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69 controls to ensure stable and reliable flight control. “Traditional engine control and motor controller architectures wouldn’t cut it, as we needed a four-hybrid-engine distributed control system to handle this UAS design and flight profile. We therefore have our own electronics that sit between the flight controller and the hybrid power modules to provide the right control signals to each one. “We’ve conducted hundreds of hours of testing on it, the bulk of which has been field testing to lift gradually heavier payloads and still meet our targets for endurance, stability, control and so on,” Resnick said. “And we’ll start the first of several fresh rounds of flight testing in the near future.” The Parallel One has an empty weight of 34 kg, and it can fly for more than 6 hours with a 4.5 kg payload. Its maximum endurance, if significant fuel tank volume is added above the nominal quantity, is estimated at over 16 hours. Each hybrid power module also has two upward-facing ducted fans for engine cooling, and additional proprietary functions that the company declined to specify. Each engine can provide up to 6 kW, and the four electric motors are customised KDE Direct systems. Wooden propellers from Xoar are integrated on the prototype for their greater resilience to the cyclic torque pulses from the engines compared with carbon props. “Once we’ve done enough simulation and testing with carbon props, we’ll switch to those for their greater strength- to-weight ratio, but right now, wood works really well for proving out the control and power system,” Resnick added. Connect Tech attended the show to display its new products using the latest Nvidia Jetson Nano, which was released in mid-2019, and the Jetson Xavier released in late 2018. “With our newly released Photon Nano Carrier, we’ve sought to provide an AI vision platform for developing applications using object detection, classification and avoidance,” Rob Callaghan said. “The Photon offers dual MIPI CSI2 camera inputs and other high-speed I/Os such as USB and Ethernet [with PoE available as well], all packaged in a 145 x 64.5 mm form factor appropriate for smaller cameras suited to UAV payloads. “Our team of embedded computing engineers provide constant support for programming and troubleshooting the Nano and other Jetson solutions. We are continually updating our board support packages in line with Nvidia’s latest Jetpack releases.” The company also showcased its first system-level solution built around the Jetson Xavier, the ruggedised Sentry-X. The two-part system is split into a main computing module and an I/O console, the latter featuring power and IP67-rated connectors. Docking sled options include sealed Fischer MiniMax connectors, PC- style connectors or Mil-Std 38999s. “The kind of UAVs that would be most suited to using this system would be those that have to withstand greater shock and vibration, and need computing Commercial UAV Expo 2019 | Show report Unmanned Systems Technology | February/March 2020 The Parallel One heavy-lift UAS Connect Tech’s Photon Nano Carrier AI vision platform