Unmanned Systems Technology 033 l SubSeaSail Gen6 USSV l Servo actuators focus l UAVs insight l Farnborough 2020 update l Transforma XDBOT l Strange Development REVolution l Radio telemetry focus

Conclusion Prof Chen notes, “Full autonomy on industrial UGVs is challenging. You not only need to perceive, drive and steer autonomously, you have to do so in a way that gets your mobile manipulation system – in this case, a disinfectant spray system – where it needs to be. “This latter system then needs to move and spray intelligently while taking the vehicle’s dynamics, power and surroundings into account – all without human supervision.” That means having a complex network of systems compared with self-driving cars and factory AGVs. However, given the widespread need for persistent and intelligent robots that can reasonably act as substitutes for human labour while people are under lockdown, Prof Chen anticipates that over the next 5-10 years there will be some major innovations in these kinds of unmanned vehicles. Transforma Robotics XDBOT | Digest 10 minutes,” he says. “Our motors allow us to move at up to 4 m/s, which is fine for traversing corridors that the robot doesn’t need to linger in.” Two hub-wheel motors are installed to enable differential movement, thus the robot can rotate in place to minimise its turning radius in narrow corridors. Each motor is a single-shaft hub wheel motor producing up to 500 W of power from a 24 V supply, drawing up to 10 A in normal operations. The XDBOT has a typical running time of 4 hours. Transforma has kept the charging system simple – a 100-200 V AC wall power outlet is enough to replenish the battery within an hour. While many unmanned vehicles need to avoid downtime wherever possible, Transforma anticipates the XDBOT’s operations being a matter of routine rather than urgency. A few daily cleans per UGV per floor of a hospital should be sufficient. “In 4 hours, the robot can disinfect 1200 m 2 ,” Prof Chen says. “A human cleaning team would do these rounds once in the morning, once in the afternoon and once at night, which leaves plenty of time for charging in between.” If, however, extra cleaning time is urgently needed, Transforma can provide a charging station in which fresh battery packs can be pre-charged for swapping into the robot, reducing downtime from an hour to 5 minutes. “We are working on an automated battery swap system as well, just in case the end- user really can’t be there to physically plug the XDBOT into a wall or swap the battery themselves,” Prof Chen adds. “And there are some other spin-out companies in our office building who develop wireless charging and power management systems, who we may well work with in the future to develop suitable convenient charging peripherals for the XDBOT.”