Issue 37 Unmanned Systems Technology April/May 2021 Einride next-gen Pod l Battery technology l Dive Technologies AUV-Kit l UGVs insight l Vanguard EFI/ETC vee twins l Icarus Swarms l Transponders l Sonobot 5 l IDEX 2021 report

21 medical services weren’t available. So we worked with a Chinese partner north of the Qingdao province, which resulted in significant HEMS activities that have made a huge difference.” Volocopter In early 2020, Dr Coville heard about Volocopter from its then CTO Jan- Hendrik Boelens, who asked him to join his team. He accepted, and in May 2020 became head of development for the VoloCity urban air taxi. “Upon learning just how developed the Volocopter’s VoloCity electric aircraft was, I knew I wanted to help bring the technology and service of urban air mobility to life,” he says. “It felt great to do something innovative and contribute to clean flight, and I was excited to be at this new forefront of aerospace innovation, with the freedom and speed that come with a start-up environment.” The VoloCity has been developed out of concepts aimed at enabling ‘simple’ electric flight for transporting people (instead of just for UAVs), particularly for congested cities in need of safe, sustainable mobility. With 10 years of r&d accumulated since the company’s founding, there are multiple working Volocopter prototypes undergoing regular test flights in Bruchsal and Munich. The aircraft’s distributed lift architecture features 18 BLDC motors powered by nine lithium-ion battery packs, installed in a composite airframe measuring 2.5 m in height and 9.3 m across (or 11.3 m wide if propellers are included), with a total empty weight of 700 kg. The cabin can carry up to 200 kg, with a maximum take-off weight of 900 kg – ideally two people with hand luggage – for about 35 km, at a maximum airspeed of 110 kph and with a flight time of 35 minutes (after accounting for reserve battery and headwind). “An important design principle for the VoloCity is its simplicity,” Dr Coville says. “By limiting the number of moving parts in the BLDC motors using our intelligent control software, we are optimising the VoloCity’s design to promote a straightforward, safe aircraft for certification in a specific market. “The system also has very high redundancy. Even if a couple of rotors fail, the aircraft will still remain stable in the air and land safely. Moreover, we are using only tried-and-tested components rather than betting on technologies that might come along in the future.” After only three months as head of the VoloCity’s development, Boelens decided to leave the company, and Dr Coville stepped into his role. That has meant taking on full responsibility for the development of Volocopter’s products. In addition to working with authorities in Paris and Singapore to set up urban air taxi services there, the company now has a cooperation agreement with Japan Airlines for developing Japan’s urban air mobility industry. Further west, two VoloCity craft were reserved in December 2020 by the German air rescue organisation ADAC Luftrettung, and in January 2021 the FAA accepted Volocopter’s application for concurrent validation of Type Certification to operate in the US National Airspace (EASA Type Certification is also in progress). “I am also in charge of extending the Volocopter product range with the VoloDrone and future generations of aircraft,” he adds, referring to Volocopter’s heavy-lift utility UAV, whose development is being based on much of the same technology and architecture as the VoloCity. That system was unveiled in October 2019 and is undergoing development with industry partners, including John Deere (to carry one of its crop-sprayers) and DB Schenker for various logistics applications. Unmanned Systems Technology | April/May 2021 Dr Arnaud Coville was born in Paris in 1966. In addition to mathematics and science, his childhood studies included computer programming and German language courses in Germany. He attended the Lycee Pasteur secondary school in the city’s Neuilly sur Seine district, and then, after earning a degree in Electronics & Mechanics and a PhD in Automatic Control & Robotics – both obtained at the research labs of the Pierre and Marie Curie University – he worked for a time on military aerospace r&d before moving into civil technology development with aerospace companies Fairchild Dornier, Diehl Aerosystems and Airbus Helicopters. He joined Volocopter in May 2020 and became its CTO a few months later. The company is now working to optimise and commercialise its air taxi system for international airspaces. Dr Arnaud Coville