Unmanned Systems Technology 022 | XOcean XO-450 l Radar systems l Space vehicles insight l Small Robot l BMPower FCPS l Prismatic HALE UAV l InterDrone 2018 show report l UpVision l Navigation systems

15 Dr Donough Wilson Dr Donough Wilson is innovation lead at VIVID/ futureVision, which specialises in game- changing thinking for defence, homeland security, and both manned and unmanned aviation innovations. He was first to propose the automatic tracking and satellite download of airliner black box data, technology which is now being adopted. His defence innovations include the automatic cockpit vision system that protects military aircrew from asymmetric high-energy laser attack. As a pilot, he has more than 3000 hours of flying experience in both military and civil environments, and is currently a flying instructor and a flight test examiner. Paul Weighell Paul has been involved with electronics, computer design and programming since 1966. He has worked in the real-time and failsafe data acquisition and automation industry using mainframes, minis, micros and cloud-based hardware on applications as diverse as defence, Siberian gas pipeline control, UK nuclear power, robotics, the Thames Barrier, Formula One and automated financial trading systems. Ian Williams-Wynn Ian has been involved with unmanned and autonomous systems for more than 20 years. He started his career in the military, working with early prototype unmanned systems and exploiting imagery from a range of unmanned systems from global suppliers. He has also been involved in ground-breaking research including novel power and propulsion systems, sensor technologies, communications, avionics and physical platforms. His experience covers a broad spectrum of domains from space, air, maritime and ground, and in both defence and civil applications including, more recently, connected autonomous cars. Unmanned Systems Technology’s consultants Two small unmanned rovers have landed on the surface of an asteroid and are sending back scientific data and pictures of its surface (writes Nick Flaherty). They are the first to move around the surface of an asteroid autonomously. The vehicles, Rover-1A and Rover-1B, were carried to the Ryugu asteroid by the Hayabusa2 spacecraft developed and launched by the Japanese JAXA space agency with the University of Aizu. Once they were deployed, Hyabusa2 went into a 20 km orbit around the asteroid. “The rovers are in good condition and are transmitting images and data,” said an agency spokesperson. “Analysis of this information confirms that at least one of them is moving on the asteroid’s surface.” The rovers are identical 18 cm wide cylinders that are 7 cm tall with a mass of 1.1 kg (2.4 lb) each. They move by hopping around in the low gravitational field, using torque generated by rotating masses within the rovers. A 15 m hop takes 15 minutes in the low gravity. There are four cameras on Rover- 1A and three on Rover-1B to create detailed stereo images of Ryugu’s surface. The rovers are powered by solar cells and double-layer capacitors, and communicate with Hayabusa2 via a 32 kbit/s repeater on it for onward transmission to Earth. A third rover is still on Hayabusa2 and will be deployed in 2019. Developed by a consortium of universities led by Tohoku University, this one is 15 cm in diameter and 16 cm tall with a 1 kg mass. It has two cameras, a thermometer and an accelerometer as well as optical and ultraviolet LEDs. First autonomous visit to asteroid Space systems Unmanned Systems Technology | October/November 2018 Rovers-1A and 1B move around the asteroid using hopping movements