Uncrewed Systems Technology 049 - April/May 2023

80 The UAV is a quadrotor with a 1999 g MTOW and maximum dimensions of 576 x 660 x 149 mm (including its propellers). It is powered by a 4S lithium-polymer battery that weighs 520 g, stores 8070 mAh or 120 Wh of energy, delivers power over a 14.88 nominal voltage, and provides up to 42 minutes of flight between charges or swaps of the pack. Its standard payload is a gimbal with four sensors. Two of them are EO cameras, one of which is an 8K, 48 MP systemwith a 10x optical zoom and a half-inch CMOS sensor for inspecting targets up to 2 km away. The other is a 50 MP camera built around a 1/1.28 in CMOS sensor designed for wider-angle shots as well as 4K 30 fps video. The other two sensors are a 640 x 512 IR camera that incorporates an uncooled VOx microbolometer as its detector, and a laser rangefinder with a 1.2 km range. For fleet or swarmoperations, the UAV integrates Autel’s A-Mesh 1.0 radio. This enables multiple EVOMax 4Ts to be overseen froma single GCS, and for other EVOMax 4Ts in themesh to communicate with each other so that if one should suffer a fault or crash, the others can reposition themselves tomaintain survey coverage. Users canmonitor and take control of the UAV via the Autel Smart Controller V3, a battery-powered tablet GCSwith a 20,148 x 1536 resolution, 7.9 in display. Footage captured by the UAV can be downloaded at 20Mbytes/second, and additional monitors can be connected via HDMI. There are plans for a range of future updates to enhance the autonomy and planning capabilities that can be realised through the GCS. These include vertical survey patterns of towers and pit walls, corridor surveys of roads, pipelines and rivers, and automatic terrain-following, for topographic surveys as well as preventing collisions with the terrain. Autel also demonstrated its Dragonfish Series of UAVs, all three of which are VTOL-transitioning aircraft with tiltrotors mounted at the tips of their fixed wings and vertically oriented rotors on top of their noses and tailplanes. The series consists of the 5.5 kg Dragonfish Lite, the 9 kg Dragonfish Standard, and the 17 kg Dragonfish Pro, all of which have a top speed of 108 kph and are built with carbon composite airframes rated to IP43 protection and operating in temperatures from -20 to +50 oC. Steadicopter has updated its BlackEagle 50H helicopter UAV with a new payload integration capability, which is available on request and is aimed at users engaged in long-range maritime survey operations and border protection. TheMicroMaritime Patrol Radar (µMPR) fromBird Aerosystems has been designed to serve as a SWaP-optimised sensor for airborne tracking and identifying vessels over a wide radius. Its data can be fused with that froman aircraft’s AIS and EO/ IR systems to achievemore precise and detailed identifications of targets including real-time georeferencing. The µMPR can track up to 50 targets at once over a typical range of up to 30 km, or up to 40 kmfor larger targetswith a radar cross-section of at least 1000m². It weighs about 7 kg and consumes just under 200W froma 28VDC supply. The Black Eagle 50H meanwhile is a 50 kg MTOW aircraft, hybrid powered for a maximum flight endurance of 5 hours, a top speed of 126 kph and a cruise of 83 kph. It is 3100 mm long, its main rotor having a diameter of 2800 mm, and it can fly at up to 16,500 ft (5029 m) in addition to withstanding wind speeds of up to 46 kph during VTOL. April/May 2023 | Uncrewed Systems Technology Autel Robotics’ EVOMax 4T in different missions Steadicopter’s Black Eagle 50H equipped with BIRD Aerosystem’s µMPR