On May 8-11, GPS World staff attended the AUVSI XPONENTIAL show at the Colorado Convention Center in downtown Denver. There were more than 600 booths in the exhibit hall, and the staff was able to visit several of the exhibitors, including Tualcom, SBG Systems, Inertial Labs and Honeywell. They also attended educational sessions lead by industry leaders and participated in insightful discussions about the future of UAVs and overall autonomy. For highlights from XPONENTIAL, click here.
AUVSI XPONENTIAL 2023 has officially concluded. GPS World had the opportunity to visit several booths during the conference and attend a variety of educational sessions while in the heart of beautiful, downtown Denver.
See below for some takeaways from XPONENTIAL.
The Association for Uncrewed Vehicle Systems International (AUVSI) has named the winners of the sixth annual AUVSI XCELLENCE Awards.
The awards recognize the accomplishments of companies, organizations and individuals across the uncrewed systems community. The winners were recognized during an awards ceremony at XPONENTIAL 2023 which is being held this week at the Colorado Convention Center in Denver, Colorado. This year’s 50th anniversary event is co-hosted by Messe Düsseldorf North America.
AUVSI’s XCELLENCE Awards honor innovators with a demonstrated commitment to advancing autonomy, leading and promoting safe adoption of uncrewed systems and developing programs that use these technologies to save lives and improve the human condition.
These are the finalists in those categories:
First Place: University of Colorado Boulder, 20 Years of UAS Research XCELLENCE
Second Place: Virginia Tech’s Mid-Atlantic Aviation Partnership, Robert Briggs
Third Place: Ocean Alliance, Tagging Whales with Drones
First Place: Skydio, Skydio Dock, Automated Inspections of Sites with Autonomous, Remote Drone Operations
Second Place: Plus, PlusDrive, An Industry-defining Driver-in, Highly Automated Driving (HAD) Solution
Third Place: Sentera, Eliminating Stitching with the Sentera DGR System
First Place: JobsOhio and the Ohio Department of Transportation, Propelling AAM in Ohio
Second Place: Advanced Navigation, Cloud Ground Control
Third Place: City of Pendleton, Pendleton UAS Range
Enabling Components & Peripherals
First Place: infiniDome, infiniDome’s GPSdome2
Second Place: Elsight, Elsight Halo
Third Place: MatrixSpace, MatrixSpace Networked Radar
Hardware & Systems Design
First Place: D-Fend Solutions, EnforceAir
Second Place: Advanced Navigation, Hydrus
Third Place: Connect Tech, Anvil Embedded System with NVIDIA Jetson AGX Orin
Software Design and Coding
First Place: BlueSpace.ai, Scalable and Explainable AI for Autonomy, powered by 4D Predictive Perception
Second Place: Skydio, Skydio Scout, Situational Awareness for Moving Convoys
Third Place: AlarisPro, Inc., AlarisPro Safety Ecosystem (ASE) – Advancing UAS Reliability Through Shared Data Across UAS Operators and Manufacturers
First Place: Laurel Ridge Community College, Laurels Take Flight
Second Place: DroneUp, with partner, Richard Bland College, Established the First Commercial Drone Workforce Training Program for College Credit
Third Place: Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University Worldwide and Warren College, Better Together: Producing Effective Educational Opportunities for the UAS Workforce
The recipients of the 2023 AUVSI XCELLENCE Humanitarian and Public Safety Awards have established themselves as leaders in the application of uncrewed technology to provide solutions to the world’s most pressing problems. Each awards category recognizes organizations that have made a significant impact using uncrewed systems to serve in humanitarian or public safety efforts. The six organizations will equally divide a $6,000 prize for their humanitarian and public safety efforts.
This year’s recipients are:
Humanitarian Project/Program
First Place: ArroTech, Dr. Stephen Dunnivant
First Place: MissionGO, Inc., Operation Healing Eagle Feather
First Place: The David McAntony Gibson Foundation (GlobalMedic), GlobalMedic RescUAV Response to La Soufrière Volcano in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
First Place: DRONERESPONDERS, DRONERESPONDERS Public Safety Alliance
First Place: Texas Department of Public Safety, Texas Department of Public Safety
First Place: United States Forest Service, Testing and Scaling New Technologies for Operations and Safer Mixed Airspace Ops
AUVSI XPONENTIAL is underway in Denver, Colorado, at the Colorado Convention Center. After the second day of touring the XPO Hall, GPS World staff wanted to highlight some key parts of the day.
AUVSI XPONENTIAL is underway in Denver, Colorado, at the Colorado Convention Center. After the first day of touring the XPO Hall of more than 600 exhibits and attending educational sessions lead by industry leaders and speakers, GPS World staff noticed a key theme: mitigating GNSS jamming and spoofing by advancing technology for UAVs.
“Real World GPS/GNSS Protection from Start to Finish,” was presented by Franck Boynton, Vice President of NavTechGPS. He discussed why anti-jam equipment is needed and how to mitigate jamming. Boynton mentioned several anti-jam products, such as NovAtel’s OEM series product line, Septentrio’s AIM+, Tallysman’s HC871SXF and more.
Additionally, GPS World contributing writer, Dana Goward, received a mention for his article regarding the GPS jamming incident on Jan 21, 2022, at Denver International Airport, which can be found here. Boynton also suggested checking out the RNT Foundation, which is a nonprofit, public benefit corporation that helps protect critical infrastructure by promoting resilient navigation and timing, of which Goward is the president and director.
“The Importance of GNSS Security in UAV Applications,” featured a panel of speakers that included Abigail Smith, executive director of UAS security at the FAA, Captain Joe Burns, CEO of the Airo Group and member of the National Space-Based Positioning, Navigation and Timing Advisory Board, Gustavo Lopez, market access manager at Septentrio, Jeff Horne, vice president of security at Skydio, and moderated by Michael Glutting, sales manager at Septentrio. During the panel discussion, the speakers explained types of GPS interference, including jamming and spoofing, and the risk they pose to UAVs. The latest methods for strengthening both GNSS receivers and control units to design secure and robust UAVs was also discussed.
Maddie Saines, managing editor, and Jesse Khalil, digital media specialist, had the opportunity to stop by several booths in the XPO Hall on the first day of XPONENTIAL. A few highlights from the day included speaking with Ahmet Salih Erdem, deputy general manager at Tualcom, getting an in-depth look at SBG Systems’ Quanta Mirco and Ekinox Micro with Yoann Plenet, head of product management, and getting a first-hand look into the newest products from Tallysman Wireless — such as SSL889XF — from Ken MacLeod, product manager for Tallysman.
Percepto has received a waiver from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) that allows it to operate unmanned aerial systems (UAS) beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS) in shielded airspace — without humans onsite, and without ground-based or airborne detect and avoid (DAA) systems — for inspection and monitoring operations at critical and non-critical infrastructure sites nationwide.
Under the waiver, low risk “shielded” BVLOS operations are authorized 200 ft above and around assets located on critical infrastructure sites. At non-critical infrastructure sites, shielded BVLOS operations are permitted 50 ft above and around the height of the tallest obstruction located within a half-mile radius of the site.
The operations authorized under this approval build upon recommendations made by the UAS BVLOS Aviation Rulemaking Committee chartered by the FAA. The ARC recognized that shielded airspace near structures and other obstacles where crewed aircraft do not typically operate could be leveraged as a safety mitigation to support safe, scalable, and economically viable UAS BVLOS operations.
The use of Percepto’s UAS to perform critical infrastructure inspections aims to improve worker safety and efficiency of operations by enabling inspections remotely from anywhere in the United States.
Percepto is at XPONENTIAL May 9-11, at booth 3409.
FlightOps is collaborating with Qualcomm Technologies to develop UAV automation technology designed specifically for first responders. FlightOps has integrated its advanced UAV automation technology onto the Qualcomm Robotics RB5 platform — which has 5G connectivity, on-device artificial intelligence, and heterogeneous computing capabilities.
The integration of FlightOps’ technology onto the Qualcomm Robotics RB5 will enable the platform to automate critical tasks such as flight planning, monitoring and data collection, enabling first responders to focus on the mission at hand.
The technology is being showcased during XPONENTIAL May 9-11. FlightOps is at booth 4041.
The live remote flights, operated from Denver and flown in San Diego, will demonstrate the capabilities of the integrated product and how it can be used to improve response times as well as enhance situational awareness during emergencies.
Harxon has added to its helix antenna family with a series of four devices that are suitable for unmanned system applications.
HX-CUX012A is designed with extremely low profile, making it suitable for integration into UAVs, surveying and monitoring devices. It reduces the overall weight of applications, enables multipath mitigation and more.
HX-CUX005A is a solution for integrated helix antenna applications. It is designed with the integration of a GNSS antenna and Bluetooth/Wi–Fi antenna, enabling communication and navigation without mutual interference.
HX-CH7609A is a low profile and small size housed helix antenna. It has comprehensive GNSS support including GPS, GLONASS, Galileo, BeiDou, as well as L-band correction services. HX-CH7609A features centimeter phase center repeatability and high gain at a low elevation. With signal filtering and multipath rejection, it provides reliable and stable GNSS signals.
HX-CHX600A is a high-performance helix antenna that receives GPS, Galileo, BeiDou, GLONASS, as well as L-band signals. With 4.2 dBi high gain, it provides suitable tracking performance at a low elevation angle. Its low noise figure design reduces transmission interference and improves signal quality.
Tallysman Wireless has released its dual-band low-profile helical GNSS antenna, the HC871SXF. It is designed for precise positioning, covering the GPS/QZSS-L1/L2, GLONASS-G1/G2, Galileo-E1, and BeiDou-B1 frequency bands, including the satellite-based augmentation system (SBAS) available in the region of operation — WAAS (North America), EGNOS (Europe), MSAS (Japan), or GAGAN(India).
The HC871SXF has a precision-tuned, high-accuracy helical element that provides a suitable axial ratio and operates without a ground plane. These features make the HC871SXF suitable for lightweight, UAV navigation and a variety of precision applications.
The HC871SXF low-profile helical antenna is approximately 10 mm shorter than the HC871 and provides the same performance. The antenna base has a male SMA connector. To facilitate installation, the base also has two threaded inserts and an O-ring to waterproof the SMA connection.
The HC871SXF antenna also supports Tallysman’s eXtended Filtering (XF) technology.
OxTS has released the AV200, its inertial navigation system (INS) built for automation applications.
The AV200 is designed to reliably give precise location data. It includes quad-constellation, dual-antenna, real-time kinematic (RTK) GNSS, to provide users with position data as well as its temperature-calibrated, multi-core inertial measurement unit. These technologies give the AV200 position accuracy within 0.05 m, heading accuracy of 0.2°, and velocity accuracy of 0.2 km/h.
The AV200 is built using the same technology that is commonly used for NCAP test validation, which has become the preferred technology for OEMs globally to test vehicles in both test-track and real-world scenarios.
The AV200 has also been built specifically to address the realities of the autonomy market.
OxTS is at XPONENTIAL May 9-11, at booth 2148.
Trimble has released the PX-1 RTX for accurate and robust positioning and heading for commercial UAV delivery applications. This positioning solution enables UAV integration companies to add precise positioning capabilities so that operators can plan and execute takeoff, navigation and landing tasks as UAV delivery advances to take on more challenging operations.
The PX-1 RTX leverages Trimble’s CenterPoint RTX corrections and small, high-performance GNSS-inertial hardware to provide real-time, centimeter-level positioning and accurate inertial-derived true heading measurements. This solution allows operators precise control of UAVs during takeoff and landing to tackle more demanding operations in tight or partially obstructed spaces.
It also minimizes operational risks from poor sensor performance or magnetic interference by ensuring greater positioning redundancy, which is especially important as commercial UAV delivery operations venture into difficult urban and suburban environments.
The Trimble PX-1 RTX solution is available through Trimble Applanix sales channels. For more information click here.
The launch will be held at XPONENTIAL. Visit Trimble at Booth 1806 to learn more.
SBG Systems has released the Ekinox Micro, a compact and rugged high-performance inertial navigation solution designed to deliver accuracy in challenging environments. Ekinox Micro combines a high-performance MEMS tactical inertial sensor with a quad-constellation, dual-antenna GNSS receiver, making it suitable for mission-critical applications.
Ekinox Micro includes pre-configured motion profiles for land, air, and marine applications, enabling the sensor and algorithms to be tuned for maximum performance in any condition. The device is designed for ease of use and integration, with simple connectors, a web configuration interface, a datalogger, Ethernet connectivity, a PTP server, a REST API for configuration, and multiple input and output formats.
Ekinox Micro is real-time kinematic (RTK) compatible and based on a tactical 0.8°/h class inertial measurement unit calibrated across the entire operating temperature range. It features accuracy roll/pitch of 0.015°, accuracy heading of 0.035°, and accuracy position of 1.2 m without any corrections or 1 cm in RTK.