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

44 Focus | Autopilots or in the air. The autopilot handles the take-off, landing and safe navigation of a wide range of different types of airborne system. A modular architecture allows system diagnostics to be added into the autopilot as well. Additional algorithms for system actions in emergency situations provide the greatest chance to save the unmanned vehicle itself, and ensure the safety of objects on the ground and in the air. This approach also allows for the coordination of a swarm of different craft in the air and on the ground. The autopilot can be integrated into a group of robotic platforms when helicopter-type UAVs and ground crawler robots are combined in a stable information and comms network. The autopilots are connected to a central computer, sharing the parameters of the surrounding operational situation – location, rate and direction of movement – of every participant in the operation. The autopilot can synchronise the activity of all the platforms, observing the environment in real time and interacting with points of control in a single system of automated mission control. That is getting closer to autonomous operation through a rule-based algorithm, with the autopilots in individual craft receiving updates from other vehicles and changing their activity accordingly. This highlights the different ways of adding autonomy to a system, whether in an individual craft or a heterogeneous swarm. Some features – such as the amount of fuel remaining, the time remaining on the mission under current circumstances and therefore the time to return to base – can all be implemented in a more sophisticated autopilot. Adding other autonomous control features, such as identifying known or unknown obstacles, is being implemented by separate machine learning (ML) platforms that then link to the autopilot. This can lead to some duplication though, as the feeds from cameras and other sensors have to be routed to both the autopilot and the ML platform, increasing the complexity of the design. Combining autonomous operation with the autopilot for larger systems has taken many years, yet is still only at the demonstration stage. Research projects are continuing to push the technology further. The future The development of more sophisticated autopilots that handle BVLOS operation is moving hand in hand with new ways of using UAVs and the supporting infrastructure. For example, there is an opportunity for infrastructure such as landing points with charging on top of buildings as local holding points. That would allow UAVs to access a local holding point to recharge and then continue, depending on mission requirements. December/January 2018 | Unmanned Systems Technology The PilotUS autopilot and flight controller integrates all the necessary sensors in one box with redundancy for A-techsyn’s CNG-V UAS (Courtesy of A-TechSYN)