Author: GPS World Staff

SOAR Oregon backs UAS FutureFarm for digital agriculture

SOAR Oregon, a non-profit organization focused on the development of the unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) industry in Oregon, has given the city of Pendleton a grant for the establishment of a FutureFarm project at the Pendleton UAS Test Range.

The Oregon UAS FutureFarm is a real-world proving ground designed to help digital agriculture pioneers accelerate product development, reduce cycles and expand market growth.

SOAR Oregon is exhibiting at AUVSI Xponential 2016, being held in New Orleans this week.

Pendleton Mayor Phil Houk (right) signs the FutureFarm grant agreement with SOAR Oregon. SOAR Oregon’s John Stevens (front left), Roundup City Development Corporation’s Mike Short (back left), and Pendleton UAS Range’s Steve Chrisman (back right) were on hand to witness the signing.

Once established in June, it will be the only digital agriculture proving ground of its caliber in the United States, SOAR Oregon said. Developers of agriculture-focused unmanned robotics and data systems will find the Oregon UAS FutureFarm has a broad spectrum of high value and commodity crops, multiple layers of remote sensing for benchmarking, and access to the agricultural knowledge base they need to test, validate and innovate the next generation of interconnected unmanned and automated agricultural systems.

The Oregon UAS FutureFarm features a network of research-friendly farmers growing a large variety of irrigated and dry-land crops in both traditional and modern farming infrastructures. Strategic partners include the City of Pendleton, Digital Harvest, SOAR Oregon, Blue Mountain Community College, Oregon State University and USDA Columbia Basin Agricultural Research Center.

“We believe that the Oregon UAS FutureFarm fills a clearly defined market niche for UAS platform and payload developers who are working on the next generation of technologies for precision agriculture,” said SOAR Oregon Executive Director Chuck Allen. “We are especially pleased that this project is taking place at one of Oregon’s FAA-designated UAS test ranges.”

“We are pleased to be supporting the Oregon UAS FutureFarm as both a partner and user,” said Young Kim, CEO of Digital Harvest. “The fact that the test range includes high-value tree fruit orchards, premium wine grape vineyards, hundreds of automated irrigated plots, and hundreds of thousands of acres of dry land farms makes it a unique and special zone.”

“The Oregon UAS FutureFarm is open to UAS developers, sensor makers, robotics companies, universities and any others who are looking for a real-world digital agriculture proving ground that is supported by a collaborative innovation focused community,” said Jeff Lorton, Oregon UAS FutureFarm project manager.

Pendleton Mayor Phil Houk signed the agreement with John Stevens and Mike Short from SOAR in attendance. “The FutureFarm represents what we’d hoped the Pendleton UAS Range could become — not just an environment for the development of technology, but the place where real-world questions could be solved with unmanned aircraft,” said Steve Chrisman, Pendleton director of Economic Development. “We are excited about the potential of this project to develop solutions which benefit growers across the Northwest.”

May 3, 2016
IMSAR sells UAV detect-and-avoid radar tech to Fortem

IMSAR LLC, manufacturer of miniaturized synthetic aperture radar (SAR), is selling its detect and avoid radar technology to Fortem Technologies. The technology powered IMSAR’s previously announced family of collision-avoidance radar designed for the commercial unmanned aerial systems (UAS) market.

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) requires an aircraft operating in civil airspace to be able to “see and avoid” other aircraft. Collision-avoidance systems seek to meet this requirement by allowing UASs to detect other airborne objects, predict potential midair collisions, and automatically maneuver the UAS to avoid catastrophes.

A radar-based sense-and-avoid solution for small UAS was previously not viable because of high cost, weight and complex technology and algorithms required. Fortem’s product will enable small UAS to avoid mid-air collisions with manned or unmanned aircraft as well as targets that lack a transponder, such as cranes, paving the way for the integration of UAS into civil airspace worldwide.

“Radar is ideally suited because it operates effectively in darkness, cloud cover, fog, smoke and precipitation,” said Britton Quist, IMSAR’s CTO.

According to Ryan Smith, CEO, IMSAR, key development milestones have been met allowing the spin out of sense and avoid to Fortem Technologies. Adam Robertson, vice president of IMSAR, will be leaving to join Fortem Technologies after nine years at IMSAR.

Fortem Technologies has announced product availability in July 2016.

Fortem and IMSAR products are on display May 2-5 at the AUVSI Xponential show in New Orleans, Booth 134.

May 3, 2016
FLIR launches radiometric thermal camera for commercial drones

FLIR Systems Inc. has announced the FLIR Vue Pro R, the latest member of FLIR Vue thermal imaging camera series for commercial drones.

The new Vue Pro R adds radiometric functionality to the Vue Pro camera, giving drone operators the ability to save the pictures for post-flight image analysis and accurately measure the temperatures of individual image pixels.

The camera was introduced at AUVSI’s Xponential 2016 trade show, being held this week in New Orleans.

The Vue Pro R retains all of the capabilities in the standard Vue Pro model but adds calibrated radiometric imaging that allows it to capture the temperature data of every pixel in an image. When saved in Radiometric JPEG format, still images can be imported into FLIR Tools software for detailed analysis and reporting.

FLIR Tools, a free download on FLIR.com, lets drone operators adjust settings including object emissivity, background temperature, target distance, relative humidity, thermal sensitivity as well as assigning various color palettes for each image.

The Vue Pro R records digital thermal video, along with radiometric thermal still images, to an on-board micro-SD card. For applications such as electrical inspection, infrastructure assessment, and precision mapping, this on-board recording allows operators to capture high-quality thermal data for post processing and analysis.

“Without a doubt, radiometry is the most popular feature drone operators have requested, and we’re delivering that with Vue Pro R,” said Jeff Frank, FLIR’s Senior Vice President for Product Strategy. “FLIR has pioneered thermographic cameras for more than 50 years and our expansion of high-performance capabilities like radiometry to drone operators is another example of our ability to provide state-of-the-art thermal technology to people that need it.”

An updated mobile app with advanced radiometric functions uses the camera’s Bluetooth interface to connect to iOS and Android devices, making camera set-up and configuration easy. Through the app, operators can configure functions to ensure the best imagery possible for their conditions without having to connect the camera to a computer.

May 3, 2016
VectorNav launches tactical series of IMUs at AUVSI show

VectorNav’s new Tactical Series includes the VN-110 IMU/AHRS, the VN-210 GPS/INS and the VN-310 dual-antenna GPS/INS.

VectorNav Technologies, manufacturer of embedded navigation solutions, has introduced the Tactical Series, a next generation family of high-performance Inertial Navigation Systems (INS).

The announcement was made at AUVSI’s Xponential 2016, being held this week in New Orleans, Louisiana.

Built on a common tactical grade proprietary MEMS inertial sensing core, the Tactical Series includes the VN-110 inertial measurement unit and attitude heading reference system (IMU/AHRS), the VN-210 GPS-aided INS (GPS/INS), and the VN-310 dual-antenna GPS/INS.

The Tactical Series leverages VectorNav’s navigation algorithm expertise and extensive experience in integrating its industrial series products into a broad range of airborne, marine and ground-based platforms. As a result, the Tactical Series offers the same functionality and features as Industrial Series for integrators of SWaP-C (size, weight, power and cost) constrained manned and unmanned systems.

Designed and engineered at VectorNav’s headquarters in Dallas, Texas, the Tactical Series takes advantage of the latest developments in solid state MEMS technology to incorporate a 3-axis gyro with <1˚/hr in-run bias stability, leading to an attitude accuracy of 1 to 2 mrad. In addition to the improved IMU core, the Tactical Series enclosure is designed to DO-160G standards and rated IP68 for deployment in harsh and extreme environments.

“The Tactical Series is the culmination of many years of development effort and collaboration with systems integrators across a broad range of industries,” said VectorNav President John Brashear. “We have combined our digital filtering expertise and experience in solving the challenging navigation requirements of customers worldwide to develop what is truly a next generation navigation solution.”

The Tactical Series addresses navigation needs for a variety of unmanned applications and will be on display at VectorNav’s booth (#1043) at XPONENTIAL 2016 in New Orleans, May 3-5.

May 3, 2016
GPS scientist Michael Watkins named next JPL director

Michael M. Watkins has been appointed director of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory and vice president at Caltech, the Institute announced. Watkins is the Clare Cockrell Williams Centennial Chair in Aerospace Engineering and director of the Center for Space Research at the University of Texas at Austin.

Watkins has written for GPS World about the GRACE project, which uses GPS and a microwave ranging system to map Earth’s gravitational fields.

Watkins will formally assume his position on July 1. He succeeds Charles Elachi, who will retire on June 30 and move to the Caltech faculty.

Watkins is an internationally recognized scientist and engineer. Before assuming his current position at the University of Texas in 2015, he worked at JPL for 22 years, where he held leadership roles on some of NASA’s highest-profile missions.

Watkins served as mission manager and mission system manager for the Mars Science Laboratory Curiosity Rover; led review or development teams for several missions including the Cassini, Mars Odyssey, and Deep Impact probes; and was the project scientist leading science development for the GRAIL moon-mapping satellites, the GRACE Earth science mission, and the GRACE Follow-on mission, scheduled for launch in 2017. He last served at JPL as manager of the Science Division, and chief scientist for the Engineering and Science Directorate.

“He has been one of the early pioneers of using GPS for very high-precision geodetic applications including precise orbit determination, precise point positioning, mapping of mass variability using high precision gravity field measurements, to name only a few of his major accomplishments in geodesy,” said JPL senior researcher Attila Komjathy, who was one of the first to investigate the use of GPS signals to study the ionosphere.

GPS and microwave ranging. GRACE (the Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment) maps the Earth’s gravity fields by making accurate measurements of the distance between the two satellites, using GPS and a microwave ranging system. It provides scientists from all over the world with an efficient and cost-effective way to map the Earth’s gravity fields with unprecedented accuracy. The results from this mission have revealed detailed information about the distribution and flow of mass within the Earth and it’s surroundings.

The gravity variations that GRACE studies include: changes due to surface and deep currents in the ocean; runoff and ground water storage on land masses; exchanges between ice sheets or glaciers and the oceans; and variations of mass within the Earth. Another goal of the mission is to create a better profile of the Earth’s atmosphere.

Michael Watkins (Photo: NASA/JPL-Caltech)

“Michael’s record of successful mission leadership and impressive management skills quickly distinguished him as a leading candidate for this position,” said Caltech president Thomas F. Rosenbaum, the Sonja and William Davidow Presidential Chair and professor of physics. “As JPL director, Michael will build upon the laboratory’s outstanding achievements in planetary exploration and Earth science, strengthening the connections between Caltech’s campuses and partnering with NASA to deliver highly complex and nuanced missions.”

“I’ve known Mike Watkins for more than 20 years now,” Elachi said. “Mike has played important and varying roles in a number of important JPL areas. His intimate knowledge of the lab and staff, combined with his highly diversified set of skills and knowledge base in science and engineering, will serve JPL very well in the years to come.”

A committee composed of Caltech trustees, faculty, senior administrative leaders, and a member of the JPL executive council conducted an extensive search and recommended Watkins to Caltech’s president.

Watkins holds a bachelor’s degree, master’s degree, and Ph.D. in aerospace engineering from The University of Texas at Austin. He has published broadly in both engineering and science, contributed more than 100 conference presentations, and has served on the boards of numerous international scientific and engineering societies.

“JPL has such a talented and deeply committed staff,” said Watkins. “It is a privilege to have this opportunity to lead the laboratory to even greater discoveries. I look forward to working with my colleagues on campus and across NASA to forge new directions in space exploration and Earth science.”

GPS World article:

“Instrument of GRACE: GPS augments gravity measurements,” GPS World, 14(2), 16-28, 2003 (C. Dunn et al.).

May 3, 2016
Canadian UAVs partners with Measure for US and Canadian drone services

As part of its effort to deliver cost-effective actionable data to enterprise customers, Measure, a drone operator in the United States, has partnered with Canadian drone company Canadian UAVs. Together, the two companies will use drone technology to provide real-time data analysis to businesses in both the U.S. and Canada.

“Measure can now truly offer cross-border drone services,” said Measure CEO Brandon Torres Declet. “As a result of this partnership with Canadian UAVs, we can deliver cost-effective, actionable data to businesses across all 50 states and 10 provinces.”

The partnership between Measure and Canadian UAVs provides businesses with real-time response capability. With Canadian UAVs use of helicopters, fixed-wing aircraft and drones, Measure can now fly anywhere in Western Canada to acquire data for enterprise customers. Both companies conduct flights that are safe, legal and insured using only licensed pilots.

“Measure has a great depth in expertise regarding the American market, as well unprecedented approvals from the FAA,” said Canadian UAVs President and CEO Sean Greenwood. “Teaming up ensures our customers have clarity and piece of mind when it comes to trans-border operations.”

May 2, 2016
Commercial drone services could reach $8.7 billion annually by 2025

According to a new report from Tractica, by the end of the next decade, annual revenue from drone-enabled services will be more than double the revenue from sales of commercial drone hardware units themselves.

The market intelligence firm forecasts that global commercial unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) services revenue will grow from $170 million in 2015 to $8.7 billion by 2025.

UAVs are gaining significant traction in a variety of industries, including oil and gas, insurance, public safety, film and media, and agriculture. While the number of drones being shipped for commercial markets is often the most visible trend, the largest revenue opportunity in the sector lies in the various services that these drones will enable.

The largest service applications will be mapping, aerial assessment and prospecting, but smaller opportunities for drone services will also include disaster relief, early warning systems, data collection and analytics, environmental monitoring, package delivery, and filming and entertainment.

“Commercial drone operators around the world are quickly realizing the potential for UAVs to be harnessed for a variety of services in a more efficient manner than can be achieved using conventional means such as satellites or aircraft,” said managing director Clint Wheelock. “Most commercial applications for drones are related to aerial imaging or data analysis, taking advantage of low-cost components and ever-increasing sensor capabilities.”

Wheelock added that, while regulatory and business barriers remain to the more widespread use of drones for commercial purposes, the path ahead is becoming steadily clearer as business models and policy frameworks continue to be refined in countries around the world.

Tractica’s report, “Drones for Commercial Applications,” examines the market trends and technology issues surrounding the commercial drone industry and presents a comprehensive analysis of the drivers and inhibitors of market development, the regulatory landscape, business models and supply chain considerations.

The report includes a 10-year forecast for drone hardware unit shipments and revenue, segmented by industry, airframe type and world region, in addition to drone-enabled services by application area. An Executive Summary of the report is available for free download on the firm’s website.

May 2, 2016
Echodyne offers detect and avoid radar for small UAS

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.

May 2, 2016
Arcturus VTOL UAS deployed with the Mexican Navy

Arcturus UAV reports the Mexican Navy has deployed its T-20 Jump fixed-wing vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) UAV for unspecified operations in Mexico. The customer took delivery of the VTOL system in March.

The announcement was made at AUVSI’s Xponential 2016.

The T-20 Jump is a VTOL variant of Arcturus UAV’s catapult launched T-20 platform. It operates without any special launch or recovery equipment. Gross payload capacity is 60 pounds.

The Mexican Navy configuration with an electro-optics and infrared (EO/IR) sensor has approximately 15 hours of endurance and a 75-mile data-link range. An EO/IR and EW capable version offers 11 hours of endurance. Mexico has operated a fleet of catapult launch T-20s since 2014.

Arcturus has proposed the T-20 Jump VTOL platform for MEUAS III, the United States Special Operations Command‘s (USSOCOM’s) worldwide UAS services contract. Arcturus has also proposed a heavy fuel version of the T-20 Jump for the Royal Australian Navy’s Tactical Unmanned Aircraft Program.

May 2, 2016
Insitu to focus on new commercial division at Xponential 2016
Insitu is showcasing its new commercial business unit and platform of professional aviation products and services at the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International’ Xponential 2016 May 3-5 in New Orleans.

In booth 2213 in Hall 2, the company will highlight:
- canEagle and RQ-21A Blackjack air vehicles.
- Inexa | Control, a ITAR-free ground control station that gives operators professional aviation tools to safely operate unmanned systems while staying compliant with emerging Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) regulation.
- FLARES, Insitu’s new Flying Launch and Recovery System that launches ScanEagle from the air and captures without ground equipment, expanding the environments where unmanned operations are possible to include jungles, courtyards and other small or restricted spaces.
- The Insitu-Orbital Engine, an internal combustion propulsion system to be engineered from the ground up for small unmanned aerospace application. The engine is designed and tested to the FAA’s airworthiness standards for manned aircraft engines. In March, Insitu received a Commodity Jurisdiction from the U.S. Department of State placing its Multi-Fuel Direct Injection Engine under the export control purview of the U.S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of Industry and Security.
- Microsoft HoloLens demonstrations. Microsoft’s high-definition hologram technology is integrated with Insitu’s Inexa | Control software to offer a new view of how decision makers and operators might manage unmanned systems in complex environments in the future.
Insitu is a wholly owned subsidiary of The Boeing Company.
May 2, 2016
uAvionix debuts pingRX receiver for small drone collision avoidance

Electronics manufacturer uAvionix has introduced the smallest and lightest ADS-B receiver, according to the company. The new pingRX weighs 1.5 grams and requires one hundredth the power of conventional ADS-B (Automatic Dependent Surveillance – Broadcast) receivers. It implements “sense and avoid” capabilities for small drones operating in the National Airspace (NAS).

The receiver, for use in small drone collision avoidance systems ADS-B, helps aircraft operators sense and avoid possible collisions. ADS-B is mandated by the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration for all aircraft in the NAS in 2020. Used now primarily on manned aircraft, miniaturizing the equipment was essential to make it useable for small drones, uAvionix says. pingRX measures 32 by 15 by 3 millimeters, which is a fraction of the size of earlier units.

Early adopter Randy Mackay, lead developer of ArduCopter, said to the company that it “feels slightly magical to have real aircraft appearing on our ground station map.”

pingRX receives ADS-B information broadcast by other aircraft on two frequencies approved by the FAA (978 megahertz and 1090 megahertz). This allows the unit to detect commercial aircraft threats within a 100 statute mile radius in real time.

For drone aircraft system installation, pingRX is designed for direct MAVLink integration with Pixhawk autopilots and APM Mission Planner software.

uAvionix will display its new patent-pending pingRX ADS-B receiver at the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International’s Xponential trade show May 3-5 in New Orleans.

May 2, 2016
AT&T Fleet Complete goes to Google Maps

AT&T’s Fleet Complete, a North American provider of fleet telematics and mobile workforce technology, has upgraded its browser-based mapping to Google Maps.

Fleet Complete with Google Maps includes the ability to visualize real-time asset locations and deliver pertinent vehicle data such as speed, idle time and start/stop times.

The addition of Google Maps allows businesses to track vehicles, assets and mobile workforce with detailed hybrid satellite/street name views, improved traffic reports, terrain views and a powerful zoom feature, helping users make intelligent location-based decisions and maximize efficiencies.

May 1, 2016