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

93 continued to lower latencies and improve bandwidths, working with the HEVC standard, and we’ve now managed to implement HEVC in something of very small size and light weight.” The company added that this allows a wider range of autonomous vehicles, particularly smaller multi-rotors with harsher weight limitations, to stream more complete and reliable video data faster and amid conditions with constrained data networks. The Pico+ Tough is available as a 77 x 55 mm OEM board, or in a 94 x 72.5 x 31.5 mm ruggedised aluminium enclosure. It weighs 370 g with its case, and consumes 8.7 W during normal operations. It produces bit rates from 32 kbit/s up to 80 Mbit/s, frame rates up to 60 fps (at resolutions up to 4096 x 2160P) and latencies down to 20 ms. Vitec also promoted a new gateway product called ChannelLink Server, which enables downstream transmissions of vehicle-derived video data to other networks, such as the internet, private clouds and elsewhere, all controlled from a centralised management station. This can allow users, clients and other interested parties to simultaneously track and analyse incoming camera feeds from autonomous survey, reconnaissance or sportscasting vehicles. General Dynamics Mission Systems (GD-MS) displayed the LX300 tandem helicopter UAV, developed originally by its subsidiary LaFlamme Aero for naval intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance missions, as well as logistics supply runs between ships and shore. “LaFlamme’s team in Canada designed and built this unmanned helicopter, with its tandem rotor design providing much better flight stability and weight distribution than a normal tail-rotor helicopter,” said Kirsten McCormick. “It runs on a heavy fuel diesel powertrain that gives it a maximum endurance of more than 10 hours, and it can carry up to 180 kg of payload weight. Its top speed is 115 knots, with a cruising speed of 100 knots.” Under GD-MS, the craft is continuing development for Mil-certified missions as well as other applications in the civil sector such as search & rescue and monitoring critical infrastructure. Also in attendance at the show was iXblue, which unveiled UmiX, its lightest ever FOG IMU system, weighing in at just under 770 g. The company also says it is the smallest available in the world. “Its size, weight and performance compared with MEMS IMUs make it ideal for UAV and UGV manufacturers looking to provide extremely accurate GNSS- denied navigation and gimbal target- tracking capabilities to their end-users,” said Neil Perriton. The system currently comes in two variants: the UmiX U5 and the UmiX U9. While the U5 has a dynamic range of up to ±490 º /s, the U9’s is ±3000 º /s. Both also incorporate a vibrating quartz accelerometer, with the U5’s having a dynamic range of ±30 g and the U9 ±100 g . Both have a latency of 200 µs, DSEI 2021 | Show report Unmanned Systems Technology | December/January 2022 Vitec’s MGW Pico+ Tough IP video encoder The LX300 tandem helicopter UAV from GD-MS One variant of iXBlue’s new UmiX FOG IMU