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14 Platform one Dr Donough Wilson Dr Wilson is innovation lead at aviation, defence, and homeland security innovation consultants, VIVID/futureVision. His defence innovations include the cockpit vision system that protects military aircrew from asymmetric high-energy laser attack. He was first to propose the automatic tracking and satellite download of airliner black box and cockpit voice recorder data in the event of an airliner’s unplanned excursion from its assigned flight level or track. For his ‘outstanding and practical contribution to the safer operation of aircraft’ he was awarded The Sir James Martin Award 2018/19, by the Honourable Company of Air Pilots. 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 Wireless charging system developer WiBotic is working on a system that will charge autonomous rovers on the Moon (writes Nick Flaherty). The company is working with Astrobotic on a $5.8 million contract to overcome the issues associated with charging the latter’s CubeRover. WiBotic aims to add wireless charging to the CubeRover by adapting its existing coils and components for use on the Moon. The intention is to allow the rover to be charged from batteries and solar panels on the lander, rather than having to rely on its own solar panels. “Wireless charging is great for this, as you don’t have to be perfectly aligned, which is good as there are a lot of uneven surfaces on the Moon,” explained Ben Waters at WiBotic. Cedric Corpa de la Fuente at Astrobotic said, “Removing dependencies on solar charging opens up a new range of opportunities for smaller and lighter systems for missions that were not feasible before, such as survival of lunar night missions.” Waters said, “We will be doing away with any active cooling such as fans. Then there are the radiation levels – components such as microcontrollers need to be radiation-tolerant. “For now, the concept is that the rover will have an onboard charger and a receiver; the lander will house the transmitter. This has the batteries as well, and we will be working on the system integration so that we can dynamically adjust the charging rate. “We will be testing the system in NASA chambers that simulate the regolith [Moon dust], the temperature extremes and the radiation, as well as the shock and vibration requirements to survive the launch and landing. “Our longer term vision is to pioneer a lunar wireless power grid to supply energy for a wide range of manned and unmanned vehicles, irrespective of their individual battery types, voltages or required power levels,” Waters said. Rover’s recharge Space vehicles December/January 2021 | Unmanned Systems Technology The CubeRover will use a WiBotic wireless charging system on the Moon