Autopilot platform developer UAV Navigation is integrating Iris Automation’s detect-and-avoid Casia software into its advanced autopilot solution, Vector. UAVs equipped with Vector and Casia now can detect uncooperative crewed aircraft in their airspace and autonomously or manually take corrective action, avoiding potential collisions.
The integration comes as Iris Automation releases Casia Software v2.2. The release also includes improvements to performance, track fusion and flight data uploads. Casia Software is embedded in all Casia systems and uses computer vision and artificial intelligence to detect and classify aircraft intruders, similar to human pilots.
Vector autopilots are specifically designed to execute flight completely autonomously, even if the remote-control datalink becomes unavailable or fails. They are used by a wide range of commercial clients flying rotary wing, target drone, fixed wing, and VTOL uncrewed aerial vehicles, worldwide.
UAV Navigation specializes in the design of guidance, navigation and control solutions for unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). Iris Automation is a safety avionics technology company pioneering detect-and-avoid (DAA) systems and aviation policy services that enable customers to build scalable operations for commercial drones.
It’s only a few weeks into the new year, yet there’s plenty happening in “UAV land” already. I expect another year of innovations, novel developments and groundbreaking firsts in unmanned aircraft.
This month’s question: What’s a Skyborg? The U.S. Air Force (USAF) has awarded contracts to Kratos, Boeing and General Atomics to prove their approaches to the UAV program.
All three have fielded existing, company-developed drones which are intended to fly alongside and be controlled by the latest frontline U.S. fighter aircraft. The idea is to have expendable force-multiplier unmanned aircraft support the capabilities of high tech, hugely expensive aircraft in order to undertake perhaps more risky missions, with the potential improvement acceptable versus unacceptable losses.
Flying alongside frontline fighter aircraft, these jet-powered unmanned aircraft could undertake more risky close support parts of the mission, where loss of the UAV might be more likely, while the manned aircraft remains outside the high-risk envelope. Hence the term attritable is now being applied to these unmanned accompanying vehicles, which are intended to have a reduced cost profile so that loss of the UAV might be more tolerable.
The Air Force Life Cycle Management Center (AFLCMC) has awarded Skyborg Vanguard Program contract amounts to Boeing ($25.7 million), General Atomics ($14.3 million) and Kratos ($37.8 million) for initial prototyping. All appear to have Skyborg prototypes in development.
Kratos has subsequently announced other contract modifications related to the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) Low Cost Attritable Aircraft Technology (LCAAT) program.
Boeing will offer a variant of the Airpower Teaming System (ATS) drone being developed in Australia for the Australian Air Force. Engine runs and initial taxi tests were recently completed, however the program went into a short hiatus at the end of 2020 because of high COVID-19 infection rates in and around Sydney.
Boeing will offer a variant of the ATS drone being developed for the Australian Air Force. (Photo: Boeing)
General Atomics Aeronautical Systems Inc. (GA-ASI) is in the process of modifying two company-owned Avenger UAVs to incorporate upgraded datalinks and the Skyborg System Design Agent (SDA) software. Flight trials will investigate Artificial Intelligence capability for autonomous control of the UAVs while operating alongside manned aircraft – with the object of demonstrating that “a mix of manned and unmanned aircraft can communicate, collaborate, and operate together,” said David R. Alexander, president of GA-ASI.
General Atomics Avenger unmanned aircraft. (Photo: GA-ASI)
The jet-powered Avenger aircraft has been under development and evaluation for more than 10 years so it is well characterized, and its performance as a UAV is already understood.
The XQ-58A Valkyrie UAV has benefited from earlier generations of Kratos high-speed jet-powered target systems — something none of the other Skyborg competitors have in their bag of tricks. Kratos has been providing high-speed target drones to the military for a number of years, so jet powered drones are something they have been developing and fielding for a long time.
The Valkyrie UAV was developed under the LCAAT program to demonstrate unmanned low-cost capabilities, and to fly as a stealthy companion to manned aircraft. It is intended to carry internal and wing mounted weapons. The turbine division of Kratos is also investigating lower cost jet engine options for attritable UAVs.
Meanwhile, continuing developments in detect and avoid (DAA) are progressing, moving towards a solution for one of the main problems holding back integration of unmanned aircraft into controlled airspace.
A number of these solutions are based on ADS-B or Automatic Dependent Surveillance Broadcast, whereby the UAV location – usually position provided by onboard GPS — is transmitted at a regular interval by an equipped UAV. So any similarly equipped manned or unmanned aircraft can receive the ADS-B signal, has knowledge of where such flying obstacles might be and is therefore able to avoid a potential collision.
And for pseudo-satellite applications like the Airbus Zephyr which must transition between low-level airspace and the stratosphere, having on-board certified ADS-B is essential so that other aircraft and FAA air-traffic control have full visibility of such a delicate airframe which is lacking great maneuverability during climb-out, on station at altitude and during descent.
Zephyr pseudo-satellite UAV with uAvionix ADS-B transponder and GPS. (Photo: uAvionics)
Since Zephyr transitions through Class A airspace, the manufacturer Airbus decided that it should be equipped with an ADS-B transponder and GPS source which had undergone FAA recognized qualification testing and which meets known Technical Standard Order (TSO) requirements.
The equipment also needed to be small and use little power — at 70 grams and using only 2 watts, the uAvionix ping 200X transponder and truFYX GPS provide high power (54 dBm), high integrity transmissions of ADS-B and transponder mode data to Air Traffic Control (ATC) and other suitably equipped aircraft.
Zephyr is an all-electric vehicle, using sunlight to derive power from large photo-voltaic arrays which cover its upper surfaces. Batteries store surplus energy which is not consumed during daylight and provide power in order to maintain aircraft station through the night hours. From a perch at around 70,000ft, Zephyr is apparently focused on Earth-observation capability with payloads envisaged to include Electro Optical, Infrared, Hyper spectral, Passive Radio Frequency (RF) Radar, Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR), plus Early Warning, Lidar and Automatic Identification System (AIS).
The Hover DAA solution. (Photo: Sagetech)
“Sagetech is another DAA supplier which is currently working with both fixed and rotary wing UAS customers who are incorporating DAA systems in their design and type certification projects,” said Tom Furey, CEO of Sagetech. “Sagetech is providing regulatory guidance, transponders and interrogators, and system design to ensure these UAV systems in development will satisfy the anticipated certification requirements. Sagetech itself, through technology development and partnerships with companies including Hover Inc., expects to offer a complete DAA prototype system by the end of this year.”
So, lots of progress towards Skyborg drone teaming systems with $78min awards by the Air Force Life Cycle Management Center from an anticipated budget of around $400m, while certified Detect and Avoid solutions help move commercial drones towards potential regular flight in controlled airspace.
Echodyne today announced the development of MESA-DAA, an Airborne Detect and Avoid (DAA) radar for small to medium-sized unmanned aircraft systems (UAS).
Echodyne made the announcement at AUVSI’s Xponential 2016 trade show and conference.
The small, lightweight and low power DAA radar will operate at K-band and be capable of rapidly scanning a broad field of view in azimuth and elevation at ranges out to 3 kilometers. MESA-DAA is based on Echodyne’s patented Metamaterials Electronically Scanning Array (MESA), which offers breakthrough cost, size, weight, and power (C-SWAP) improvements over traditional electronically scanning array technology.
The MESA-DAA radar is scheduled for release at the end of 2016 and will be an evolution of the MESA-K-DEV radar, which Echodyne released today.
“Detect and avoid is the single biggest technical hurdle to opening up the National Airspace System to UAS,” said Jim Williams, former head of the Federal Aviation Administration’s (FAA) UAS Integration Office and current Principal at Dentons US, LLP and Echodyne advisor.
“NASA, the FAA, industry and academia have spent years studying the DAA problem and have determined radar is by far the best sensor, if not the only sensor, capable of providing the all-weather, long-range, and broad field of view scanning that is necessary for safe, highly reliable DAA. MESA-DAA technology may well represent the key to safely opening up airspace for beyond visual line of sight operations.”
Detect and Avoid Requirement
One of the FAA’s central aircraft operating rules is that pilots maintain vigilance so as to see and avoid other aircraft. To fulfill this requirement, UAS need to remain within visual line of sight of their pilot.
Although the regulations for UAS are still in development, there is widespread acceptance that for UAS to fly beyond line of sight of their operator, they will need DAA sensors and systems that safely replace the pilot’s see and avoid capability. This DAA capability will need to detect both cooperative objects (those transmitting their position with a transponder) and non-cooperative objects (aircraft without transponders, birds, etc.).
Radar is the only sensor capable of reliably performing DAA in all weather conditions and at the ranges, broad fields of view and scanning speeds necessary for safe operation of UAS in the NAS. Radar is the only sensor that directly measures the position of an object (such as range, azimuth, elevation) as well as its relative speed of approach (via Doppler).
“We believe MESA-DAA will be a critical technology for safely opening up the National Airspace System to small UAS for beyond visual line of sight operations,” said Eben Frankenberg, founder and CEO of Echodyne. “Radar is the sensor of choice for DAA, but existing radar technology is too slow, too bulky and too expensive to provide DAA radar capabilities on small UAS. The C-SWAP characteristics of MESA and our DAA radar are completely unparalleled and uniquely well suited for small UAS.”
In the April 7 “FAA Aerospace Forecast,” the FAA reports that it has already granted more than 4,000 Section 333 Exemptions for commercial UAS operations, clear evidence of the high demand for UAS applications. The FAA forecasts that sales of commercial small UAS could exceed 600,000 for 2016 and grow to 2.7 million by 2020, noting that “the overall demand for commercial UAS will soar once regulations more easily enable beyond visual line of sight operations and operations of multiple unmanned aircraft by a single pilot.”
MESA-DAA Specifications. MESA-DAA is based largely on Echodyne’s existing MESA-K-DEV radar. Package size and weight are expected to be less than MESA-K-DEV, especially if the unit is placed inside the UAS. Range is expected to be 3 kilometers, and scanning speed is expected to be 1 Hz for the entire field of view and as fast as 10 Hz for updating locations on previously detected objects. The field of view for a single unit is expected to be ±60 degrees in azimuth (120 degrees total) and ±45 degrees in elevation. Multiple units can be combined if greater field of view is desired.
MESA-K-DEV. Echodyne also announced availability of MESA-K-DEV, an ultra-low C-SWAP, fast electronically scanning radar based on its patented MESA. The radar operates at K-band. The fully self-contained and packaged unit measures 22 by 7.5 by 2.5 centimeters and weighs 820 grams.
Unlike conventional mechanical apertures that steer a radar beam using motorized gimbals, Echodyne’s MESA requires no moving parts to steer its beam. And unlike phased array radars or active electronically scanning array radars that require complicated and expensive transmit/receive modules — including phase shifters, amplifiers, circulators and low noise amplifiers behind every single antenna element — MESA uses a simpler meta-materials architecture. The net effect of this simplified architecture is lower cost, size, weight and power.
Echodyne