Unmanned Systems Technology 017 | AAC HAMR UAV | Autopilots | Airborne surveillance | Primoco 500 two-stroke | Faro ScanBot UGV | Transponders | Intergeo, CUAV Expo and CUAV Show reports

36 T he growth in autonomy of unmanned systems is having a dramatic effect on the design and development of their autopilot systems. Software integrity and hardware reliability are becoming inextricably linked in order to deliver the required levels of performance and meet changes in safety regulations. The autopilot can be seen as the heart of an unmanned system, whether it is an aircraft, a vessel at sea or a land vehicle. USVs have perhaps the simplest autopilot demands, with two-dimensional navigation and few restrictions on where they can travel. They do however need sophisticated collision avoidance systems. Land vehicles also have more of a focus on collision avoidance and high-precision mapping, and less on a ‘return to base’ if What needs to go into designing and developing an autopilot system? Nick Flaherty reports Courses of action December/January 2018 | Unmanned Systems Technology The manufacturing processes behind autopilot technology are key to a range of reliability issues (Courtesy of Micropilot)