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14 Platform one A mobile phone detector has been integrated into a search & rescue (SAR) payload for small UAVs for the first time (writes Nick Flaherty). Smith Myers in the UK worked with the Robotics Centre in Ottawa, Canada, to integrate its Artemis mobile phone detection, location and comms system into the Echo SAR payload. This has been mounted on a small UAV built by Teledyne’s FLIR subsidiary. The Echo SAR software enables operators to quickly find, map and interact with mobile phone handsets in disaster situations, helping first responders locate victims. Artemis has been integrated into the Teledyne FLIR’s R80D SkyRaider and SkyRange R70 UAVs, and essentially acts as a local base station. That gives the ability to find an individual mobile handset, map large numbers of mobile phones in out- of-service areas, and communicate with individuals or groups of mobile phones. Rather than using traditional direction-finding techniques using multiple large antennas, Artemis uses two independent geolocation techniques, one based on GPS and the other on the cellular protocol. Both techniques are used automatically and use just two small antennas. “Previously, Artemis’ airborne capabilities were only available for use on manned rotary and fixed-wing platforms,” said Dr Eric Karmouch, CTO of the Robotics Centre. “Now, for the first time, the technology can be deployed in minutes on a small quadrotor UAV, providing a whole new capability to SAR operators working in the most difficult conditions.” The 5 kg R80D SkyRaider UAV can carry a payload up to 3 kg, and uses multiple TX2 processors from Nvidia for image recognition applications and to give semi-autonomous operation. It is already used by military and public safety agencies for SAR missions with a mission time of up to 60 minutes with the latest battery pack. The craft is designed to be used in difficult conditions with winds gusting up to 56 mph. Phone SAR Airborne vehicles 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 April/May 2022 | Unmanned Systems Technology The Artemis mobile phone detector has been integrated into a small UAV for the first time for search & rescue applications