GPS World

Tag: CubePilot

  • uAvionix launches enterprise UAS autopilot dubbed ‘George’

    uAvionix launches enterprise UAS autopilot dubbed ‘George’

    Photo: uAvionix
    Photo: uAvionix

    uAvionix Corp has launched its first autopilot for unmanned aircraft systems (UAS), named George.

    At 80 grams, George is a low size, weight and power (SWaP) certifiable solution for enterprise operations and those wishing to type certify their UAS. It is manufactured in the United States.

    Built around the open-source autopilot Cube from CubePilot, George combines Cube with Design Assurance Level C (DAL-C) hardware and safety and sensor monitoring, enabling customers to meet the type certification and safety case requirements for beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS) operations.

    George’s triple-redundant inertial measurement unit (IMU) system includes three accelerometers, three gyroscopes, three magnetometers and three barometers, one of which has been TSO-certified under TSO-C88b in other uAvionix products such as skyBeacon, tailBeacon  and ping200X. The hardware platform is designed and built to RTCA DO-254 DAL-C and meets rigorous DO-160G and MIL-810H power and environmental qualifications.

    George is plug-and-play compatible with all of uAvionix’s certified and uncertified products, including

    • truFYX GPS (TSO-C145e)
    • ping200X (TSO-C112e, TSO-C166b, TSO-C88b)
    • RT-2087/ZPX-B (AIMS MkIIB)
    • pingRX Pro dual-band ADS-B receiver for detect and avoid
    • the microLink or SkyLink C-band command and control solutions

    “The flight control capabilities of the Cube are superb, backed by hundreds of thousands of man-hours of engineering and experimentation over the past 10 years,” said Paul Beard, CEO of uAvionix. “But what has been lacking is a hardware platform that matches that capability in robust performance. George brings everything we’ve learned about certified avionics to the autopilot space in a way that outperforms existing enterprise and military autopilots in a lower SWaP package.”

    George will be available for beta test-launch customers in June with production units available in the third quarter.

  • UAvionix partners with CubePilot on ADS-B IN for carrier board

    UAvionix partners with CubePilot on ADS-B IN for carrier board

    Photo: uAvionix
    Photo: uAvionix

    uAvionix has announced a partnership with autopilot maker CubePilot to integrate ADS-B IN receive capability into its carrier board.

    uAvionix is the designer and manufacturer of communications, navigation and surveillance (CNS) equipment for unmanned and manned aircraft.

    CubePilot is the designer and manufacturer of the “The Cube” autopilot (formerly known as Pixhawk) for unmanned aircraft systems (UAS).

    The new carrier board, available in July, integrates uAvionix’s custom ADS-B silicon for 1090-MHz ADS-B reception for worldwide detect and avoid (DAA) functionality.

    With this integration, UAS operators will be able to see nearby ADS-B OUT enabled aircraft on ARDUPILOT’s Mission Planner, providing the remote pilot in command (RPIC) with timely notification to take the necessary actions to remain well clear.

    CubePilot, which uses the open-source ARDUPILOT platform, previously provided plug-and-play functionality for several uAvionix ADS-B IN and OUT products, including PingRX, Ping2020i and Ping1090i. Support for these products is retained in the new design, allowing for 978MHz ADS-B reception or integration of ADS-B OUT functionality.

    “With this partnership, uAvionix furthers our goal of ensuring safety and common situational awareness between airspace users,” states Christian Ramsey, uAvionix president. “We believe that ADS-B IN functionality should be a requirement for every DAA system for UAS operations over people or beyond visual line of sight, and meeting that requirement should not be cost prohibitive.”

    “The safe integration of UAS into the National airspace of any country needs to take a safety-first approach from all players,” said Philip Rowse, Hex/ProfiCNC (CubePilot) CTO. “By partnering with uAvionix and including the ADSB-in at practically no cost to the customer, we remove the cost barrier, adding safety to our customers’ UAS solutions.. We envisage this added situational awareness, and optional auto avoidance behavior will be an important step towards safely shared skies.”

    Visit uAvionix at AUVSI Xponential in Chicago April 30-May 2 at Booth 4421 and CubePilot at Booth 1816.