Uncrewed Systems Technology 044 l Xer Technolgies X12 and X8 l Lidar sensors l Stan UGV l USVs insight l AUVSI Xponential 2022 l Cobra Aero A99H l Accession Class USV l Connectors I Oceanology International 2022

108 “Our sensors don’t need calibration, just a quick wipe of the transducer is enough to refresh the chemical inside, and allow a further 15,000 measurements until the next wipe. Its onboard algorithms, arrangement of electrodes and chemical engineering enable self-calibration. We have 10 patents that effectively encapsulate how we’ve done this. “Our founders spent 6 years developing the technology, released it commercially for the ocean market last year, and at this show we’re unveiling an updated version they’ve engineered to provide a wider salinity range so that it can also be used in freshwater zones.” Clemans added that by forgoing traditional glass diode designs, ANB’s pH sensor maintains reliability through to its 15,000th measurement, whereas conventional pH sensors suffer significant degradations in accuracy and reliability over time, with no visibility to the end-user. The sensor measures to 0.05 pH, with a resolution of 0.01 pH and a range of 2-10 pH. It is available in different versions depending on depth rating, and an enclosure-less OEM version also available. FiberPro exhibited several of its newest fibre optic sensors, including the FI 200 C, its high-performance tactical- grade FOG IMU solution. Richard Ryu said, “FOGs in general are critical for applications where the highest possible accuracy is needed in terms of angular rate and velocity, and there are two ways of designing FOG IMUs: open- loop and closed-loop. “Closed-loop FOGs are typically more expensive but offer the higher performance of the two approaches. However, we’ve focused on maintaining a performance advantage while bringing the price down to levels closer to those of open-loop systems.” This price optimisation has been achieved primarily through the company’s investments in vertical integration processes, in order to design in-house most of its core parts for mass manufacture. It has also secured bulk purchases of FOG subsystem componentry through its supply chain partners, and automated its assembly lines to bring down input costs wherever possible. “We’ve focused on positioning this product as a high-performance, low-cost solution, with low voltage and power consumption for an overall low burden of ownership,” Ryu added. The FI 200 C weighs 790 g, measures 84.5 mm tall and 88.9 mm in diameter, and consumes 5.5 W at normal operation on a power input of 5 V. Its accelerometers measure accelerations to a range of ±10 g , has an in-run bias stability of 15 µ g , and a bias repeatability of 2 m g . Its gyros have a measurement range of ±490 º /second, a bias stability of 0.5 º /hour, and an angular random walk of 0.025 º /hour. The standard product’s acceleration and gyro data is typically output at a rate of 400 Hz, although a 1000 Hz option is available on request. Applanix, a Trimble company, spoke with us about the latest updates to the Trimble CenterPoint RTX real-time correction service for GNSS positioning augmentation, which expand its benefits into the maritime realm. “While CenterPoint RTX corrections have been used for real-time land- based applications for the past 10 years, CenterPoint RTX had until recently been just a post-processing service for marine applications, principally for correcting mapping and imaging data after capture,” said Rick Morton. “But we’ve now rolled it out as a real-time marine correction solution for enhancing vehicles’ navigation and survey accuracies in-field. “And as well as correcting position data to 2 cm horizontally, it also delivers accuracy to within 5 cm vertically. That’s very important for the applicability of the service to USVs and other marine vessels, because it gives you direct real-time information June/July 2022 | Uncrewed Systems Technology FiberPro’s FI 200 C fibre optic gyro ANB Sensors’ calibration-free pH sensor