Insitu ScanEagle VTOL & Integrator VTOL | Dossier detailed engineering panels that you wouldn’t normally find in other common operating platforms for UAVs. “There are pros and cons to that. Our customer base has become very familiar with it, and they get to do a lot of things via I-MUSE that they wouldn’t get to on other uncrewed systems.” These include the development of deployment- and payload-specific UIs to reduce operator workload and fatigue while providing the best actionable intelligence – the operator essentially draws lines for flight paths and target paths, and specifies which one to follow, enabling the multitasking of operational requirements. Rather than I-MUSE, Integrator uses Insitu’s Windows-based INEXA Control suite as its GCS software and is compliant with NATO STANAG 4586 on the interoperability of UAV control solutions (covering requirements in C2, human and machine interfaces, and data links, while also defining requirements in architectures, interfaces, comms protocols, data elements and message formats), as well as STANAG 4609 on digital motion imagery. “It is a multi-purpose tool, covering mission planning, C2 and flight operations, and it can be networked across multiple GCS computers. We have demonstrated simultaneous control of multiple uncrewed platforms through INEXA,” Todorov explains. “Like Integrator, it is a highly modular interface, which users customise as needed using a system of vehiclespecific Platform Kits and vehicleagnostic Mission Kits, which are essentially plug-ins created via Insitu’s SDKs that account for the specifics, real-time conditions and dynamics of each uncrewed vehicle and mission type registered in our system.” Those can include air vehicles’ specific acoustic profiles to visually project audiodetectability onto the operator’s moving map display, thus ensuring the vehicles remain acoustically undetectable. Additionally, for safe integration into congested airspace, INEXA’s airspace management plug-in displays other air-traffic tracks (including air speed, heading and altitude) and alerts operators to unsafe headings, based on mid-air collision volumes. Through Insitu’s parent company, Boeing, INEXA has incorporated software features such as Boeing 777-style air speed and altitude gauges, as well as what Todorov refers to as a netcentric, plug-in based, service-oriented architecture, capable of synchronising events, video and communications across myriad computer interfaces for shared operations. “INEXA’s AVOS [Augmented Video Overlay System] has been designed to allow video to be overlaid atop of satellite imagery, to display full-motion video on a map where the UAV is geographically in real time. It can also display all other sorts of incoming payload data, such as locations of tracked targets or signals intelligence,” he adds. While customers have historically used many different control stations to oversee ScanEagle and Integrator missions (including fixed consoles in ships and ground bases), Insitu has converged over the last five years around its aforementioned CGCS, which consists of a ruggedised laptop capable of operating in climates from -32 C to 49 C, running either I-MUSE or INEXA, and swapping various radio modules in and out. The system complies with STANAGs 4586, 4609 and 3607, runs on a 20-35 V DC power input (from batteries, shore power, grid power or even a road EV) and can link to the customer’s UAVs via ground antennas of various ranges up to 130 km, with S-band, L-band and C-band data links available as standard. 39 Uncrewed Systems Technology | June/July 2024 The Common GCS is Insitu’s SWaP-optimised set of control hardware, designed and made for easy vehicular transport to and from mission locations Future development at Insitu will focus on enhancing the connectivity and autonomy of its UAVs, particularly how they sense their environment and react accordingly, without needing operator permission to keep flying safely
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MjI2Mzk4