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

75 AUSVI Xponential 2022 | Report In UST 39 (August/September 2021) we featured HFE International’s innovative GenPod concept, which uses a turnkey assembly of powertrain components to create a propulsion solution that could be clipped on and off a UAV nose for rapid maintenance turnarounds. At the time, the launch version of the system was the GenPod 70, so named for being built around a 70 cc two-stroke boxer from Desert Aircraft. Since then, HFE has proven the concept and its capabilities, and developed numerous larger versions built around larger DA engine cores, with the GenPod 215 being the largest version yet. “We’re building the first prototypes this summer, and production should follow by early 2023,” said Tom West. “The smaller GenPods are perfect matches for any UAV below 50-55 lb, while the GenPod 150 is great for 150 lb aircraft. The 215 cc GenPod could power aircraft weighing up to 175 lb, depending on aerodynamics of course.” The GenPod 215 will weigh about 5.6 kg with all ancillaries, harnesses and fuel lines included, and output 11.1 kW maximum continuous power at a crank speed of 7000 rpm. With customisation and interoperability being key values among autonomous vehicle manufacturers and operators, VectorNav has made its Tactical Series of navigation systems compatible with a number of FOGs and GNSSs from some notable solutions providers. “With this new capability, our Tactical Series GNSS-aided INS products can plug in external inertial or GPS/GNSS systems, if an end-user wants to take advantage of particular performance capabilities of either technology,” said Jeremy Davis. “That could be vital if, say, FOG-grade data is needed to compensate for when GNSS is lost or jammed, or if a military user needs to switch to something with a special protocol or standard that’s exclusive to defence use. “Our r&d team is also working on several fallback modes, both automatic and customer-specified, to be able to switch between navigation data sources for redundancy purposes if needed.” At the time of writing, compatible solutions included the FOGs from Emcore, KVH and Northrop Grumman LITEF, as well as BAE Systems’ M-Code GPS receivers. “About a quarter of the work was programming for smooth data comms,” Davis added. “The rest went into retuning and testing our filters to make sure they used the added systems’ data as effectively and intelligently as possible.” Sierra-Olympic Technologies recently debuted two new high-definition thermal cameras it says are ideal for UAV integrations and missions. The first is the LWIR Viento 1280, so named for its image resolution of 1280 x 1024 – notably higher than the industry-standard 640 x 480. “With a 10 micron pixel pitch the Viento 1280 breaks new ground in uncooled HD thermal imaging technology,” said Jeff Leake. “All the industry’s other uncooled LWIR focal plane arrays are either 17 or 12 microns. “Along with meeting the design and manufacturing challenges of thermal management and device fabrication, the 10 micron pixel pitch is comparable to the 8-14 micron optical passband of a typical infrared camera.” While this 10 micron pixel pitch is difficult to achieve physically, the user gets four times the pixels of standard VGA-resolution IR cameras, meaning much wider fields of view and finer detail when optically zooming. That enables a level of detail that is ideal for computer vision, machine learning and a range of AI capabilities in thermal monitoring and inspection Uncrewed Systems Technology | June/July 2022 HFE’s GenPod 215 Sierra-Olympic’s HexaBlu MWIR sensor array