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55 Strange Development told us about its new REVolution engine, a 600 cc, 50 kg supercharged two-stroke rated to 220 hp (164 kW) for UAVs. Its name comes from its integration of a rotary exhaust valve (REV), which significantly increases its power density and reduces its emissions relative to other two-stroke designs. “The concept of this engine originated from another engine I was reconfiguring for heavy-fuel compatibility,” said John Krzeminski. “It weighed a lot for its power density, so after some experience on another project aimed at boosting a two- stroke, I went back to it and installed a REV, which gives full control over the air coming in and out of it.” The engine’s intake, exhaust and emissions can be altered by how Krzeminski and his team time the rotary valve. Although he has experience with four-strokes, he chose a two- stroke design for its power-to-weight superiority versus other cycle types, and for the potential to offer a longer TBO than other two-strokes (as the supercharging eliminates oil burning, improving durability). We spoke to Andrew Stott of Applanix about its new post-processing CenterPoint RTX (PP-RTX) service (previously implemented through the Applanix POSPac MMS and POSPac UAV software). It is designed to enable centimetre- level trajectory generation from data logged by Applanix GNSS inertial direct geo-referencing products without the need for local base stations. PP-RTX is available globally via an internet connection directly from the POSPac software, and is offered in Standard and Fast variants. “The accuracy specification for CenterPoint RTX is within 4 cm RMS horizontal, and 6 cm RMS vertical for airborne applications,” said Stott. “A prerequisite for Standard PP-RTX in aerial mapping is missions of at least 20 minutes in length, to allow full convergence in the forward and reverse processing directions. “The challenge with smaller kinds of UAVs is that most of them are battery-powered, with very limited flight endurance – typically 15 to 30 minutes. But the new CenterPoint RTX Fast positioning service offers a convergence time of less than 5 minutes, so it is now feasible to reliably use PP-RTX corrections for high-accuracy UAV surveying and mapping using small, cost-effective aircraft.” The PP-RTX Fast service is currently available in most of the EU and North America, and is continuously being expanded on a worldwide basis. Kinetic mesh wireless network provider Rajant told us about its newest product, the DX2, which measures 108 x 43 x 40 mm and weighs 123 g, making it the smallest and lightest of the company’s BreadCrumb family of wireless network nodes. “It comes in two models, the DX2-24 with 2.4 GHz and DX2-50 with 5.0 GHz,” said Alice DiSanto. “We’ve field-tested the DX2 by integrating it into more than 20 UAVs, which were flown in swarm with fully distributed comms and computing. “The system is encased in magnesium to reduce weight and help conduct heat away from the CPU and radios. It forms a mesh network when used with our other BreadCrumbs, such as the LX5, ME4 and ES1 models, which operate using our InstaMesh protocol.” AUVSI Xponential 2020 | Show update Unmanned Systems Technology | June/July 2020 Strange Development’s REVolution engine The Rajant DX2 wireless network node from Rajant