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74 A dvanced motor and sensor technologies, innovative propulsion concepts and flexible multi-vehicle control systems vied with UAV platforms for attention at DroneX 2022, held in London’s ExCel exhibition centre on September 7 and 8. Alva Industries showed its electric motors that use Halbach rotors, FiberPrinting technology and quality assurance to produce powerful, compact and reliable electric propulsion systems for UAVs. Anton Franzen said, “Two years ago, we decided to focus fully on the UAV industry as our beachhead market. We saw that performance is important but reliability is number one,” he said. “Our propulsion systems are designed for very long lifetimes and to be very robust; everyone wants something they can rely on and that works for a long time.” Halbach rotors, he said, generate very strong magnetic fields using permanent magnets. In a Halbach array, the magnets are arranged with their poles out of phase to produce a field that is very strong on the side nearest the stator but near zero on the other. That allows the motor to generate more torque for a given size and weight. Alva makes in-runner motors, in which the rotor is in the centre and the stator is around the rotor, which means they can be sealed from any harmful contaminants, he added. “The stator does not have an iron core,” Franzen said. “That results in superior properties compared with more conventional motors, including higher efficiency, higher peak power capabilities and a more robust construction.” The stator consists instead of filled epoxy with windings of fine copper filament in combination with structural fibres, all manufactured using Alva’s FiberPrinting process, helping the stator Peter Donaldson reports with highlights from what is billed as the UK’s largest event dedicated to UAV products, parts, accessories and services What’s the buzz? October/November 2022 | Uncrewed Systems Technology This year’s DroneX show attracted a wide range of UAV subsystem suppliers as well as airframe developers