30 fashion. It does not need any preprogrammed waypoints, and always returns seamlessly to its deployment location near the end of its 10 hour battery life. And in issue 47, BeeX discussed its A.IKANBILISUUVwith us, which uses what the company calls “adaptive autonomy” to recognise, zoom in on and search around key points of interest onwind farm foundations. That way, the underwater robot can ‘realise’ where its end-users will want additional sonar and camera imagery taken, and capture themon the spot, rather than having to be deployed for a second outing after the first round of data has been analysed. The essence of both of these underwater use cases can also be seen in the growing wave of quadrupedal inspection UGVs, such as the ANYbotics ANYmal (issue 40, October/November 2021, and revisited briefly in issue 49 (April/May 2023). This vehicle (and others like it) uses SLAM to navigate through potentially unsafe indoor environments such as offshore oil rigs and mining tunnels, with additional AI software being critical not only to it recognising and inspecting signs of damage, but also to the very way in which it walks on four legs, enabling it to climb stairs and right itself after suffering an impact. With AI now empowering uncrewed systems to react so intelligently to fine details in their surroundings, the next phase of operating capabilities for such robots is represented by companies such as Nautilus Robotics (discussed briefly in issue 48,) whose large UUV features manipulator arms for interacting with subsea infrastructure. In the near future, quadrupedal UGVs are expected to be similarly coupled with arms for autonomously opening doors or manipulating valve wheels. And if the reach of their arms proves to be an issue, a subsequent generation of bipedal UGVs can be expected, as a more distant but probably inevitable direction the industry will head towards, to add to the ability of autonomous systems to take the place of people in dangerous working areas. While few companies are currently capable of bipedal autonomy, the pace of advances in processors, inertial systems and navigation using visual or Lidar sensing is such that development of such robots will become easier andmore accessible to companies everywhere in due course. And as robotic vehicles take on the qualities of biological life on land, so UUVs that resemble aquatic creatures have started appearing in the mainstream media. Aquaai’s Mazu UUV (issue 39, August/September 2021) for example has the outward appearance of a fish to blend in among farmed salmon schools, as well as the locomotion of one to enhance its energy efficiency and navigation stability. Materials science advances are already (and will continue to be) vital to optimising hydrodynamics and ruggedness for such soft robots as they are used beyond fish farms, throughout the world’s lakes and oceans to better understand and protect marine life as environmental safeguarding takes primacy among global priorities. Heavy fuel One cannot discuss environmental considerations without also thinking about power and energy, and the uncrewed world’s relationship with them. As mentioned, this magazine’s founders’ first exploratory research rounds found that the industry was heavily dominated by UAVs – they also found that just six or seven engine companies were showcasing UAV powertrains at that time. They therefore logically expected that we might need to return to each of those companies for a feature-length engine dossier every year or two. But not only are there more than six or so UAV engine companies – we have since investigated 44 that produce either IC powertrains or hydrogen fuel cells for uncrewed systems – we have also visited six of those twice, unpacking their experiences gained after a 5-6 year stint since our first in-depth coverage. When looking across all these companies, one can see that the uncrewed engine industry reflects changes in the automotive world. There is a great push for fuel efficiency, as manifested in some major trends in how UAV powertrains have evolved. One is centred on heavy fuel, which is valued for its safety and efficiency by naval and other maritime operators. This was hinted at in our first issue, with Hirth’s S1218 engine capable of running on gasoline or heavy fuels, and subsequent issues have covered other multi-fuel engines (Wankels, for instance, which can often run on heavy fuels). But over the past 3 years, our industry has seen a boom in engines that are engineered not just for June/July 2023 | Uncrewed Systems Technology Special review 50 issues of Uncrewed Systems Technology Uncrewed systems are increasingly a staging ground for biomimetics, such as Aquaai’s Mazu AUV, which flexes and swims like a fish (Courtesy of Aquaai)
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