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

75 Intergeo 2022 | Show report Tattu exhibited its latest battery solutions for manufacturers and operators of electric geospatial survey vehicles, including those in the agricultural sector. “The new NMC 811 battery is designed with eVTOL fixed-wing aircraft and high energy density in mind,” said Alex Lyu. “Normal lithium-polymer batteries offer around 200 Wh/kg, but by using the new NMC 811 cathode material, our product delivers 275 Wh/kg, giving more energy and hence flight time relative to mass, as well as lifetimes exceeding 500 cycles if used properly.” Versions of the NMC 811 battery with 20 and 28 Ah are available; these weigh 1.8 kg and 2.5 kg respectively. “We also have an NMC 532 module, for high-voltage applications. It is ideal for heavy-duty applications such as agricultural spray drones, or for UAVs carrying really powerful Lidars,” Lyu added. “They can also be fast-charged at rates of C3 to 5 to keep downtime within 10- 20 minutes. The low resistance inherent in their design also really helps with their safety and lifespan in the kinds of hot weather that many agricultural users deal with between March and October, which is when they are needed to be flying the most.” For easy charging of these batteries, the company also showcased its new TA3000 intelligent charger, which connects to the end-user’s batteries via single discharge cables (without the need for balancing cables) and automatically sets the charging current while accounting for safety margins regarding temperatures and states of health, up to a maximum of 60 A. “Farmers now make up a huge portion of our business, so this automation is key to making uncrewed systems straightforward for them to use,” Lyu said. “With this smart 3000 W charger, they don’t need to select a C-rate, they can just choose between a fast mode and a standard mode, and the TA3000 does the rest.” While Trimble and Applanix products integrated into many systems were shown around the expo, the companies themselves attended to showcase their latest GNSS-inertial sensor fusion solutions, with the new Trimble AP+ Series drawing particular attention. “We’ve introduced this solution into different vertical markets at different times,” explained Dr Steve Woolven of Applanix. “We launched the AP+ Air first, followed by the AP+ Land variants and finally a Marine variant, but all three use the same core technology, which will be the basis for the next several years of our product development. “The latest version of our AP+ Series OEM board is designed for every GNSS signal currently available, and it uses Applanix’s latest IN-Fusion+ technology. That takes GNSS signals as well as on- and off-board inertial sensors, Lidar, odometer and camera signals, and fuses it all together into an aided inertial Kalman filter. “As a result, the AP+ Series can produce highly informed and precise position data for autonomous vehicles in environments such as tunnels and deep- pit mines, or under bridges and forest canopies.” He added that in addition to strongly aiding autonomous navigation in difficult environments, the AP+ solutions can also be used in gimbals for accurate real-time direct georeferencing and object tracking. The 100 g AP+ 30 Air consumes up to 7 W and interfaces via a single rectangular Samtec connector for power and data; two MMCX antenna connectors are also installed for calculating heading. It is built using the latest Trimble Maxwell technology with 2 x 336 tracking channels, and the latest Applanix MEMS IMU with the latter’s proprietary SmartCal software for inertial error compensation. In addition to accessing all available satellite correction services, RTK- processing and Trimble’s RTX-correction services can be used for further signal precision and accuracy. Uncrewed Systems Technology | December/January 2023 Tattu’s TA3000 smart charger