Unmanned Systems Technology 009 | Ocean Aero Submaran S10 | Simulation and testing | Farnborough report | 3W-110xi b2 TS HFE FI | USVs | Data storage | Eurosatory/UGS 2016 report

80 with digital and/or analogue status feedback. Tecdron Robotic Systems, a French manufacturer of large multi-purpose UGVs, showcased its latest offering, the SP-e3. This system consists of a 1240 x 750 x 740 mm body with four sets of three-tracked wheels, for propulsion and leverage, with each track articulated and capable of re-angling to overcome uneven terrain including 55 º slopes, 40 º side slopes and obstacles up to 50 cm in height. Its 10 kph speed and 300 kg payload limit – on top of the empty vehicle weight of 230 kg – are supported by gearing blocks equipped with eight 1500 W engines and electromagnetic brakes. The power system uses 24 V lithium- ion batteries with 45 Ah capacity, and an extra battery or dual charger can be carried by the vehicle. Antoine Wiedemann explained that aside from these, the vehicle’s modular architecture allows a wide variety of payloads to be installed, including water cannons for firefighters, gas-powered/ electric-powered fans, and a two-axis video turret with 36x optical zoom or thermographic camera. Inertial sensor developer SBG Systems showed off the full range of its SWaP-optimised, MEMS-based inertial navigation units, including the new Ellipse-D INS with integrated dual-antenna GNSS, Hélène Leplomb reported. At 180 g it is heavier than past Ellipse products, having integrated an L1/L2 dual-antenna GNSS receiver. This brings a number of improvements: heading is now accurate to 2 º , and both roll and pitch to 1 º , or to 0.05 º with post- processed kinematic satellite positioning. Position is accurate to 2 cm, even under low dynamics. Leplomb said, “Heading is based not on magnetometers but on GNSS, being much more robust and accurate with low dynamics or high magnetic disturbances.” The internal GNSS also now uses a 120-channel 5 Hz engine with a maximum initialisation time of 50 s (from cold start) and the built-in option to use GLONASS, Galileo and Beidou. “Ellipse-D is especially suited for UAVs or UGVs embedding sophisticated payloads that require precise motion compensation or data geo-referencing, such as hyperspectral cameras or Lidar. For marine applications such as USVs it also provides heave accurate to 5 cm, and this automatically adjusts to the wave frequency,” Leplomb added. As with its predecessors, the Ellipse-D will interface through RS-232, RS-422, or USB up to 921,600 bps, and CAN 2.0A or B at up to 1 Mbit/s. Bluebird Aero Systems has upgraded its 28 kg ThunderB UAV, which is intended to provide a low-cost, long-endurance ISTAR capability to defence and security forces to match large MALE UASs. The craft was previously capable of 16-24 hours’ flight time and had a 100 km operating range, but as Ronen Nadir explained, “We’ve already conducted 30 hours of flight time, with payloads, transmission to the ground and harsh weather. In addition, we have increased the communications range from 100 to 150 km, and we are using COFDM links for better error correction and elimination of multipath interaction when operating over urban areas.” The ThunderB is powered by a 1.86 kW electronic fuel injected two-stroke engine from Currawong Engineering, Australia, giving the UAV an 80 kph cruising speed – at which flight times exceeding 24 hours are possible – with a maximum speed of roughly 140 kph. A version of the craft with a top speed of 160 kph is also available. “There is also now an embedded INS and sensor suite that allows us to fly when GPS is denied and maintain positional accuracy of a few hundred metres, even after hours of flight,” Nadir said. Fischer Connectors used Eurosatory to launch its new rugged flash drive, now with USB 3.0 to give five times the read speed of USB 2.0, with 32, 64 or 128 Gbytes of standard memory. The ruggedised body has been made shorter, and is now available with the Fischer UltiMate 07 and Fischer MiniMax 08 interfaces for improved secure access. The IP68 sealed casing is waterproof August/September 2016 | Unmanned Systems Technology The Tecdron SP-e3 can overcome terrain such as 55 º slopes and 50 cm-high obstacles Bluebird’s upgraded ThunderB has a 30-hour flight time and a comms range of 150 km