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

74 Pre-launch configuration Each carrying case contains the UAVs and a dedicated control laptop from Icarus. The laptop serves as a GCS but can work offline using preloaded maps of the area to be worked in and an encrypted local network connection for communicating plans to the craft. This enables the swarms to be plug- and-play systems, so that end-users do not have to connect to a cloud or worry about wi-fi availability in their area, and hackers cannot gain access to a swarm. Once the UAVs are switched on and connected to the laptop, they are calibrated with regard to the direction they are facing, to orient their GPS compasses. That takes about 30-40 seconds and consists of positioning them to face the same way and in a direction given by the laptop to configure their level of heading accuracy. The operators can then input high-level objectives for the UAVs. These include GNSS coordinates and altitudes where they want their payloads flown, how long they want them in use there, and some points regarding the approximate strategy to be carried out. Much of this, such as formations and collective uses of tactical payloads, are preset and can be selected in the software’s menus. “The UAVs will coordinate themselves towards the higher-level mission objectives,” Lauwereins says. “For example, if a user wants 30 minutes of aerial spotlight illumination at a given spot then, since the Anafi has 25 minutes of maximum endurance or 15 minutes of realistic operating time with payloads, the swarm will automatically plan the rollover. “That will mean a trade-off in terms of how many UAVs can fly. If at least one UAV’s maximum battery life would be exhausted in carrying out the objective, at least one will stay behind to take over afterwards. “Or, if you want radiological scans over an area for an hour, say, then the software would probably coordinate the launches in four waves with five drones at a time, or five waves of four at a time.” Currently, the payloads are hard-fixed to the UAVs before they are delivered to the end-user. Customers working in area security for airports, power plants and similar zones for example might therefore have 10 UAVs with spotlights and 10 with remote loudspeakers, for seeking and warning trespassers. “That reduces set-up time by quite a bit, which is most important to our end-users,” Lauwereins says. “And although we aim for 20 minutes, the most recent trials with special forces found they could manage the whole set-up within 10 minutes. “If end-users want more payload flexibility, however, we can provide that. It might mean making a swarm using a low-cost, small UAV with a hot-swappable payload interface, or making an Anafi swarm with 30 to 40 drones with a diversity of payloads among them. Technically, we could supply a combination of these two approaches as well.” In-mission security and safety As mentioned, the UAVs fly without having to be connected to the GCS – only a GNSS link is needed to check that position readings match flight plans, with the laptop enabling set-up before launch and monitoring afterwards. A radio link for observing the Anafi April/May 2021 | Unmanned Systems Technology Before take-off the 20 UAVs of a given swarm must be calibrated while pointing in the same direction to ensure heading accuracy A secondary processor provides for battery management, integrity checks of the main processor and cut-offs of battery power in extreme circumstances