84 radios will be compatible soon, following some development. “We also have a number of interfaces for different power options, and USB-C which can be converted into HDMI,” Isenbarger added. Teledyne FLIR showcased a number of its latest innovations for thermal sensing in autonomous applications. Among them was a perception software solution developed principally for advanced driving assistance systems (ADAS) but that can also be applied to uncrewed vehicles. “It’s called Prism AI, and it’s a collection of software libraries that enable classification, object detection and object tracking that runs on low-power embedded processors,” said Arthur Stout. “It started in ADAS, where it was trained for visual and thermal recognition of traffic signs, pedestrians, bikes, motor vehicles and other things you’d see on the road, whether driving or driverless. “We’re now using it for other missions. In UAV applications, doing things like air-to-ground target detection so that a UAV can classify people, vehicles, maritime targets and so on. In air-to-air, we have an interest in UAVs watching for other UAVs, as part of advanced security systems, to direct a gimballed camera that can pan, tilt and zoom to a moving object of interest.” Prism AI has been developed with edge computing in mind. Teledyne FLIR is producing it with a set of libraries that customers will be able to install on their preferred GPU, although at the time of writing, they were compiled to run only on Qualcomm and Nvidia processors, particularly embedded applications such as the RB5 from the former and the Xavier and Orin from the latter. FLIR also displayed its Boson+ thermal camera module, which has a 12 µm pixel pitch and a spectral band of 8 to 14 µm. It also comes with either 640 x 512 VGA resolution or 320 x 240 QVGA, and thermal sensitivities of less than or equal to 20 mK in its Industrial version or 30 mK in its Professional version. Haskel International has developed a system for safely refuelling hydrogen gas tanks in UAVs and any other hydrogenpowered uncrewed systems. “Our UAV RS AG-75 is essentially a unit that boosts the hydrogen delivery from common hydrogen bottles or an electrolyser into the fuel cell’s tank at 5000 psi, and we’ve engineered the solution to be portable so that it can be used anywhere; it also requires no electricity to work,” said Loy Reeder. “Boosting hydrogen gas pressure is not as easy as you might think. To safely boost it to high pressure, the system needs to be heat, flame and spark-free, with no possibility of ignition sources, as hydrogen is explosive. “That means it’s really hard to make it electric or electronic in any way, and the kinds of compressors you’d use for inert gases can’t be used with hydrogen.” Haskel avoids these problems by having an entirely pneumatic booster, based on the technologies used in its larger gas refuelling systems for heavy industry. The UAV RS is also available in versions with nominal maximum delivery pressures of 1500, 3000 and 7250 psi. Rugged embedded system manufacturer Neousys Technology arrived from Taiwan to debut its FLYC300 UAV mission computer at the expo. The system is powered by an Nvidia Jetson Orin NX system-on-module, and weighs 300 g, hence its name. “For real intelligence, modern autonomous aircraft need eyes and a brain,” said Chris Ni. “The Orin NX serves as the brain, with 100 TOPS of operating power, enabling extensive real-time AI functions including image processing, object detection and environmental modelling. “For eyes or other forms of sensing, the end-user can connect their sensors to the FLYC-300 by Ethernet, USB 3 or GMSL2 interfaces. GMSL2 is a serialised MIPI, which can use a thin cable to transmit MIPI signals. “Through these interfaces we can support 2D, 3D, thermal or hyperspectral cameras as well as Lidar, to gauge depth, shape, colour and motion of objects, and distinguish near-identical objects from each other.” For outputting command signals to the flight controller, the module features a port for UART, one for CAN 2.0, a USB October/November 2023 | Uncrewed Systems Technology Report | CUAV Expo Americas 2023 Imagery from Teledyne FLIR’s Prism AI in an air-to-ground survey operation
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