54 Li-ion module which slots in and out of its compartment; that plus the hinged hatch covering the cargo hold make for largely tool-less maintenance and cargo loading between fights. In the nose, RigiTech installs the ‘onboard computer’ (handling some alternate, non-continuous safety functions to the autopilot), comms and navigation systems, an FPV camera for regulatory compliance and a downward-facing camera for autonomous precision landing. “The airframe is mostly composites, both carbon and fibreglass, but optimised for cost, as well as weight and structural strength, which results in there also being several plastic, rubber and metal parts,” Klaptocz says. “Making an integrated system means being sensible about what materials you use in each place, both for the sake of the UAV and your manufacturing processes. There’s some structural foams in the UAV as well for extra weight-saving, but what you see from the outside is pretty much all composites.” Software ecosystems The UAV’s three interconnected computers may serve different functions during standard operations, but for emergency situations they are programmed to back each other up, briefly taking over and performing similar software functions as each other. Comms and navigation sources are similarly redundant. If all else fails, a parachute with a dedicated computer and power source deploys to slow and control a fall towards the ground. “The need for safety is why we have waves of backups to ensure four or five things kick in before an issue becomes truly serious. It’s also why we have a three-month continuous software cycle, spending two months investigating and developing new algorithms to detect new failures, followed by one month of testing to refine it, so we don’t add any bugs to the system,” Klaptocz says. RigiTech’s software encompasses several stacks and codebases across different platforms. Eiger’s autopilot, for instance, is a low-level microcontroller for flight-critical functions, largely programmed in C++. Its backup computer runs a separate codebase written from scratch (also in C++), and the onboard computer is Linux-based and runs the higher-level, non-critical (but still important) functions, having been programmed via a combination of C++, Python and other languages. “Then there’s a cloud system, which is server-based and hence uses a lot of server-based technologies, with its back end based on Node.js and a lot of Javascript-type coding,” Klaptocz says. Hence, the company’s software solutions bridge together different programming languages and concepts from embedded code that runs standalone on singular processors to embedded Linux architectures, which run multiple interconnected algorithms in multiple languages, and its cloud, which runs varied services on different servers and architectures, linked by different infrastructures including (but not limited to) Google Cloud. “Today’s UAV software is more or less ‘here’s a .exe, you put it on your autopilot, and off you go’. Our software is a bit more complex, to the point that when you update one system it runs updates on other systems, and all of that has to work together, and ensure continued compliance and safety across UAVs and deliveries,” Klaptocz says. Connected couriers To ensure the software can both guide and remotely track the UAVs, each Eiger integrates two GNSS receivers, the nosemounted module’s antenna (nicknamed the rhino horn by RigiTech for its protruding, dark shape) that integrates an airspeed sensor for added telemetry and precision localisation aiding. To keep the UAVs at a safe distance from other aircraft, the navigation hardware suite integrates traffic awareness systems, which include transponders for ADS-B In (with an option for a TSO-certified ADS-B Out), FLARM and remote ID, with the software for intelligently processing their data running in the frontal onboard computer. “We have got four different comm links, including a main 4G modem, a backup 4G in the rear, one satellite modem and a 2.4 GHz radio, useful in the context of drone ports – which can co-ordinate three or four drones deploying simultaneously from the same place – plus a ground-based radio system and two mobile network systems connected to two different computers, so the loss of one data link never takes down a cascading network of other links,” Klaptocz explains. April/May 2025 | Uncrewed Systems Technology A plethora of antennas are installed across the fuselage for persistent connectivity, including eight underneath the lift motor arms
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