Uncrewed Systems Technology 047 l Aergility ATLIS l AI focus l Clevon 1 UGV l Geospatial insight l Intergeo 2022 report l AUSA 2022 report I Infinity fuel cell l BeeX A.IKANBILIS l Propellers focus I Phoenix Wings Orca

62 Insight | Geospatial surveys generated flight plan to inspect the area. The UAV has a 2.5 m wingspan with an inverted-vee tail, four fixed VTOL motors, a 3 kg payload capacity, a flight endurance of up to 120 minutes and a maximum airspeed of 180 kph. “Thanks to our API, the UAV autonomously proceeds on demand to the airspace over the fault, uses our proprietary algorithm for automatic gimbal tracking of power lines or other structures to capture high-resolution photos of them while flying past at 100- 150 kph, before transmitting medium- resolution images immediately over cellular networks. After landing, it downloads all the high-resolution data to allow deeper insights by the asset’s owner,” Lichtenstein says. “Safety insights are critical for knowing the scale of repairs needed, so heavy industry customers need a lot of data, and quickly, regardless of where in Europe they and their assets are. Our pilot sits in Hamburg at a virtual cockpit, so if anything happens they can take over manually via a cellular data link.” In order to reach any destination without the range limitations of electric flight, the Beagle M launches from and lands at hangars near the survey sites. These are charging container stations that house the UAVs and replenish their batteries during downtime. They can also fly from one station to another, enabling them to ‘hop’ nationwide, all the way back to the Hamburg offices if the company’s technicians want to perform MRO duties. Each hangar can fully recharge a Beagle M in just under 2 hours. It flies to the nearest one using GNSS guidance, lands on a visual marker on the hangar’s platform using a downward-facing camera, is pushed into place by linear rails inside the charging station, then spring-loaded contacts extend to touch the landing gear, through which current passes into its batteries. It then stays there, covered by the hangar’s shutter doors until its next flight. Bathymetry As well as geospatial data being critical for maintaining and tracking land-based assets, bathymetric surveys are key to capturing information on important littoral assets such as canals, reservoirs and major rivers. Numerous sensors and uncrewed systems are available for such mapping. For instance, Riegl’s new VQ-840-GL Lidar (the ‘L’ signifying that it is lighter than the VQ-840-G) can be integrated on heavy-lift UAVs such as the company’s RiCopter-M. “The RiCopter-M has an MTOW of 40 kg and a payload capacity of 15 kg, with up to 15 minutes of flight time while carrying its payload limit,” says My-Linh Truong, division manager at Riegl USA. “It is a fully electric X-8 coaxial octocopter measuring 1920 mm across and has a maximum cruising speed of 30 kph. “By having the same laser performance and water penetration as the VQ-840-G but in a lighter housing, with more than 2 kg shaved off, the GL variant weighs just under 10 kg for longer endurance topo-bathymetric missions. “By ‘topo-bathymetry’, we mean it can be used for topographic as well as bathymetric mapping, so it’s good for surveys stretching from the terrain around water bodies and going down into the water itself. Its green-laser channel penetrates into the water body at up December/January 2023 | Uncrewed Systems Technology The RiCopter-M has a 40 kg MTOW, making it ideal for carrying the VQ- 840-GL Lidar, which weighs just under 10 kg (Courtesy of Riegl) Safety insights are critical for knowing the scale of repairs needed, so heavy industry customers need a lot of data, no matter where their assets are