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71 engine developers and aircraft engineers will need to have the appropriate rigour in testing and proof of reliability in their equipment,” said Keith Hirschman. SightlLine Applications Also located in Hood River is SightLine Applications, who discussed a range of its newest hardware and software for intelligent onboard video systems. “We put consistent work into developing and refining our software algorithms, so it becomes a matter of finding the right hardware platform to run them on,” said Josephine Kellum. “So far, we’ve developed the 1500-OEM as our single-channel processor, and the 3000- OEM as our dual-channel processor.” The 1500-OEM is based on a DM3730 processor from Texas Instruments, outputs a 720p quality stream at between 15 and 30 fps, and supports a range of digital camera inputs including HDMI, FLIR LWIRs and MWIRs, and global shutter block systems. It weighs 7.6 g, measures 26.5 x 37.7 mm and consumes up to 3 W during normal operations. The 3000-OEM uses Texas Instruments’ DM8148 and C6657 processors, weighs 39 g and consumes less than 10 W. It measures roughly 88 x 50 mm, and it can output a 1080p video feed or two 720p streams at 30 fps. Both systems work on H.264 encoding, and have been tested to Mil-Std 810 for shock and Mil-Std 461 for EMI tolerance in customer systems. They can also operate in temperatures from -40 to +55 C. “Our newest hardware platform is the 4000-OEM, which features H.264 and H.265 encoding, and it’s powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 820,” Kellum said. “That processor seemed a great option for several reasons. One of those was that we are now able to offer a licenced library for use on other ARM-based processors, so that end-users with Nvidia, Xilinx and others can integrate just our software functions without having to use our hardware.” Rachel Boshears added, “Advanced features like H.265 and 4K imaging were not available on our existing processors, and didn’t seem to be on the roadmap for Texas Instruments, so we looked at ARM-based hardware platforms that could support our algorithms and add these capabilities.” Mark Zanmiller noted, “The 3000-OEM, while powerful, was a little too big for some end-users, particularly those using a 3-4 in EO/IR turrets, so we developed something to fit that form factor. “Also, those deeply SWaP-optimised systems can’t use a 10 W video processor. A lot of the more robust but smaller and lighter processors can consume as much as 20 W, so the Snapdragon was critical to getting more processing power, in less space and power than the 3000-OEM.” The 4000-OEM weighs 13 g, consumes up to 5 W and measures 50.5 x 38 mm. It can offer up to 4K video output at 30 fps with encoding, and run all software functions. It is currently a single-channel system, but the company plans to update it to a dual-channel system after the launch period (the system supports three digital video inputs, one more than the 3000-OEM). Power4Flight In Hood River we met with Power4Flight, which for the past two years has been involved in much of the development behind the upcoming A99i engine. Much like the A33i (as detailed in UST 12, February/March 2017), it is a two-stroke, fuel-injected engine, and has been co-produced with Cobra Aero, with a number of new features and technologies compared with its predecessor’s design. “The A99i is a triple-cylinder, inline, water-cooled engine, with three 33.45 cc cylinders,” Bill Vaglienti said. “From early on in its development, a lot of computer- simulated analysis was conducted on mechanical stresses and strains, throughout the crankcase, the crankshaft, and on how we’d design and optimise the exhaust system, the cooling and essentially all the other mechanical components.” The company intends to hybridise the engine by integrating a motor/generator on the crankshaft, between the propeller mount and the crankcase. The motor/generator will either generate electricity from the rotation of the crankshaft, or consume energy (from a battery) to generate shaft power and boost the propeller speed. “Typically, you’d put the generator on the back of the engine, but if you want significant boost power from a motor/ generator that’s mounted at the opposite end from the propeller, you have to design the crankshaft to carry that additional torque,” Vaglienti said. “So we put the motor/generator on the propeller side. That will allow us to as much Oregon | Tech tour Unmanned Systems Technology | December/January 2020 SightLine Applications’ 4000-OEM integrates a Snapdragon 820 to provide new features such as H.265 encoding and 4K imaging (Courtesy of SightLine Applications)