Unmanned Systems Technology 014 | Quantum Tron | Radio links and telemetry | Unmanned Aerial Vehicles | Protonex fuel cell | Ancillary systems | AUVSI 2017 Show report

26 worked very closely with the supplier to ensure the devices behave exactly as they need them to. “We pretty much totally redesigned them,” Seibel says. The propellers are also Quantum’s own design, and are made in carbon fibre- reinforced plastic by a German supplier. They have two separate blades to allow for folding, and the blades have a high degree of twist and a broad chord at the root. Electrical energy comes from packs of Panasonic 2170 lithium-ion batteries that Tesla uses for its cars; the designation is derived from their dimensions of 21 mm in diameter and 70 mm in length. The battery packs, Seibel says, have been through UN38.3 testing to allow them to be taken aboard aircraft. Power from the batteries is sent to the loads through a set of three power distribution boards, all developed by Quantum. There is one board for the air data computer in the nose, one for the payload and one for the autopilot, and they are interconnected by a wiring harness supplied by an independent specialist. The power conditioning electronics can supply any voltage between 5 and 38 V dc, with about 100 W available for something relatively power-hungry such as a gimbal. Data interfaces between payloads and the autopilot support a range of standards including CAN bus, RS-232 and serial. That enables, for example, gimbal control and camera triggering based on geographical position or time intervals, which are adjusted to provide consistent overlap, even in windy conditions. Quantum currently offers the Tron with stabilised platforms from DST and Octopus ISR; the latter is a division of UAV Factory. The DST system that falls within the Tron’s payload budget is the Otus U-135, a multi-sensor gimbal weighing 1.4 kg and upwards depending on the sensor mix. A self-contained unit, all its control electronics are inside the shell, while the solid-state IMU and optional laser rangefinder are mounted directly on the optical platform that supports the cameras, enabling features such as geo- location and geopositioning, so long as the system is provided with an external heading source. A video tracker, a video overlay feature and video processing software are integrated into the gimbal, which can support up to three sensors including daylight cameras and cooled as well as uncooled thermal imagers in addition to laser devices including the rangefinder and an illuminator. The Octopus systems are the Epsilon 135 and 140. The former is a 900 g stabilised turret equipped with a single high-definition daylight camera with a 720p sensor and 30x optical zoom lens; June/July 2017 | Unmanned Systems Technology Periodically switching off its overpowered motors and folding the propellers enables a ‘sawtooth’ flight mode that combines steep, high-power climbs and gliding flight to achieve maximum range Quantum’s shift in development focus towards security and military markets is driving integration of multi-sensor stabilised gimbal payloads