16 June/July 2024 | Uncrewed Systems Technology Dr Donough Wilson Dr Wilson is innovation lead at aviation, defence, and homeland security innovation consultants, VIVID/ futureVision. His defence innovations include the cockpit vision system that protects military aircrew from asymmetric high-energy laser attack. He was first to propose the automatic tracking and satellite download of airliner black box and cockpit voice recorder data in the event of an airliner’s unplanned excursion from its assigned flight level or track. For his ‘outstanding and practical contribution to the safer operation of aircraft’ he was awarded The Sir James Martin Award 2018/19, by the Honourable Company of Air Pilots. Paul Weighell Paul has been involved with electronics, computer design and programming since 1966. He has worked in the realtime and failsafe data acquisition and automation industry using mainframes, minis, micros and cloud-based hardware on applications as diverse as defence, Siberian gas pipeline control, UK nuclear power, robotics, the Thames Barrier, Formula One and automated financial trading systems. Ian Williams-Wynn Ian has been involved with uncrewed and autonomous systems for more than 20 years. He started his career in the military, working with early prototype uncrewed systems and exploiting imagery from a range of systems from global suppliers. He has also been involved in ground-breaking research including novel power and propulsion systems, sensor technologies, communications, avionics and physical platforms. His experience covers a broad spectrum of domains from space, air, maritime and ground, and in both defence and civil applications including, more recently, connected autonomous cars. Professor James Scanlan Professor Scanlan is the director of the Strategic Research Centre in Autonomous Systems at the University of Southampton, in the UK. He also co-directs the Rolls-Royce University Technical Centre in design at Southampton. He has an interest in design research, and in particular how complex systems (especially aerospace systems) can be optimised. More recently, he established a group at Southampton that undertakes research into uncrewed aircraft systems. He produced the world’s first ‘printed aircraft’, the SULSA, which was flown by the Royal Navy in the Antarctic in 2016. He also led the team that developed the ULTRA platform, the largest UK commercial UAV, which has flown BVLOS extensively in the UK. He is a qualified full-size aircraft pilot and also has UAV flight qualifications. Dr David Barrett Dr David Barrett’s career includes senior positions with companies such as iRobot and Walt Disney Imagineering. He has also held posts with research institutions including the Charles Stark Draper Laboratory, MIT and Olin College, where he is now Professor of Mechanical Engineering and Robotics, and Principal Investigator for the Olin Intelligent Vehicle Laboratory. He also serves in an advisory capacity on the boards of several robotics companies. Uncrewed Systems Technology’s consultants Wibotic in Canada has developed 1 kW wireless charging for larger, autonomous mobile robots (AMRs), writes Nick Flaherty. The 1 kW version is aimed at charging larger battery packs in larger AMRs, and for faster charging of smaller AMRs. It charges as fast as a 300 W plug-in charger and can still be used with factory outlets rated at 1-1.5 kW. The charger enables a 1 C-Rate to charge a 2-3 kWh pack in two to three hours, but managing the charging rate to maximise the lifetime of the pack is also critical. The Wibotic system uses a 6.78 MHz radiofrequency (RF) signal for the power transfer, and the design of the charger enables positional flexibility while making the onboard charger smaller. It measures 126 mm x 52.5 mm. “For electric cars, everyone wants faster charging, but what’s really interesting is to charge in a way that maximises the battery longevity with a slower charge,” said Ben Waters, CEO and founder of Wibotics. “Autonomous robots have a similar trend. Some have the opportunity to charge overnight, but when they are in high demand you need the capability to put a lot of power into the packs. The charger adjusts from 0-60 V and 0-35 A of current, and this gives customers a lot of flexibility across different devices.” This works across different battery chemistries and various types of AMR in a fleet of robots. Another advantage of RF inductive charging is foreign object detection for anything metallic that gets between the coils. The higher power also gives more flexibility in positioning. Wibotic found most AMR and automated ground vehicle (AGV) makers can navigate to within 2 cm, so the charger allows an offset of 4 cm vertically and 4 cm horizontally for the highest power. The system uses a proprietary, 2.4 GHz radio for communication, so if the coils separate too far, the system can determine the efficiency of the power transfer. The charger can also be used outdoors. Autonomous robots Wireless charging of larger battery packs for AMRs A Cypher AMR with an integrated UAV charging port for aerial monitoring in a warehouse (Image courtesy of Wibotic)
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