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

88 The Edge UAS is a three-motor fixed- wing VTOL platform with a 130 cm wingspan and an 80 cm long fuselage. The system is powered by lithium-ion batteries and can be operated for up to 120 minutes when flown at the 50 kph cruising speed, or for 30 minutes in hover mode. Up to 300 g in payload weight can be carried in the 1.2 kg aircraft, and the system communicates data back to its control station at 900 MHz for telemetry, 5.8 GHz for live video, and 2.4 GHz for direct control. Riegl displayed its new miniVUX-1DL Lidar sensor, which is designed as a ‘downward-looking’ variant of the miniVUX-1UAV Lidar sensor it launched in 2016. “The sensor is designed for corridor mapping such as pipelines, powerlines, railways and so on,” My-Linh Truong said. He added that its weight, 2.4 kg, and the form factor – 232 x 121 x 111 mm with an optional cooling fan installed – are intended to allow the small UAV industry to carry out this mapping. The system emits a laser at a repetition rate of 100 kHz, and has both a forward and backward scan-look angle thanks to an integrated rotating wedge prism, allowing an overall circular field of view scan pattern of 46 º . It also uses Riegl’s ‘smart waveform’ algorithm, which gives up to five returns per laser pulse. This is said to be useful for dense, vegetated areas, where fewer returns may mean imprecise data. Droneport has established a UAV test centre at Sint Truiden in Belgium, over an old military airfield’s infrastructure, which is aimed at start-ups as well as established manufacturers looking to demonstrate and hold flight tests for applications such as those not yet regulated or legalised. “We have several segregated airspaces that can be locked down by us,” said Peter Dedrij. “These are in air traffic zones that we can activate from the airport to give our UAS priority use, and which are displayed on all official aviation maps around the world. Approaching pilots will see that, and have to stay out of our airspace or contact us.” Droneport’s largest stretch of airspace for experimental larger UAVs, Area 4, is 12 x 7 km, and can be extended to 30-40 km if needed. The company also supplies transponders for UAVs where necessary to ensure air safety. In all, the site has five areas, including an indoor area (Area 1) that measures 80 x 40 x 7 m. This is for multicopter flight testing, sensor and hardware calibration, and testing non-certified or experimental equipment. Aveox showcased its capabilities across electric powertrain components for UAVs, including brushless DC motors, stators, rotors and motor controllers. “We use SolidWorks 3D CAD design and analysis software combined with other proprietary finite element analysis tools to develop and optimise the integral parts of the motors, stators and rotors,” John Nino told us. “That means less trial and error at the component level, and more rapid prototyping.” December/January 2018 | Unmanned Systems Technology Show reports | Intergeo, CUAV Expo and CUAV Show Image from the Riegl Lidar MAPIR’s Kernel camera systems for the FlightWave Edge UAS