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82 “The x2 Pro takes off and lands vertically from its tail, before arcing into forward flight,” said JD Claridge. “The design uses the ease of take-off and landing of many multi-rotors but it has the endurance of a fixed-wing aircraft. “For example, our mapping clients can cover up to 3000 acres in a given mapping operation, and have the aircraft land at their feet when the mission is completed. “It can be programmed for autonomous operation from take-off to landing – you just set your flight pattern and press go. Key features include tablet–based GCS, wireless downloads, long-range telemetry and a ruggedised custom carrying case. Other options include RTK and a long-range video link. Staubli displayed its Combi-Tac connector module, which is designed to incorporate connectors for comms, power and fluids. “It’s a modular connector set-up, so it allows you to choose the type of interconnects you need for you system, including high power, data, video, thermal coupling, fluids and pneumatics,” said Eric Bjork. “It’s made especially for high mating cycles, and UAVs that need frequent and rapid connecting and disconnecting, especially for swapping batteries and rapid charging the vehicle.” The housing can be aluminium or plastic, and the company is developing a new version of the module for improved water protection, for UAS applications such as weather monitoring. “Contact technology can already protect against that; it’s just a matter of getting the housing right,” Bjork noted. Kollmorgen showcased its frameless motor solutions for embedded designs, including those for EO/IR gimbals, wing deployment and avionics generators. “Improving application performance for gimbals means a smaller, more torque dense, high pole count motor, so it’s lighter and gives smoother motion in a specific footprint,” said Gene Matthews. “In order to achieve high performance motion – whether it’s aerial, maritime, land or space – you need to optimise the motor design for the application. “That means adjusting the motor’s properties such as wire gauge, slot fill, pole count, magnet type, magnet grade or insulation type. We often have to choose materials that are compatible with harsh environments as well.” uAvionix Corporation attended the show to debut its Ripple passive traffic awareness system (PTAS) and DroneAware remote ID for coordinating manned and unmanned aerial traffic. “By calculating the time delays between the interrogation and reply, Ripple discerns a bearing and distance from the aircraft, and by decoding the reply the aircraft altitude is available,” said Juan Jimenez. It can detect aircraft at distances of over 2000 ft horizontally and 250 ft vertically, and at accuracies outlined in TSO-C147A/RTCA DO-197A for Traffic Collision Avoidance Systems. The Ripple also includes ADS-B In functionality, with the PTAS function acting as a secondary validation of ADS-B In targets, to identify potentially spoofed ADS-B targets. It will perform best within the Mode C veil or transponder mandatory zones, where all aircraft must be equipped with a Mode C transponder. “Over 54% of the US population lives within the Mode C veil in urban and suburban areas; the Ripple is envisioned to enable a low-cost, low-SWaP solution for BVLOS operations in those areas,” Jimenez added. DroneAware is a subscription-free, non-ADS-B, RF broadcast ‘ADS-B like’ solution modified for the special needs of security, law enforcement and media personnel who wish to cooperatively identify drone operations. It operates on non-ADS-B frequencies and lets the operator voluntarily provide June/July 2018 | Unmanned Systems Technology Show report | AUVSI Xponential 2018 The XCraft x2 Pro tail-sitter hybrid VTOL can fly for 50 minutes at over 60 mph Staubli’s Combi-Tac connector module