Unmanned Systems Technology 027 l Hummingbird XRP l Gimbals l UAVs insight l AUVSI report part 2 l O’Neill Power Systems NorEaster l Kratos Defense ATMA l Performance Monitoring l Kongsberg Maritime Sounder

55 pitch are accurate to 0.03 º , which with PPK processing improves to 0.025 º . The IMU weighs 76 g, measures 78.75 x 51.5 x 20 mm, and draws up to 3.5 W. The installed data logger can hold up to 8 Gbytes, with serial, Ethernet or CAN bus interfaces to the other onboard systems. Houston Mechatronics is continuing development of its AquaNaut UUV, a hybrid ROV/AUV system developed for underwater construction, retrieval and other heavy subsea engineering tasks. “We now have a fully functional UUV, and we’re testing that vehicle and its electrical manipulator arms with some runs recently completed at the NASA Neutral Buoyancy Lab in Houston,” said Sandeep Yayathi. “The arms have eight degrees of freedom, with a wide kinematic workspace, and five joints going down each arm with two more at the end for roll and grip.” The vehicle uses an onboard DVL- INS for navigation and station-keeping, with seven thrusters distributed around the hull for stationary hover, forward cruising, diving and various other manoeuvres for closely navigating subsea infrastructure. Defence, oil and gas, and similar industries are anticipated as markets for the vehicle, particularly as the UUV’s 200 km range can make the costly use of ROVs and manned surface vessels unnecessary. RCV Engines has made the first customer delivery of its new (unnamed as yet) heavy-fuel engine for unmanned vehicle applications. It is an evolution of its well-proven 70 cc two-cylinder, four- stroke boxer engine profiled in UST 5 (Winter 2015). “This new engine is a fuel-injected four-cylinder boxer engine that displaces 140 cc,” said Eric Hill. “We’ve developed it with an ECU-controlled liquid cooling system for reliable thermal management in hybrid applications. The first customer engine has now been handed over for vehicle integration and functional testing.” Coupled to a suitable generator, the engine will typically operate at between 4000 and 8500 rpm. Its patented rotating valve technology accepts gasoline- or kerosene-based heavy fuels such as Jet A1, JP-8 and JP-5. Being a four-stroke, the engine has inherently low fuel consumption and exhaust emissions and, with a suitably designed airbox and exhaust muffler, can achieve a low acoustic signature without compromising performance. Having installed CAN interfaces on its small, high-volume DA-15N servo actuator range last year, Volz Servos is continuing to make the CAN protocol available across its other systems, with the DA-26D and DA-30D redundant servos now incorporating CAN bus ports. “Having CAN bus means simpler comms between servos and onboard processors such as ECUs or autopilots, as well as reducing the number of wires on the vehicle, and increasing the AUVSI Xponential 2019 | Show report Unmanned Systems Technology | August/September 2019 A Quanta UAV series navigation IMU from SBG Systems Houston Mechatronics’ AquaNaut UUV