Issue 41 Unmanned Systems Technology December/January 2022 PteroDynamics X-P4 l Sense & avoid l 4Front Robotics Cricket l Autonomous transport l NWFC-1500 fuel cell l DroneX report l OceanScout I Composites I DSEI 2021 report

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. Professor James Scanlan Professor Scanlan is the director of the Strategic Research Centre in Autonomous Systems at the University of Southampton, in the UK. He also co-directs the Rolls-Royce University Technical Centre in design at Southampton. He has an interest in design research, and in particular how complex systems (especially aerospace systems) can be optimised. More recently, he established a group at Southampton that undertakes research into unmanned aircraft systems. He produced the world’s first ‘printed aircraft’, the SULSA, which was flown by the Royal Navy in the Antarctic in 2016. He also led the team that developed the ULTRA platform, the largest UK commercial UAV, which has flown BVLOS extensively in the UK. He is a qualified full-size aircraft pilot and also has UAV flight qualifications. Unmanned Systems Technology’s consultants Enterprise Control Systems (ECS) has developed a software- defined radio for UAV video data links (writes Nick Flaherty). The Tove mini RF data link is specifically designed for UAVs, UGVs and USVs, and is certified to the DO-160 (RTCA) standard. It provides similar functions to the current Evenlode data link that uses a COFDM protocol compatible with the DVB-T2 standard in a software-defined range from 900 MHz to 6 GHz but reduces the SWaP. It can also use QPSK or 16QAM encoding depending on the needs of the link, with data rates up to 21 Mbit/s with 256-bit AES encryption. The video functions include an HD, low-latency H.265 and H.264 1080p video encoder that compresses standard video outputs in the SD-SDI and DV-ASI formats to reduce the channel bandwidth and increase the spectral efficiency. Error- correction algorithms and a 2 W integrated amplifier provide a range up to 100 km. GPS and telemetry data is also added to the Tove transport stream to provide positional information to fixed or mobile receiving stations. Optional 5 W and 10 W external amplifiers are available for longer ranges. The unit measures 120 x 80 x 30 mm, weighs 350 g, has 11-15 VDC and 22-30 VDC inputs, and is designed to the IP64 standard to operate from -20 C to +55 C and 0-90% non- condensing relative humidity for UAVs. It can also be provided with a proprietary encryption and encryption management system for military designs. New and legacy third-party sensors can be connected via its HD SDI, CVBS, USB and Ethernet inputs to transmit the data securely to the ground control centre.    Tove is compatible with all ECS viewing terminals and ground receiving infrastructure. UAV video SDR Comms December/January 2022 | Unmanned Systems Technology The Tove system is certified to the DO-160 standard