Hitachi Zosen manages a network of 1,300 reference stations operated by the Geospatial Information Authority of Japan. Nippon GPS Data Service, a subsidiary of Hitachi Zosen, will provide Hexagon with GNSS data from this network.
With access to this data, Hexagon will provide the TerraStar-X Enterprise GNSS correction service, which is suitable for automotive applications. The service is now available for testing in the Tokyo area and will be expanded across Japan.
Hexagon has operational testbeds for TerraStar-X Enterprise in several locations in North America, Europe and China that provide reliable, lane-level accuracy in under a minute. With the addition of a testbed in Japan, vehicle manufacturers and technology providers can use the same design for all their correction service requirements.
By utilizing data created from GSI network observations, Hexagon’s TerraStar-X Enterprise will ensure fast convergence to lane-level accuracy and is available to support large-scale programs with functional safety requirements in Japan.
A2Z Drone Delivery, developer of commercial UAV delivery solutions, has released its delivery UAV, the RDSX Pelican. The Pelican leverages a hybrid vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) airframe with no control surfaces to combine the reliability and flight stability of a multirotor platform, with the extended range of a fixed-wing craft.
With no ailerons, elevator, or rudder, the Pelican’s durable design eliminates common points of failure and extends operational time between maintenance overhauls. Designed to meet the 55 lb takeoff weight limitation for Federal Aviation Administration Part 107 compliance, the Pelican can carry payloads of 5 kg on missions up to 40 km, roundtrip.
The Pelican can be optimized for extended range operations or to deliver payloads from altitude with the company’s RDS2 UAV delivery winch.
Available in multiple configurations, the RDSX Pelican can be customized for an array of missions. The Pelican enables deliveries from altitude where spinning propellers are kept far from people and property, mitigating consumer privacy concerns of low-flying UAVs while abating intrusive rotor noise.
Alternatively, for missions in which the UAV can safely land at its destination, a simple servo-release mechanism can release payloads and expand the Pelican’s payload capacity.
Beyond logistics use cases such as residential deliveries, the Pelican is suitable for aerial mapping, UAV inspection, forestry services, search and rescue operations, water sample collection, offshore deliveries, mining, and more.
XTEND has acquired Performance Rotors, a Singapore-based UAV inspection company. This acquisition will improve XTEND’s ability to offer human-guided, remote interactive operations in a range of inspection scenarios.
“Performance Rotors’ mission has always been to develop UAVs and robotics solutions for data acquisition in GPS-denied and confined space environments, without the risk to human lives,” Keith Ng, co-founder and CEO of Performance Rotors, said. “We are confident that combining XTEND’s innovation XOS software with our world-class technology brings the best of the industry together in one powerful and easy to use solution that comprehensively addresses the critical challenges facing our customers today.”
XTEND provides human-guided autonomous machine systems that enable operators to perform accurate maneuvers and actions in any environment with minimal training. Its XOS operating system enables practical autonomy allowing professionals to control UAVs and smart machines that carry out complex tasks that require human interaction and decision-making safely and remotely.
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.
Image: Air Force Staff Sgt. Rachel Simones/ Department of Defense.
BAE Systems and Lockheed Martin Skunk Works partnered to test the Skunk Works Stalker and Indago UAS on BAE Systems’ amphibious combat vehicle (ACV) command, control, communication and computers (C4)/UAS variant. The UAS will provide reconnaissance capabilities to support U.S. Marine Corps expeditionary warfare and battle management capabilities.
BAE Systems tested the Stalker and Indago UAS — in addition to other technology suppliers — as a part of contractor verification testing. With contractor verification testing complete, the USMC plans to conduct additional tests to evaluate whether the AVC C4/UAS is a solution for the Advanced Reconnaissance Vehicle program.
“By integrating Stalker and Indago on BAE Systems’ ACV platform, we are delivering greater mission flexibility in a small form factor that supports Marine Corps operations,” Jacob Johnson, Skunk Works UAS and attritable systems director, said.
The Skunk Works Stalker and Indago UAS provide a broad operating envelope and endurance, which enables diverse and demanding missions while maintaining a small operational footprint and crew requirement.
BAE Systems’ ACV C4/UAS vehicle is a mobile systems integration lab built to demonstrate the technology Marines need to conduct reconnaissance, surveillance and acquisition capabilities, including the ability to sense and communicate targets over the horizon using C4 systems.
Browsing through the news from the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas last week, there seems to have been the regular number and variety of ‘robots’ demonstrating various capabilities from basic movement to almost complete human-like animation and speech. There were also a few more demos related to navigation and autonomy that could be of more interest to our readership. In particular, the case was made for more extensive use of drones for deliveries and in agriculture.
Apparently, the FAA was at the show – promoting the use of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) for ‘last mile’ deliveries. The gist of one presentation was that UAV deliveries could possibly reduce the need for people to drive to a store for a pick-up. If we drive, we periodically have accidents – probably someone has estimated the probability that anyone getting into a vehicle will have an accident and suffer varying degrees of damage to property, life or limb.
So, if drone and automated ground vehicle deliveries were to be universally accepted and implemented, lives would be saved, people’s lives wouldn’t be as disrupted and costs for hospital care and vehicle repairs would be reduced. All good, right? However, people are still not sold on UAV flying over their neighborhoods because they might fall out of the sky and hurt someone or damage property, make lots of noise and disturb their peace and quiet or use the opportunity to invade their privacy. Therefore, delivery start-ups are still struggling through FAA and local red-tape to get airborne — which at this stage is probably not a bad thing — as we get safety objectives straight, and train people well enough to reduce error rates to below acceptable limits.
Another example used by the FAA at CES was the health risks for pilots of crop spraying aircraft, which are largely used on medium to large scale farms in the United States. The health hazard of the pesticide spray and aircraft accidents during aircraft crop dusting — rapidly, repeated ‘swoop’ to low over the field, low level overflight to spray, then rapid climb and turn maneuver — could be largely avoided by UAV spraying systems, which have already been implemented in many countries around the world. The problem, however, is that the adoption of UAV spraying has perhaps been slower than anticipated.
A UAV delivering groceries. Image: WalmartCrop dusting. Image: Stefan Krause
Crop dusting aircraft can apparently treat about 600 acres/day on larger farms, while drones are only able to carry much smaller spray tanks, with a capacity of about 8 gallons, which enables spraying of 30 acres-per-hour. In addition, batteries on UAV need to be exchanged regularly, hopefully at the same time as spray tanks are refilled. While one pilot flies a crop duster aircraft, a UAV operation not only requires a skilled pilot to fly the UAV, but also a line-of-sight observer under FAA regulations. So, labor costs are higher, somewhat offsetting the lower operational costs of a UAV.
Nevertheless, the limited number of crop dusters requires scheduling out days, several weeks even in the busy seasons. Whereas, if you own an agricultural UAV only the weather determines when you can treat your own crops.
So why is it taking time for this alternative approach to take off?
Let’s say you buy your own small UAV — one capable of 1-2 gallons-per-acre for a small farm. You would first need to take an operator’s course and qualify for a pilot’s license, then you would have to work city hall to obtain an aerial applicator’s license and a state pesticide applicator’s license. Then you would have to pass an FAA physical, and maybe obtain an exemption to fly a UAV over the standard 55 lb weight. If you wanted to fly after dark, you would also need a night operator’s license. If you wanted to fly several UAV simultaneously (a swarm) to get the job done quickly, you would need to train and become qualified. These things are a significant barrier to entry for individual farmers. Therefore, companies are springing up that will charge equivalent prices for turn-key UAV crop applications as for aerial crop dusting – say between $11 -14 per acre.
UAV do have a place in the business of agriculture for crop spaying, even alongside conventional crop-dusting aircraft, and costs seem to be competitive if a farmer were to buy turn-key spraying. The obstacles to overcome for someone to start a UAV spraying business seem somewhat prohibitive, but companies are taking on the challenge and offering services. Farm owners who want to manage their own regular pesticide and fertilizer applications using their own UAV have a steep learning curve to climb.
Percepto has announced the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has approved the use of its UAV-in-a-box solution to perform highly automated beyond visual line of sight (HA BVLOS) inspections and monitoring operations at a large solar power plant in Texas.
The HA BVLOS UAV will fly at 200 feet above ground, which is double the altitude of any previously approved operation in the United States. The ability to fly at a higher altitude will enable greater operational flexibility to monitor large areas and tall structures in the future, including mapping and modeling.
Percepto’s HA BVLOS UAV enables an automated detect and avoid cycle, eliminating the need for remote pilot in command interventions if other aircraft are detected. Additionally, this capability negates the need for a pilot or visual observer on site.
The FAA approval for the solar plant deployment serves as a model for other industries including mining and oil and gas, to potentially increase site efficiency through automated remote inspection operation.
In December 2022, uAvionixannounced its updated product line for unmanned aerial systems (UAS) beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS) command and control (C2). The SkyLine C2 management platform and muLTElink airborne radio systems (ARS) are designed to integrate, which enables a self-healing C2 network capable of both path and link diversity. This eliminates lost-link possibilities over broad terrain and altitude ranges.
Image: uAvionixImage: uAvionix
MuLTElink ARS consists of two models — muLTElink915 and muLTElink5060, the core of the uAvionix C2 system. The muLTElink915 model combines globally licensed aviation LTE, enhanced with frequency hopping 902–928 MHz industrial, scientific and medical frequencies capability. The muLTElink5060 model combines global LTE with aviation-protected 5,030–5,091 MHz C-band for customers holding C-band licenses for control and non-payload communication (CNPC) operations.
Each muLTElink model allows up to one external CNPC radio to be optionally connected to allow simultaneous use of all three frequency ranges, higher power C-band operation or future radio integrations.
UAvionix updated its previous line of microLink and SkyLink ARS radios and relaunched them under the SkyLink ARS banner. Each SkyLink ARS can operate as a point-to-point radio or integrate with muLTElink and SkyLine for managed C2 operations. SkyLink915micro, formerly named microLink, offers a robust form factor and Lemo connector for UAS requiring hardened installations.
SkyLink5060micro and SkyLink5060 offer 100 mW and 10 W 5,030–5,091 MHz aviation protected C-band CNPC options.
Both platforms meet standards set by RTCA DO-362A and the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration’s draft Technical Standard Orders-C213a and may receive similar validated orders through other global aviation regulators.
Autel Robotics has unveiled its EVO Max 4T UAV, an intelligent flight platform designed for enterprise and professional applications. The company made the announcement at CES 2023.
EVO Max 4T’s autonomous flight technology and artificial intelligence features give it self-reliance and navigation capabilities. It has omnidirectional obstacle avoidance and tri-anti-interference capability to ensure flight safety and stability in high-interference environments.
It is equipped with three high-quality cameras including a 48 MP telephoto camera, a 50 MP wide-angle camera and an infrared camera. The platform has a range of navigation and data-acquisition functions, including 3D flight routes, PinPoint Mode, Team Work, Polygon Mission, Waypoint Mission and Oblique Photography.
Autel Robotics also released the Dragonfish NEST and the EVO NEST. Dragonfish NEST is an automated electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) support system, with a range of up to 75 miles between units, and is suitable for long-range corridor inspections and large area coverage. EVO NEST is a base for automatic take-off, landing, charging and mission planning for EVO series UAVs. It is designed for all-weather operation and can be easily transported.
On Jan. 3, Hexagon and Dayou announced the availability of TerraStar-X Enterprise test beds in Beijing, Shanghai, Anqing and Shenzhen for OEMs in the automotive and micro-mobility industries. Terra-Star-X Enterprise precise-point positioning corrections provide lane-level accuracy with fast convergence for autonomous vehicles and mass-market use.
The availability of the test beds follows the initial announcement by Hexagon’s Autonomy & Positioning division and Dayou of their partnership aiming to deliver GNSS correction services to the Chinese market. Users of autonomous platforms will now have a single correction service that works in China, North America and Europe.
OEMs in China can now leverage the test beds with consumer and automotive-grade GNSS receivers to design advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS), and other products, such as mobile applications, safety-critical solutions and more.
On Jan. 5, DroneShield announced the completion of its Defense Innovation Hub project. This project resulted in improvements to its optical/thermal AI DroneOptID engine, as well as the development of a multi-sensor fusion artificial intelligence engine (SFAI).
DroneShield’s DroneOptID is AI powered and designed for autonomous optical detection, classification and tracking of UAVs. This engine can be integrated with command-and-control platforms, such as DroneShield’s DroneSentry-C2, which the new SFAI engine will become a core part this year.
The $800,000 project was first commissioned in November 2021 by the Australian Department of Defense, under phase two of the Defense Innovation Hub program. DroneShield was contracted to work on AI in multi-domain applications for the counter-unmanned aerial system space and more general military and government agency applications.
A Ukrainian intelligence assessment obtained by CNN and CBS reported an Iranian UAV downed in Ukraine contained technology from companies in the United States and other western countries. The White House has since launched an investigation as to how the technology — including semiconductors, GPS modules and engines — were obtained by Iran.
Screenshot: CBS video
The components removed from an Iranian Shahed-136 UAV totaled 52, 40 of which were manufactured by 13 different U.S. companies. The remaining components were manufactured by other western companies and companies based in Japan, Taiwan and China.The United States monitors exports and imposed restrictions and sanctions to prevent Iran from obtaining components for UAVs. Officials are now looking to enhance enforcement of the sanctions and are encouraging companies to monitor their supply chain, as well as identify third-party distributors who may be re-selling the technology to Iran.
U.S. companies are not alone in having to closely monitor their supply chains. U-blox, a Swiss semiconductor company, made a statement reinforcing its company policy, which bans the use of its technology in weapons. This was after u-blox GNSS modules were reportedly found in Russian UAVs.
