajectory for the passing agent, as this agent behaves independently. A second prediction model, known as a conditional predictor, then guesses what the yielding agent will do based on the actions of the passing agent. The system predicts a number of different trajectories for the yielder and passer, computes the probability of each one individually, and then selects the six joint results with the highest likelihood of occurring. M2I outputs a prediction of how these agents will move through traffic for the following 8 seconds. In one example, the MIT method caused a vehicle to slow down so that a pedestrian could cross the street, then sped up when they cleared the intersection. In another example, the vehicle waited until several cars had passed before turning from a side street onto a busy, main road. While this initial research focuses on interactions between two agents, M2I could infer relationships among many agents and then guess their trajectories by linking multiple marginal and conditional predictors. The researchers trained the models using the Waymo Open Motion Dataset, which contains millions of real traffic scenes involving vehicles, pedestrians and cyclists recorded by Lidar sensors and cameras mounted on the company’s autonomous vehicles. “Rather than just building a more complex model to solve this problem, we took an approach that is more like how a human thinks when they reason about interactions with others,” said Huang. “We don’t reason about hundreds of combinations of future behaviours, we make decisions quite fast.” However, the framework can’t account for cases where two agents are mutually influencing each other, such as when two vehicles each nudge forward at a four-way stop because the drivers aren’t sure who should be yielding. The researchers plan to address this limitation in future work. They also want to use their method to simulate realistic interactions between road users, which could be used to verify planning algorithms for self-driving cars or create huge amounts of synthetic driving data to improve model performance. Code spots possible trouble Driverless cars June/July 2022 | Uncrewed Systems Technology The MIT algorithm has improved the way driverless cars detect multiple pedestrians and cyclists
Advanced Power Drives T-Drones Focused on Long Endurance +86 150 708 532 30 Info@t-drones.com www.t-drones.com Platform one Conical revolution pumps are providing new ways to propel fluids around uncrewed systems (writes Nick Flaherty). The pumps, called the R-series and developed by TCS Micropumps in the UK, work on the peristalsis principle to pump both liquids and gases. Fluids are hermetically sealed so no dynamic seals or magnetic coupling is necessary. They are resistant to ice pressure, as they are undamaged even if water freezes within them, allowing high-altitude operation for UAVs. They have a flexible pumping chamber that is deformed in a rotary motion. One side is under compression, forming a seal, while the other side is lifted, creating suction. The rotating movement creates a fluid wave that moves around and through the pumps. This is capable of moderate flows and pressures that are suitable for many applications in uncrewed systems. The pumps’ construction includes a flexible diaphragm that separates them from the fluid path, so the only parts that are in contact with the fluid are the diaphragm and the pumps’ head. Using different materials for these elements allows different fluids to be used. The structure means the diaphragm can be held in a place away from the inlet and outlet ports, and so act as a valve rather than a pump. This can be done with a standard drive motor but is much simpler and easier to achieve with a stepper motor driver, says TCS. TCS pumps have been used for a UAV airship called the Phoenix (UST 29, December 2019/January 2020) that combines helium for lifting and air for descending. The pumps compress the air to control the altitude. The pumps can handle pressures of up to 4 bar and are available in custom sizes. Peristaltic liquid/gas pumps Airborne vehicles The R-series pumps are resistant to ice pressure Quality Meets Performance. Advanced Motor Control for the most demanding applications. 1-200kW+ | Sensored/Sensorless | 24-800V+ Talk to the specialists in brushless motor control. contact@powerdrives.net
14 Platform one June/July 2022 | Uncrewed Systems Technology GS Yuasa Lithium Power (GYLP) is developing a small but scalable battery for space systems (writes Nick Flaherty). The small form factor lithium-ion battery has completed the Preliminary Design Review and is now moving to the critical design phase. GYLP’s design integrates the recently qualified LSE12x lithium-ion cell developed by GS Yuasa Technology. The flexible design accommodates 16 to 96 cells with a power of 720 to 4320 Wh and can be electrically configured to support both low- and high-voltage bus applications. More autonomy and the use of neural network accelerators is driving up the power requirements in space systems. GS Yuasa has already flown 4.4 MWh of lithium-ion energy storage into space, and has also introduced a 12 Ah cell. The smaller cells and batteries will be fully configuration controlled and built to AS9100 aerospace-quality standards with an auditable manufacturing and change record. This avoids the need to repeat the full qualification and life performance test for each new production lot. Developers can verify that the materials and processes used remain consistent from lot to lot, reducing programme testing costs. The next stage will be the completion of the critical design review of a qualification model with a 72-cell configuration wired as an 8S9P battery. This has nine parallel groups of eight cells in series providing 108 Ah and 3240 Wh at 30 V. The configuration incorporates all the manufacturing and inspection processes present on smaller and larger configurations. A full qualification test suite including environmental survivability is planned. If a cell fails, each eight-cell string can be isolated in the battery through a commandable relay. Battery telemetry enables a satellite operator to detect the event and issue a command to clear or isolate the fault. The design approach for the 72-cell battery aims to provide the smallest pack size with robust survivability for launching on a rocket. Thermally, the battery is designed to reject heat by conduction through a baseplate tied to the host vehicle’s thermal management system. The connector interface is flexible and can be tailored to match each vehicle’s specifications. Battery monitoring and available telemetry will also be tailorable, with options for temperature monitoring points, individual cell or mid- and fullstack voltage reporting, as well as redundant heater options. The battery design includes provisions to mitigate propagation of a thermal runaway event and to collect any material that comes out. GYLP has recently been awarded a US patent for systems and methods relating to effluent containment. Countdown starts for cells Space systems Vector has developed the first Ethernet switch for driverless car designs that uses the safety-critical AutoSar standard software (writes Nick Flaherty). The veSwitch software runs on the Brightlane switches from Marvell, and follows the AutoSar methodology with respect to model definition, distribution and component development. By shifting significant parts of the networking stack to the switch, this frees up resources in the central controller for other tasks. Having the AutoSar software in the switch also allows security functions such as firewalling and MACsec to be implemented closer to the network, reducing the attack surface. Ethernet switches are usually initialised and controlled by a microcontroller in the ECU. However, these implementations are reaching the limit in terms of controller performance to cope with the rising number of Ethernet ports. Car designers are shifting the networkingrelated functions to Ethernet switches, but these use proprietary software configured using proprietary tools. The AutoSar workflow has been used by developers for years and provides tested, qualified software that can be reused for comms, network management and diagnostics on the switch. Functions such as the Precision Time Protocol, network management, the SOME/IP Protocol and parts of the diagnostics can also be shifted from the microcontroller to the switch. Vector plans to make future releases of veSwitch available as part of the ISO 20262 standard. AutoSar Ethernet switch Driverless cars Schematic of Vector’s veSwitch
Hex/Cubepilot – needs text and name Cubepilot ecosystem Herelink Distance is the soul of Beauty Herelink is an integrated remote controller, ground station and wireless digital transmission system designed to be used with the Cube Autopilot, Ardupilot or PX4. Herelink allows RC control, HD video and telemetry data to be transmitted up to 20km between the ground station and air unit, the Herelink remote controller features Mission Planner, custom Solex TX and QGC applications and both air unit and ground station feature an integrated octa-core SOC for custom application development. Cubepilot Australia Herelink is an integrated remote controller, ground station and wireless digital transmission system designed to be used with the Cube Autopilot, Ardupilot or PX4. Herelink allows RC control, HD video and telemetry data to be transmitted up to 20km between the ground station and air unit, the Herelink remote controller features Mission Planner, custom Solex TX and QGC applications and both air unit and ground station feature an integrated octa-core SOC for custom application development. Distance is the soul of Beauty
16 June/July 2022 | Uncrewed Systems Technology Intel has won a project to develop simulation technology for uncrewed off-road vehicle development (writes Nick Flaherty). The Robotic Autonomy in Complex Environments with Resiliency – Simulation (RACER-Sim) project has two phases over 48 months, and aims to accelerate the entire r&d process for designing such vehicles. The project is significant, as the commissioning agency, the US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), has played a key role in the development of autonomous vehicles since its first challenge projects in the 1990s. In phase one of the project, the aim is to create new simulation platforms and map-generation tools that mimic complex off-road environments with the highest accuracy. This includes modelling the physics of motions, sensor modelling and building complex terrains including different types of soil and vegetation and hundreds of different types of obstacles. Creating large, complex simulation environments traditionally requires significant resources and is one of the biggest challenges in simulation workflows. Intel Labs is working with the Computer Vision Centre, in Spain, and the University of Texas at Austin on a simulation platform that will enable customisation of future maps, including the creation of new environments covering more than 100,000 square miles. It has already developed an autonomous vehicle simulation through several projects, including the open source CARLA simulator for urban environments. During phase two, Intel Labs will work with other groups in the project who are developing off-road UGVs. Carnegie Mellon University, NASA-Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and the University of Washington are using RACER Fleet Vehicles (RFVs) provided by DARPA. These have 360º sensors with multiple Lidars, stereo camera pairs, colour and infrared imaging cameras, radar, event sensors and inertial measurement sensing. The sensors are combined with GPU processors in a rugged ‘e-box’ and collect 4 Tbytes of data per hour to support AI, machine learning-based autonomy algorithms and stack design. The RFVs were integrated by Carnegie Robotics and are housed in a Polaris RZR S4 1000 Turbo base drive-by-wire platform that has been modified for roll protection, the sensor/e-box integration, autonomous control, and a power level of 7 kW. The teams will develop new algorithms to validate the performance of the RFVs in simulation, saving significant time and resources. Phase two will also include the development of new sim2real techniques – the concept of training the robot in simulation to acquire skills and then transferring these skills to a corresponding real robotic system – enabling the training of off-road autonomous ground vehicles directly in simulation. Intel expects these new simulation tools to significantly improve the development of autonomous systems using virtual testing, reducing the risks, costs and delays associated with traditional testing and verification protocols. In the future, the simulation platform will go beyond validation to create AI models ready for implementation in the real world. Ground vehicles Off-road UGVs simulator The RACER-Sim project will simulate environments for uncrewed off-road vehicles
Researchers in Germany have developed a process for the automated manufacture and assembly of cable harnesses (writes Nick Flaherty). The process, developed at the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering and Mechatronics at the Karlsruhe University of Applied Sciences, will make it possible to use industrial robots to manufacture them flexibly and economically. Wiring harnesses are among the few parts that still have to be manufactured or processed by hand, especially in automotive and consumer goods production. A highly complex wiring harness connecting multiple sensors and processing units can weigh up to 60 kg, and have a total length of several kilometres in driverless cars, UAVs and many other uncrewed systems. To reduce the size and weight of the harness, the cables, connections and plugs are becoming ever smaller, making manual construction increasingly difficult. So far, the individual cables have had to be laid on a cable board and bent in certain directions or plugged together. Automation has proved difficult because previous gripping systems could not grip cables that were not placed precisely or to connect plugs. The patented process freezes the entire cabling structure and heats small areas to construct the harness. After the cables have reached a rigid state by freezing, they are shaped by industrial robots. The cables are placed on a jig built from controllable, moveable and temperature-controlled pins. Cooling can take place in a suitable area or by heating and cooling elements contained in the gripper of an industrial robot. The cables are heated locally at the bending point so that the insulation is not irreversibly damaged during the deformation. The cables are then immediately cooled down again to stabilise the bend. The robotic arms can then align the next section of cable with a predefined force. The cables can also be inserted into connectors during assembly without kinking them. This allows the wiring harness to be produced shortly before required and to the latest specification, avoiding delivery times that can be several weeks and shortening the supply chain. If a harness can be manufactured within the production run using automation, the so-called one-piece flow also becomes possible, which in turn increases flexibility. Auto-cables Wiring harnesses Dr Donough Wilson Dr Wilson is innovation lead at aviation, defence, and homeland security innovation consultants, VIVID/futureVision. His defence innovations include the cockpit vision system that protects military aircrew from asymmetric high-energy laser attack. He was first to propose the automatic tracking and satellite download of airliner black box and cockpit voice recorder data in the event of an airliner’s unplanned excursion from its assigned flight level or track. For his ‘outstanding and practical contribution to the safer operation of aircraft’ he was awarded The Sir James Martin Award 2018/19, by the Honourable Company of Air Pilots. Paul Weighell Paul has been involved with electronics, computer design and programming since 1966. He has worked in the real-time and failsafe data acquisition and automation industry using mainframes, minis, micros and cloud-based hardware on applications as diverse as defence, Siberian gas pipeline control, UK nuclear power, robotics, the Thames Barrier, Formula One and automated financial trading systems. Ian Williams-Wynn Ian has been involved with uncrewed and autonomous systems for more than 20 years. He started his career in the military, working with early prototype uncrewed systems and exploiting imagery from a range of uncrewed systems from global suppliers. He has also been involved in groundbreaking research including novel power and propulsion systems, sensor technologies, communications, avionics and physical platforms. His experience covers a broad spectrum of domains from space, air, maritime and ground, and in both defence and civil applications including, more recently, connected autonomous cars. Professor James Scanlan Professor Scanlan is the director of the Strategic Research Centre in Autonomous Systems at the University of Southampton, in the UK. He also co-directs the Rolls-Royce University Technical Centre in design at Southampton. He has an interest in design research, and in particular how complex systems (especially aerospace systems) can be optimised. More recently, he established a group at Southampton that undertakes research into uncrewed aircraft systems. He produced the world’s first ‘printed aircraft’, the SULSA, which was flown by the Royal Navy in the Antarctic in 2016. He also led the team that developed the ULTRA platform, the largest UK commercial UAV, which has flown BVLOS extensively in the UK. He is a qualified full-size aircraft pilot and also has UAV flight qualifications. Uncrewed Systems Technology’s consultants A new, automated approach to building wire harnesses 17 Platform one Uncrewed Systems Technology | June/July 2022
18 UDT Tuesday 7 June – Thursday 9 June Rotterdam, The Netherlands www.udt-global.com Eurosatory Monday 13 June – Friday 17 June Paris, France www.eurosatory.com Robotics for Inspection & Maintenance Summit Monday 13 June – Tuesday 14 June Texas, USA www.event.asme.org/Robotics Big Data Oil & Gas Monday 13 June – Tuesday 14 June Texas, USA www.bigdataindustry.com MOVE: Mobility Re-imagined Wednesday 15 June – Thursday 16 June London, UK www.terrapinn.com/exhibition/move Autonomous Ship Expo Tuesday 21 June – Thursday 23 June Amsterdam, The Netherlands www.autonomousshipexpo.com Autonomous Vehicle Technology Expo Tuesday 21 June – Thursday 23 June Stuttgart, Germany www.autonomousvehicletechnologyexpo.com Japan Drone & International Advanced Air Mobility Expo Tuesday 21 June – Thursday 23 June Chiba, Japan www.japan-drone.com Rotortech Helicopter & Unmanned Flight Expo Tuesday 21 June – Thursday 23 June Brisbane, Australia www.rotortech.com.au ILA Berlin Wednesday 22 June – Sunday 26 June Berlin, Germany www.ila-berlin.de International Drone Expo Wednesday 6 July – Thursday 7 July New Dehli, India www.droneinternationalexpo.com Farnborough International Airshow Monday 18 July – Friday 22 July Farnborough, UK www.farnboroughairshow.com/fia2022 Future Mobility Asia Wednesday 20 July – Friday 22 July Bangkok, Thailand www.future-mobility.asia Commercial UAV Expo Americas Tuesday 6 September – Thursday 8 September Las Vegas, USA www.expouav.com DroneX Wednesday 7 September – Thursday 8 September London, UK www.dronexpo.co.uk AutoSens & InCabin Monday 12 September – Wednesday 14 September Brussels, Germany www.auto-sens.com/events/brussels InfraTech Tuesday 20 September – Thursday 22 September Essen, Germany www.infratech.de Intergeo & Interaerial Solutions Tuesday 18 October – Thursday 20 October Essen, Germany www.intergeo.de/en Uncrewed Systems Technology diary Platform one June/July 2022 | Uncrewed Systems Technology
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20 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. These are some of the challenges faced by the developers of the HUUVER (the Hybrid UAV-UGV for Efficient Relocation of Vessels) which resembles a skeletal version of a WW1 British tank combined with an electric octocopter. Funded by the EU under its Horizon 2020 initiative and by the European GNSS Agency, the HUUVER was conceived to perform missions under difficult conditions using capabilities including flight with VTOL, perching, driving and climbing, its ground movement ability allowing it to reach areas inaccessible from the air. An integrated Galileo GNSS receiver is the primary navigation sensor, backed up by Lidar and cameras, including thermal and visual cameras for its core search & rescue support mission. The project team is led by DroneHub, known for its drone-in-a-box automated monitoring and data collection system, and includes Bladescape, Brimatech, Cervi Robotics, GINA, LUT University, NTT Data and Rectangle. In overall charge is project manager Jakub Weglarz of DroneHub. “As long as I can remember I have been interested in past ages and how they influence the present day,” he says. “Political science and history complement each other, and if you know history you can forecast some sort of future,” he says. At high school he attended meetings run by his history teacher, and was introduced to historical and technological issues that chimed with a growing enthusiasm for making model aircraft and tanks from kits, eventually building them from scratch. “With every model I tried to learn something about its history and why it was designed the way it was,” he says. The design of the Israeli Merkava main battle tank made a particular impression, with its storage of diesel fuel between layers of armour so that the entire hull becomes one big fuel tank. The design DroneHub’s HUUVER project manager talks to Peter Donaldson about his involvement in developing this UGV-octocopter Fly-drive journey June/July 2022 | Uncrewed Systems Technology The HUUVER’s boxy central body is joined to its tracks and propellers by carbon fibre tubes. Track links are 3D-printed from PLA filament (Images courtesy of DroneHub)
21 evens out weight distribution, makes it less likely that a hit will ignite all the fuel at once, and even adds some impact absorption capability, he notes. Before joining DroneHub in 2021, Weglarz was involved in several uncrewed vehicle projects in the context of Poland’s cooperative industrial clusters. One of these was the development of an autonomous UGV to plant and tend grapevines. Others included developing UGVs for highway maintenance, maritime patrol and monitoring UAVs operating from ships, and a cooperative effort involving DroneHub in monitoring wind farms at sea. Diverse projects Working as a freelancer, he has been involved in more than 100 projects, including with local authorities on renewable energy and various Polish entities in areas such as optics and advanced materials. Working with his wife, he has raised more than e95 million in public funding for different programmes. “I usually play the role of project manager, so I coordinate tasks, divide up work, coordinate schedules, prepare budgets, and research and write the periodic reports you have to submit when you receive public funding,” he says The job typically also includes troubleshooting, solving problems such as finding extra staff for a team, mediating in arguments and finding new components and materials to replace any that aren’t working well enough. “We work in teams, and someone has to handle these issues,” he says. “Engineers bring me their wish lists and I deal with the realities of budgets, time and so on.” Weglarz says he learns from all the technical team members he works with, but highlights brothers Lucjan and Maciej Gucma along with Rafal Gralak at the Szczecin Maritime Academy for special mention as mentors. “The brothers are great engineers in navigation and mechanical systems. I call one of them every time I have some technical doubt on another project because their knowledge is so broad in different fields, and Rafal was really key in terms of augmented reality. Together they make a wonderful team for solving technical issues.” Co-funded by the European GNSS Agency, which is part of the EUSPA space agency, the HUUVER project began at the end of 2019 and has completed its r&d phase. Around 40 people from seven organisations in five European countries contributed to its development, and are now focusing their efforts on technical improvements and getting it market-ready. Tracks and rotors The HUUVER has two tracks, each driven by its own electric motor through a belt drive system that provides two stages of reduction between the motor output shaft and the drive sprocket. It has eight vertically mounted propellers that are also powered by individual motors, and all of them are off-the-shelf items. Even with 10 motors, this is a simpler and more robust arrangement than would be possible if the same motors, or a subset of them, were to drive the propellers and the tracks through an inevitably elaborate transmission system, Weglarz argues. “A very complicated transmission is quite easy to damage, and that would bring trouble,” he says. Closely coupled and counter-rotating, the propellers are mounted inside the tracks and are quite close to the fuselage, an arrangement that makes the aerodynamics complex, so tuning the flight control algorithms to ensure good stability and control margins was a major task. Also, the control software has to both fly the vehicle and control it on the ground, Weglarz points out. “One of the main engineering challenges was combining the drive and flight modes in one device and integrating it in software to provide the full set of operational abilities,” he says. The flight control challenge centred on trimming the eight motors in all three rotational axes. The HUUVER can be seen flying on YouTube, displaying good stability and control, but achieving that was tricky. “The software took a lot of effort to trim the vehicle with enough precision to get that outcome,” he says. Challenging trim Much of the initial flight control work was done in simulation, which proved problematic in that good results Jakub Weglarz | In conversation Uncrewed Systems Technology | June/July 2022 The prototype HUUVER fitted with comms and navigation antennas on top of the body. Dedicated motors power the tracks through belt drives
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