Unmanned Systems Technology 042 | Mayflower Autonomous Ship | Embedded Computing | ElevonX Sierra VTOL | UUVs insight | Flygas Engineering GAS418S | Ocean Business 2021 report | Electric motors | Priva Kompano
80 density, which is good for managing forced induction engines,” Gamberini says. “The second is throttle position sensing versus rpm, or Alpha-N as it’s sometimes called.” For the former management system, the standard-issue GAS418S comes with a manifold absolute pressure sensor, an intake air temperature sensor and a crank speed sensor. The last of these components, along with a throttle plate position sensor, provides the necessary data for Alpha-N. “I have tested a lot of ECU hardware over the past 30 years, and we examined many of those I knew about when developing this engine, but in the end we went with one from EFI Technology,” Gamberini says. “The firm was started by a former Magneti Marelli employee, and I was familiar with the very high quality of Magneti’s ECUs from my racing years, where they supply to many winning Formula One and MotoGP teams. “So we had an ECU customised by EFI Technology to optimise for size, cost and the necessary storage and processing power for the two different strategies, as well as the ability to operate each spark plug independently. We use two spark plugs in each cylinder, as we wanted an EFI system that would keep each cylinder firing with just one plug if the other one has failed. It also includes an algorithm to help manage the carburettor if that option is taken up.” February/March 2022 | Unmanned Systems Technology One of the GAS418S’s cylinder heads (with valve guides visible) In measuring the fuel consumption for the GAS418S, the dyno room had a temperature of 14 C, humidity was 45%, and its atmospheric pressure was 1.01 bar
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