Unmanned Systems Technology 008 | Alti Transition UAS | Ground control systems | Xponential 2016 report | Insitu Orbital N20 | UAVs | Solar power | Oceanology International 2016 report

Using fuel cell technology to triple the flight time of the Da Vinci rotary craft is being considered (Courtesy of Flying Production) 76 airframe costs, and by having lower mission and maintenance costs than conventional platforms, which are designed to operate for decades. This approach is being extended to other civilian applications such as firefighting and disaster relief. “Formation flight and swarming is something we have been doing research and development on in a number of places for some time,” says McConville. “Mostly we’ve been using firefighting and disaster relief as our kind of scenario, but those algorithms and control technologies are something we’re very interested in and continue to work on, and we believe will have an impact on many different programmes as we go forward. “Imagine the ability to use different types of aircraft and ground vehicles, as mentioned earlier, in robotics, ground vehicles, all together with autonomy capabilities and the ability to move them in formation, and to have them act in the most efficient and effective manner collaboratively. That just opens up a whole range of new capabilities.” Surveillance Expertise in camera payloads naturally lends itself to surveillance systems, although the limited time in the air can be a challenge, so Israeli UAV developer Flying Production is looking to use fuel cell technology to triple the flight time of its Da Vinci rotary craft. “The Da Vinci itself is designed for a payload of up to 5.6 kg and can carry a day and night camera, with dual EO sensors and 3x optical zoom for users looking to secure perimeters, maritime observation applications or border patrols,” says Ofir Zikry, the company’s CTO and co-founder. “It has its own navigation system on the payload so you can pinpoint the coordinates of the target you are looking at. It’s a mathematical algorithm that gives the coordinates of the camera, so there is full integration between the UAV’s navigation system and the camera. This needs not just GNSS satellite navigation but a full inertial accelerometer with Kalman filter optimisation of all the sensors, with the error correction from the accelerometer done inside the autopilot. “Another approach we are developing is a fully autonomous system that includes a wireless charging base station with an all-weather design,” says Zikry. “That allows the Da Vinci to sit in hibernation mode without time or weather limitation yet ready to go. We got that need from protecting perimeters, and it gives 30 s of readiness as you are not shutting down the whole system; you just put the key components into sleep mode.” This allows constant surveillance from a series of autonomous craft that launch from these wireless charging bases. Electricity generation Innovation in UAV technology is opening up new application areas such as power generation. Ampyx Power is the first company to develop an airborne wind energy system with its PowerPlane, a tethered aircraft that converts wind energy into electricity. As the craft moves up and down in the wind, the tether turns a turbine on the ground to generate electricity. “The Ampyx Power system represents an exceptional design challenge,” says Erik van der Heide, head of engineering at Ampyx Power. “The aircraft can fly completely autonomously – PowerPlanes take off, fly and land autonomously from a platform – by using an array of sensor suites that provide the autopilot with critical information to perform the task safely. It is designed to spend unusually long periods in the air – it can remain airborne 24 hours a day seven days a week if conditions are suitable, and is designed for a service life of 20 years.” A key piece of the control suite is the LynxOS-178 avionics real-time operating system. “Not only should the level of reliability of our system be high, it needs to be measurable and controllable as well,” says van der Heide. “So we needed a software platform that supports us in achieving acceptance by the Federal Aviation Authority [FAA], the European Aviation Safety Agency [EASA] and other relevant aviation authorities. June/July 2016 | Unmanned Systems Technology Insight | UAVs