Unmanned Systems Technology 001 | UAV Factory Penguin C | Real-time operating systems | Hirth S1218 two-stroke twin | Base stations | ASV C-Enduro | Composites | Datacomms

12 D r Donough Wilson has a vision for the future of UAVs, but he isn’t just a futurologist. As innovation lead at VIVID/futureVision, the design innovation consultancy at Coventry University’s TechnoCentre, he is interested in what we can do with the technology we have already developed if we bring fresh thinking to how it is applied. “The way in which we at VIVID/ futureVision think about developing game-changing innovations is that we have to work with the technology we have now, although it may be applied in different ways to those originally envisaged,” he explains, “We’re not reliant on waiting for new technologies to be developed – technology doesn’t restrict creative thinking. “I believe that in developing unmanned systems, one of the biggest challenges which all designers and innovators have to overcome is ‘legacy thinking’. So when the design specification calls for a brand-new unmanned vehicle, that has no pilot to carry, then none of the design conventions of manned flight apply. Suddenly, the only design rule is, ‘There are no rules’. “The basic design of manned aircraft, with the pilot at the front looking ahead and down to control and land the aircraft, can be traced back to Otto Lilienthal of Germany and Percy Pilcher of the UK in the 1890s. Lilienthal and Pilcher realised that in order to balance the pilot at the front they needed a rudder and elevator assembly at the rear, acting through the lever mechanism of the fuselage. And pretty well all manned aircraft have been designed that way ever since. But in unmanned applications that design is restricting, and it very largely limits the payload and mission technologies to the space previously occupied by the pilot. “But when the need to carry a pilot is removed then the way is suddenly open for completely new vehicle and systems designs for radical applications, and with them the opportunity for applying new thinking and new technologies, and using all the capabilities that the vehicle platform presents.” Dr Wilson’s creative thinking starts with the maxim: ‘Just because something has been done one way for a long, long time, Ian Bamsey talks to innovative designer Dr Donough Wilson about his vision for the next generation of unmanned aircraft November 2014 | Unmanned Systems Technology VIVID/futureVision’s concept for a large autonomous aircraft for search and rescue and humanitarian aid missions Massive, unmanned and very clever