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

28 couldn’t be supplied with the regularity that was promised. “Gradually we solved one issue after another, with cooling, vibration and power management in particular having been the real sticking points and hence focal points of our development. Those are endemic to hybrid multi-rotor platforms, and interfere with our ability to calculate how power-to- weight affects endurance. As such, they’ll probably guide all future component and redesign choices too, except perhaps in subsystems such as autopilots, which as far as we see are well-solved with millions of units supplied worldwide.” The cooling problem stems from the IC engine generating copious heat, which the X12 cannot dissipate through forward flight alone, as fixed-wing aircraft can, so a complex thermal management strategy is critical to preventing hazardous build- up of heat spreading outwards from the engine bay. Vibration is of course perennial throughout the industry. Resonances threaten to shake airframes apart, for Xer as much as any UAV company wanting to pack power units with moving parts into tight spaces. “As for power management, there is between 70 and 160 A flowing throughout the X12 at any given time, which means we need good knowledge about soldering, switches and the many related components and dynamics,” Skantze says. “And every connection point must be secure against vibration and not produce excess heat. Handling all these interrelated problems has been a major headache, but we’re now flying and have a comprehensive understanding of what works and what doesn’t. “We know for instance that we can’t just buy off the shelf; we use many fantastic suppliers but almost every component is taken apart, modified and put back together to optimise for our use-case. Barring producing all our parts in-house, we need that kind of re-engineering of supplied parts to make and sell a UAV of such quality that we’d want to use it ourselves.” The company’s coastal location, in Helsingborg, southwest Sweden, has enabled thorough validation of its aircraft in windy, wet and salty conditions ranging from -15 to +35 C. With the final version of the X8 having logged hundreds of hours of bench and flight testing, the first units will start trials with clients later this year, and series production and supply are planned to start by early next year. “We’ll have constructed a modest number of X8s by the end of this year, with a minimum fivefold increase in manufacturing capacity a year after that, and a projected tenfold increase in production and sales by the close of 2024,” Skantze says. Multi-rotor overview As mentioned, the X12 has six rotor arms mounted evenly about a hexagonal hub, with ESCs installed in the arms and a pair of electric motors at the end of each arm arranged coaxially. Opening the hub’s lid reveals Xer’s ‘starfish’, an arrangement of structural walls that interconnect and lock the mounting brackets for the arms, which extends from the top of the hub downwards and doubles as a frame of mounting surfaces for most of the internal electronics. As well as providing enough space and threads for mounting, it has also been designed to distribute the internal weight of the X12 such that the CoG is stabilised and kept low in the airframe. “The cover can also be exploded off by a built-in parachute we include as part of the standard configuration, which is installed inside the top of the hub, at the level of the arms, and deploys June/July 2022 | Uncrewed Systems Technology For ease of set-up, the rotor arms fold outwards and lock into place at the correct angles, without the need for tools We can’t just buy off the shelf; almost every component is taken apart, modified and put back together to optimise for our use-case