Uncrewed Systems Technology 048 | Kodiak Driver | 5G focus | Tiburon USV | Skypersonic Skycopter and Skyrover | CES 2023 | Limbach L 2400 DX and L 550 EFG | NXInnovation NX 100 Enviro | Solar power focus | Protegimus Protection

72 Preparations for Mars As Santangelo recounts, the first joint forays by Skypersonic and NASA began around the end of June 2022, with their teams climbing Etna for initial trial operations of both vehicles, which lasted a few weeks. “In planning how best to validate our technology to our customer’s standards, we identified the ideal areas to fly, the patterns and routes in which to fly, and the technologies to deploy in our data link – which we call our Real-Time Remote Piloting platform,” Santangelo says. “The link can run on any kind of internet connection. The core of the technology are our algorithms for data packet handling that ensure high fidelity and low latency, so investigating different carriers was important here. “In the endwewent with Starlink, which turned out to be very reliable and easy to install: it’s practically just a click or two and you’re ready to go. In general, we found internet connections based on LEO satellites to be the best, as you can pick up the satellites very quickly, you don’t have to bewithin a specific clear viewof a satellite.” After testing the internet technologies, Skypersonic identified geographical features on Etna such as craters and lava tubes that will be analogous to key features of the Martian terrain that astronauts will want to explore with their uncrewed systems. “Mars has a reservoir of liquid saltwater under its south pole, and undoubtedly had water on its surface and in its atmosphere before losing its magnetic field aeons ago,” Santangelo says. “As well as investigating just how much water there is on Mars now, the science community and the space industry – like NASA – want to better understand the hydrological and geological processes of the planet that have influenced the movement of water, mountains, valleys and other features of Martian geography.” Also, when the time comes for the official Mars missions, Skypersonic is contracted to provide training for the astronauts in the use of these systems. As well as hands-on instruction with the GCS and UI in planning and monitoring autonomous missions, this will involve many hours with a simulator program Skypersonic has developed, in which users monitor and interact with a digital twin of real-world environments visualised as if through the live HD video feed from the Skycopter and rover. “While we will be unable to communicate with them, as that would breach the isolation condition of the project, they will have both the GCSs and the simulator software, and can therefore keep training themselves when not performing operations directly with the UAV and rover in the real world,” Santangelo adds. Through the GCS, the astronauts will also remotely run through pre- launch checklists for the health status of the vehicles’ subsystems, as direct visual inspections will be impossible. Santangelo notes that either vehicle can set off effectively from anywhere so long as Etna is not generating an earthquake or eruption, as the vibrations from these will destabilise the accelerometers’ pre- calibrations and hence inhibit safe flight. “And of course, the data link must be checked and validated that jitter, latency and network capabilities in general are solid through one of the diagnostics routines we’ve developed. We can do either a speed test that takes a few minutes or a more extensive test that runs for a few hours,” Santangelo says. Real-timemonitoring and control As a result of the data link and software, the end-user receives both FPV and gimballed camera video feeds at their GCS with high frame rates and resolution. This enables clear views of the features across Etna’s terrain, including craters, plains and the Skyrover. “As the rover moves around Etna, it operates on a version of ROS that we modified to incorporate our core software, to ensure that the video transmission and remote control can typically be achieved within 50 ms of latency,” Santangelo says. “That latency maybe isn’t quite as necessary for the rover as it is for the UAV – since you’re on the ground you’re at less risk of crashing – but since we can achieve our low latencies without prohibitive cost for the astronauts, it didn’t make sense not to include it, so we’re ensuring that they see what the UGV sees in real time.” As mentioned, the data link can use any internet or cellular connection. The system could have used 4G for instance, although the latencies would have increased, or 5G depending on the reliability of the signal. February/March 2023 | Uncrewed Systems Technology When not monitoring the uncrewed vehicles, operators can also use Skypersonic’s simulator to enhance their proficiency in controlling them