Uncrewed Systems Technology 046

between them, and between them, us and Dallara. That in turn led to breakthroughs in hardware and software engineering that were key to the car being capable of higher and higher speeds autonomously. “By August, the AV-21s were running autonomously at IMS at 100-plus mph, and their capabilities progressed exponentially beyond that month by month, not just in terms of safe speed limits but proficiency in steering, braking – and, by January this year, passing as well.” Most recently, the racecar has had an engineering ‘refresh’ of several of its subsystems, mainly the powertrain and software components. The AV-21’s anatomy The biggest architectural changes on the AV-21 versus the IL-15 were made to accommodate sensor mountings and to perform throttle, steering and braking by wire. “The throttle was relatively easy to change, as it’s just computer-controlled, but the steering rack had to be modified to accept the Space Drive from Schaeffler Paravan, which also provided the brakes, run – as is standard on the IL-15 – along with a crank arm and motor for electronically actuating them,” Coffey says. “As you move back in the cockpit, you find AdLink’s board for edge computing, Luminar’s Lidars, the GNSS antennas mounted on top, and radars on each side. Beneath those is a fire extinguishing system that’s been useful for safety reassurance, especially regarding the batteries, and the main autonomy computer systems are mounted on top of the batteries and extinguishers.” In addition to the cockpit housing the side and forward radars, as well as the Lidars (three each), six cameras here provide for additional object and colour awareness, and one GNSS antenna mounts into the skin of each sidepod (with some work going into mounting them aerodynamically) with the other two GNSS antennas atop the roll hoop. Behind the cockpit is the Honda engine. Coffey notes that this was supplied and essentially remanufactured by 4 Piston Racing, in Danville, Indiana, with Dallara doing considerable work to insulate it given that the car was originally designed for the housing and NVH of a significantly different power unit. The Clemson team and their partners positioned these systems to minimise blind spots and to allow redundancy with multiple sensor types. A primary goal of the vehicle’s design was to make sure that no single team gained an unfair advantage through the perception systems chosen. To achieve that, engineers made sure the sensing modalities – that is, Lidar, camera, radars – had overlapping fields of view, so that teams could choose to use the sensors that best aligned with their experience. A centrifugal clutch system is IAC AV-21 | Dossier USA Provider of Suter Propulsion Solutions as well as other UAV solutions • Up to 24 HP • 11.6kg turn-key ready • 1kW starter/generator STD (2kW option) • Volz throttle servo • EFI gasoline • Customization also feasible • Heavy fuel coming soon • Several options available Website: www.suter-aviation.ch Phone: +4 9 172 900 2619 Email: info@ cae-engines.com Website: www.uavpropulsiontech.com Phone: +1 (810) 441-1457 Email: [email protected] The Suter TOA 288 engine As featured in UST32