UAVOS has completed a successful test flight of the ApusDuo solar-powered high-altitude platform system (HAPS). The test flight, at a European Flight Center, was conducted continuously for 11 hours and reached altitudes of 15,000 meters.
The ApusDuo successfully achieved more than two dozen test points, including energy balance validation, power and propulsion performance, and propeller revolutions per minute evaluation. The team also tested aircraft motor control efficiency, which was refined following previous test flights.
After operations in Europe, UAVOS plans to transport ApusDuo to Argentina. The company is accelerating preparations to perform the next phase of test flights in the stratosphere.
ApusDuo is a stratospheric UAV running on solar power, and is meant to provide persistent local satellite-like services. Built with carbon-fiber composites, it can be landed, re-equipped with multitask payloads and re-deployed. It is also capable of flying autonomously from takeoff to landing and can be remotely operated from its ground-control station.
An autonomous ship launched Sept. 16 on a mission to traverse oceans and gather vital environmental data, guided by GNSS and inertial measurement units (IMUs).
Ocean research non-profit ProMare joined with IBM on the Mayflower Autonomous Ship (MAS) — an artificial intelligence (AI) and solar-powered marine research vessel. Following two years of design, construction and training of its AI models, the fully-autonomous trimaran was launched from Plymouth, England.
The ship is guided by both GNSS and IMU technology. It uses two Hexagon | Veripos LD8 receivers, each with two V560 marine antennas. The onboard IMUs include an iXBlue Octans and two Silicon Sensing AMU30s.
Designed to provide a safe, flexible and cost-effective way of gathering data about the ocean, the new-generation Mayflower promises to transform oceanography by working in tandem with scientists and other autonomous vessels to help understand critical issues such as global warming, micro-plastic pollution and marine mammal conservation.
ProMare is coordinating the scientific studie,s working with IBM Research and leading scientific organizations.
MAS features an AI captain built by ProMare and IBM developers that gives MAS the ability to sense, think and make decisions at sea with no human captain or onboard crew. The new class of marine AI is underpinned by IBM’s latest advanced edge computing systems, automation software, computer vision technology and Red Hat Open Source software.
“Able to scan the horizon for possible hazards, make informed decisions and change its course based on a fusion of live data, the Mayflower Autonomous Ship has more in common with a modern bank than its 17th century namesake,” said Andy Stanford-Clark, Chief Technology Officer, IBM UK & Ireland. “With its ability to keep running in the face of the most challenging conditions, this small ship is a microcosm for every aspiring 21st century business.”
Artie — short for Artemis and artificial Intelligence — is a stowaway hitching a ride on the Mayflower who answers questions about the ship, the ocean or himself on mas400.com. (Photo: IBM)
Interactive web portal follows voyage
To enable followers around the world to stay updated with MAS as it undertakes its various missions, IBM and ProMare have also launched an interactive web portal. Built by IBM iX (the business design arm of IBM Services), the MAS400 portal is designed to provide real-time updates about the ship’s location, environmental conditions and data from its various research projects.
Live weather data is streamed from IBM’s The Weather Company, as MAS receives forecast data and insight from the new IBM Weather Operations Center.
‘Octopus’ aboard answers questions
The portal even features a seven-armed, stowaway octopus chatbot called Artie, who claims to be hitching a ride on the ship. (With seven arms, he’s technically a septopus.) Powered by IBM Watson Assistant technology and created in partnership with European startup Chatbotbay, Artie has been trained to provide information about MAS and its adventures in a lively, and accessible format.
“MAS400.com is one of the most advanced ocean mission web portals ever built,” says Fredrik Soreide, Scientific Director of the Mayflower Autonomous Ship project and Board Member of ProMare. “Protecting the ocean depends on our ability to engage the public in important matters affecting its health. This MAS400 portal is designed to do exactly that and tell people where the ship is, what speed it’s travelling at, what conditions it’s operating in and what science we are conducting. Users can even help Artie the Octopus fish out surgical masks, cigarette butts and other increasingly common forms of ocean litter from a virtual ocean of facts and data.”
MAS will spend the next six months in sea trials and undertake various research missions and voyages before attempting to cross the Atlantic in Spring 2021. MAS’s transatlantic voyage will be based on a similar route and pioneering spirit to the 1620 Mayflower which made the same crossing 400 years ago.
AeroVironment Inc., a maker of unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) for defense and commercial applications, has formed a joint venture to develop solar-powered high-altitude long-endurance (HALE) UAS for commercial operations.
This category of unmanned aerial systems (UAS) is also referred to as high-altitude pseudo-satellites, or HAPS.
The joint venture will fund the development program up to a net maximum value of $65,011,481.
The joint venture, HAPSMobile Inc., is a Japanese corporation that is 95 percent funded and owned by Japan-based telecommunications operator SoftBank Corp. and 5 percent funded and owned by AeroVironment.
The solar-powered Helios in flight.(Photo: NASA)
AeroVironment is committed to contribute $5 million in capital for its 5 percent ownership of the joint venture, and has an option to increase its ownership stake in HAPSMobile up to 19 percent at the same cost basis as its initial 5 percent purchase.
“This is a historic moment for AeroVironment. For many years, we have fully understood the incredible value high-altitude, long-endurance unmanned aircraft platforms could deliver to countless organizations and millions of people around the world through remote sensing and last mile, next generation IoT connectivity,” said Wahid Nawabi, AeroVironment chief executive officer.“We were searching for the right strategic partner to pursue this very large global opportunity with us.Now we believe we are extremely well-positioned to build on the decades of successful development we have performed to translate our solar UAS innovations into long-term value through HAPSMobile Inc. Our entire team is excited, and we look forward to transforming this strategic growth opportunity into reality.”
AeroVironment pioneered the concept of high-altitude solar-powered UAS in the 1980s, and developed and demonstrated multiple systems for NASA’s Environmental Research Aircraft and Sensor Technology, or ERAST program, in the late 1990s and early 2000s.
In August 2001, the AeroVironment Helios prototype reached an altitude of 96,863 feet, setting the world-record for sustained horizontal flight by a winged aircraft.
In 2002, the AeroVironment Pathfinder Plus prototype performed the world’s first UAS telecommunications demonstrations at 65,000 feet by providing high-definition television (HDTV) signals, third-generation (3G) mobile voice, video and data and high-speed internet connectivity.
Multiple U.S. government agencies funded the development of the hybrid-electric Global Observer unmanned aircraft system from 2007 through 2011. Global Observer represents a solution for extended operation over high northern and southern latitudes during local winters, when the sun’s energy is insufficient to maintain continuous solar aircraft operation at high altitude.
SoftBank Corp. and AeroVironment, Inc. have agreed to license certain background intellectual properties to HAPSMobile, which will own the newly developed UAS intellectual property and possess exclusive rights for commercial applications globally, and non-commercial applications in Japan.AeroVironment will possess exclusive rights to the resulting intellectual property for certain non-commercial applications, except in Japan.AeroVironment will also possess exclusive rights to design and manufacture all such aircraft in the future for HAPSMobile, subject to the terms of the Joint Venture Agreement.
For additional information, please see AeroVironment’s Form 8-K, filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on Jan. 3.
Using UAVs, TUV India, under TÜV Nord Group, is conducting an assessment of a 25-MW solar photovoltaic (PV) power project 160 kilometers from Bengaluru spread across 90 acres. TÜV Nord Group is a technical service provider working in 70 countries.
For the Indian solar project, the first phase involved a site assessment, flight planning, undertaking drone flights, uploading data from the drone to advanced software, data processing, analysis, documentation, interpretation and delivering the final report. The second phase will take place after installation of solar modules and operation of PV power projects for at least six months.
Having executing this solar PV power project successfully with the drone, TUV India is confident it can use UAV technology for assessment, surveillance and inspection of infrastructure projects such as rail, roads, seaporta, airports and utilities.
