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

71 no ‘central’ processing unit,” Stratsilatau said. “The computations are distributed across the system’s components, and data is shared and processed across the UAV’s internal network. “That makes it possible to scale the system or wield redundancy very easily, because you just add more units to it without having to modify the software, or develop new algorithms for master- slave configurations or redundancy supervision, because the architecture of the system is distributed.” UAV safety company ParaZero released the latest generation of its Smart Autonomous emergency computer, SmartAir, and low-altitude ballistic recovery parachute products for Enterprise and commercial UAVs, SafeAir. The SmartAir uses its accelerometer, barometer, gyroscope and magnetometer to detect loss of flight control. “And it has its own independent electricity, providing independent redundancy to the UAV,” Oren Aviram reported. Five capacitors are installed on the SmartAir’s board, which provide access to electrical pulses through onboard systems including the autopilot and main computer. Should power received reach zero, the SmartAir triggers the SafeAir. In the event of an inflight freefall or a non-predefined flight envelope roll, during which power is still supplied to the motors, the SmartAir will signal the autopilot to shut down the rotors to prevent human casualties from a high- rpm rotor impact. That is in parallel with parachute deployment. Also, the company has changed the ejection agent for the parachute, from compressed CO 2 on the previous DropSafe model to a pyrotechnic system similar to that in automobile airbags or seatbelt pre-tensioners. The new system has fewer components and is therefore inherently more reliable. The transition from the DropSafe to the SafeAir also included a 50% reduction in volume, a reduction in system weight from 550 to 400 kg, and a general increase in the weight of UAV that can be saved by the parachute: the SafeAir10 is designed for craft weighing 4-14 kg, the SafeAir30 is for 12-35 kg craft. So far, the system has been successfully tested at 5 m from the ground. It is already in use with one UAV manufacturer, which received the first known permit from the UK’s Civil Aviation Authority to operate completely autonomously. Chris Wheeler told us about Trimble’s breakthrough in SoftGNSS RTK (real-time kinematics) as used for UAV navigation. “Trimble has taken the RTK software engine out of the UAV control board – reducing the weight of the vehicle – since we can now run the RTK engine on an Android tablet,” he said. He explained that by using RTX, a satellite-based correction for GNSS signals that removes the need for a base station, very little overlap is required when photographing a given area of terrain. In turn, that reduces the battery- sapping use of the payload camera and also post-processing time. Rajant Corporation attended the show to display its wireless mesh technology, having recently been selected to provide the comms infrastructure for xCraft’s X PlusOne UAV. “Moving from outdoor mounts to aerial platforms, our biggest challenge was weight,” Don Gilbreath explained. “We had to de-ruggedise our heavy-duty AUVSI Xponential 2017 | Show report Unmanned Systems Technology | June/July 2017 The ‘pseudo-satellite’ Apus from UAVOS ParaZero’s SafeAir recovery parachute system