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

67 He added that the environmental improvements were largely developed and trialled first on the company’s IE- Soar 2.4 kW hydrogen fuel cell before being miniaturised and incorporated into the 800 W architecture. “We’ve made some additional changes inside the fuel cell stack that keeps it running more healthily and efficiently; maintenance requirements have dropped quite a bit too,” Kelly said. “Also, the power electronics have been made more reliable, and the control algorithms have been made easier to interface with.” The fuel cell is expected to be commercially available later this year. Hitec has expanded its industrial SG series of programmable actuators with a number of new servo products it says are ideal for the UAV space. “First we’re debuting our SG10, which is going to have a 10 mm-thick case, as well as our SG20, both of which we expect will be commercially available later this year; our SG15 will be commercially available this summer,” said Shawn Spiker. “As programmable systems, they will be available as CAN, UAV-CAN V0 and DroneCAN. “DroneCAN is a replacement for UAV-CAN that will have backwards compatibility as it develops. We’re going to be able to continue development of DroneCAN with Ardupilot and its communities to build the new protocol abilities into our servos.” The company also showcased its new DB778 and DB961 servos, both of which run on brushless e-motors and are designed for high efficiency, power and torque relative to their size. They have hardened steel gears and new cases that are designed to absorb greater loads from the output shafts, which will in turn help the geartrains last longer. “There’s also a lot of new circuitry in these servos,” Spiker added. “Like everyone else, we’ve been affected by chip shortages, but we took that as an opportunity to find alternative chips that had more memory, so we expanded on that with more programming and improved redesigns of our boards. “And with DroneCAN, our servos can be programmed and configured through the autopilot, so OEMs and operators don’t have to plug external tools into their servos for configuration or updates.” Lastly, Hitec’s upcoming NB1200 high- torque actuator is being designed for 132 kg of force, and is anticipated to have the highest torque-to-volume ratio of any of the company’s servos. It is expected to start shipping later this year. Advanced Power Drives travelled from Australia to unveil a new line of SiC-based motor controllers it said are set to provide new levels of power and efficiency for the motor drives in heavy UAVs and eVTOLs. “We started developing SiC technology for companies like Aergility, who are producing really massive UAVs, but then we decided to build them as small, really power-dense platforms with all the features for safety and so on that we put into the bigger controllers,” said Vanja Videnovic. The company’s family of SiC products currently consists of controllers from 10 to 100 kW, and can come with features including sensorless and sensored control, CAN bus and various IP-rating options for their enclosures. “The power density of SiC gets you massive reductions in weight and heat,” Videnovic added. “The market is definitely going to want long-term supplies of the new inverters, so we’ve secured a US- based supplier for the material.” Auterion is releasing new updates for its software platform to enable critical functionalities that the company sees as being of paramount importance for the UAV market. AUSVI Xponential 2022 | Report Uncrewed Systems Technology | June/July 2022 Intelligent Energy’s second-generation IE-Soar 800 W fuel cell Advanced Power Drives’ new SiC motor controller or inverter