83 plethora of useful advancements. At the very least, it has become commonplace for GCS software to integrate a broader and deeper range of data flows from the aircraft, from real-time, high-resolution payload data streams for eager customers to the minutiae of subsystem performance and health data telemetry for vehicle maintenance teams to track. It follows that specific tools for manual or automated analytics of such data are more often being integrated directly into GCS software packages, streamlining the production of actionable information reports (more so than the sometimes time-consuming process of porting data from the GCS to COTS analysis software). Today, numerous features have become hallmarks of GCS software. For instance, software-in-the-loop simulators enable the execution of simulated missions while connected to GCS hardware, allowing their various facets to be tested, and enabling the flight team to gain familiarity and proficiency with the interface (or validate the parameters of an upcoming mission). Additionally, software designed for multi-unit control is adapting to requests for greater numbers of vehicles to be managed per GCS, and for higher complexity of collaborative tasks that they may be triggered or preprogrammed to undertake. It is no longer unusual for discerning customers to ask for as many as 25 uncrewed vehicles to be rapidly set to a distributed patrol or search pattern within a predefined geofence, with the units intuitively taking each others’ place as battery or fuel stores run dry. Additionally, mounting numbers of requests for multi-domain operations – with land, air, surface and underwater vehicles all managed at once – has required investigation and support of new protocols, sensors and payloads within high-end GCS software, as well as new forms of collaborative capabilities. While achieving collaboration between different manufacturers’ vehicles – let alone those designed for varying domains – is challenging, companies presently engaged in engineering and demonstrating this are pursuing maturation and scaling of such capabilities in the years ahead. Station to station In many instances, UAS manufacturers and operators will suffice with some form of basic, ruggedised laptop or tablet (typically from Panasonic or Samsung) as their GCS station hardware. This can be enough in some instances, particularly for the sake of the familiarity that some users will feel with laptops over actual GCSs. However, it has become more usual for professional, uncrewed vehicle operations to rely on more tactile, analogue control interfaces. These include joysticks, yokes, levers, toggle switches, large Ground control stations | Focus Uncrewed Systems Technology | October/November 2024 Ruggedised laptops often form the core of GCS set-ups, given their familiarity and ease of use (Image courtesy of Twinhead International Corporation) Careful selections and arrangements of control surfaces is critical for handheld GCSs in particular (Image courtesy of TM IT-Systemhaus)
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