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

72 Show report | AUVSI Xponential 2017 mesh radios, which had been designed to withstand up to 140-degree heat, add new CPU cooling techniques and make them smaller.” Central to Rajant’s approach is its patented InstaMesh packet delivery system, which significantly improves the chances of successful transmissions even as transmitter and receiver nodes move around an ad hoc mesh network. Each transmitter uses a bridge table with both a preferred route and an optional auxiliary route to a receiver. These are augmented by a ‘discovery’ mode that converts a data unicast to a data broadcast designed to discover a new route once all presets are exhausted. Upon successful discovery, an introduction/acknowledge packet goes to the sender, which updates the routes to the receiver in the bridge tables of all the nodes in the path from source to destination, and acknowledges successful delivery. MTC Industries & Research introduced its RG2-16 dual-axis rate gyro sensor, which features an angular random walk of 0.2 º / √ h, short-term bias stability of 30 º /h and in-run bias stability of 6 º /h, while weighing just less than 35 g and measuring 33.8 x 28.4 x 25.4 mm. “Usually, rate gyros have only one degree of freedom, but in the RG2-16 we use two, one-axis gyros placed in two orthogonal planes – the x and y axes,” Nir Eldar said. “The biggest challenge in the RG2- 16’s development was optimising the electronics and mechanics to preserve the parameters of our one-axis MEMS gyroscope chip, as well as gyroscope misalignment and temperature- dependent drift compensation.” Although temperature compensation was time-consuming, it was caused largely by test equipment parameters and resolved by using environmental test chambers with less ‘noise’. The design optimisation consisted of selecting suitable electronic components for gyro application circuits and fulfilling the PCB requirements according to the gyro’s specification (1 cu in). FreeWave Technologies showcased its range of wireless networking systems, including its newest ZumLink 900 series for the 900 MHz ISM band in embedded UAS applications. The ZumLink Z9C and Z9T serial radio modules use two RS-232 and two TTL interfaces respectively, and have a data link range of 60 miles. An Ethernet radio version, the Z9-PC, is built on an interface card about 0.75 in longer to hold the Ethernet port. “The real difference between the serial and Ethernet modules is that the latter includes an edge computer with Cortex-A8 ARM processor, 512 Mbytes of RAM, 1 Gbyte of flash storage and a Linux kernel supporting Java, Python, C, Node Red, Node.js and others,” Scott Allen said. “Programmers and engineers can create and write applications such as intelligent video monitors or cognitive telemetry filters for UxVs [unmanned ground, sea and aerial vehicles] into it, processing and exploiting data rather than just communicating it. “We based the new radio on a TI chipset, and installed our waveform and security layers on them. We have also developed four algorithms that work with the TI chipset for data compression, packet aggregation, forward error correction, and automated spectrum learning,” he said. UAV Factory unveiled its latest multi-sensor gimbal for the Penguin UAV at the show. In addition to an electro-optical (EO) camera with 30x optical zoom, laser rangefinder and laser illuminator, the new Epsilon 175 – named for its diameter in millimetres – also contains a cooled medium-wavelength infrared (MWIR) sensor with a 15x optical zoom. The company says the gimbal is the smallest of its type on the market. “Fitting MWIR into a small, 6.9 in diameter gimbal was challenging,” Konstantins Popiks said. “The MWIR detector and 275 mm focal length June/July 2017 | Unmanned Systems Technology UAV factory has unveiled a new multi- sensor gimbal for the Penguin UAV The RG2-16 dual axis rate gyro sensor from MTC Industries & Research