Unmanned Systems Technology 016 | Hydromea Vertex AUV | Power management systems | Unmanned Space Vehicles | Continental CD-155 turbodiesel | Swift 020 UAV | ECUs | DSEI 2017 Show report

77 Crystal Group attended the show to exhibit its latest servers, networking switches and display products based on COTS equipment. The company also ruggedises them, principally for military environments. “Extreme temperature, vibration and particularly EMI are key issues for larger UASs, autonomous vehicles and inside GCSs,” said Robert Haag. “Many of our ruggedisation techniques are to do with the way we package COTS boards and displays to ensure they run at the required temperature ranges while also surviving the movement-related shocks of the military environment. Our products are carefully engineered from design to field testing to assure survival in the harshest military environments.” Crystal Group also mills its own metal chassis to help meet customers’ delivery schedules. “A lot of our product design efforts incorporate intellectual property our company has around fabrication of the box, and the attention to detail on how we mount COTS boards and components in our products,” Haag said. “Our team works with suppliers who also share our vision of providing the best products to global warfighters. We see this teaming as a critical differentiator in our ability to serve our global customer base.” Haag also noted that the company is continuing its efforts to reduce the size, weight, power and cost constraints of its products and drew our attention to recent product announcements of products using carbon composite chassis. ASV Global was on hand to discuss progress with the Pacific 950 (P950) demonstrator USV, developed in collaboration with BAE Systems. The 9.5 m rigid inflatable boat features full autonomous capability as well as operation through pre-planned waypoints or direct mode control through the ASView control system, with collision avoidance based on an automatic identification system and radar. “We’ve got vision in the middle stages of development; we can see and classify objects using cameras,” James Cowles of ASV Global told us. “We simulate and test this to see how the USV thinks ahead and determines what sort of change in its track is best to take to avoid an obstacle or not, based on how a human would react.” Machine learning is anticipated as a future requirement when adapting the system to avoid collision in highly congested waters such as shipping lanes, or to operate at night. “We’re working with BMT Group for that, with its Rembrandt ship simulator system. We’ll add a few things we need and then use that to gather the data necessary to train our system,” Cowles explained. Israel Aerospace Industries had on show the maritime variant of its Heron medium altitude long endurance UAS. As Eyal Mayer told UST , “In the maritime environment, this Heron configuration uses satellite-aided navigation to allow the UAV to fly at very low altitudes and pick up small targets with its EO/IR payload. This is combined with the maritime patrol radar from IAI ELTA Systems, and is aimed at providing the necessary endurance for long maritime missions.” The company is also developing a ‘handing-off’ capability to switch control from the GCS to shipborne control interfaces and personnel, and networking systems to disseminate actionable ISR data on a fleet-wide scale. DSEI 2017 | Show report Unmanned Systems Technology | October/November 2017 COTS-based ruggedised kit from Crystal Group for unmanned systems Israel Aerospace’s maritime version of its Heron has a low-altitude capability