Unmanned Systems Technology 033 l SubSeaSail Gen6 USSV l Servo actuators focus l UAVs insight l Farnborough 2020 update l Transforma XDBOT l Strange Development REVolution l Radio telemetry focus

14 Platform one Dr Donough Wilson Dr Wilson is innovation lead at aviation, defence, and homeland security innovation consultants, VIVID/ futureVision. His defence innovations include the cockpit vision system that protects military aircrew from asymmetric high-energy laser attack. He was first to propose the automatic tracking and satellite download of airliner black box and cockpit voice recorder data in the event of an airliner’s unplanned excursion from its assigned flight level or track. For his ‘outstanding and practical contribution to the safer operation of aircraft’ he was awarded The Sir James Martin Award 2018/19, by the Honourable Company of Air Pilots. Paul Weighell Paul has been involved with electronics, computer design and programming since 1966. He has worked in the real-time and failsafe data acquisition and automation industry using mainframes, minis, micros and cloud-based hardware on applications as diverse as defence, Siberian gas pipeline control, UK nuclear power, robotics, the Thames Barrier, Formula One and automated financial trading systems. Ian Williams-Wynn Ian has been involved with unmanned and autonomous systems for more than 20 years. He started his career in the military, working with early prototype unmanned systems and exploiting imagery from a range of unmanned systems from global suppliers. He has also been involved in ground-breaking research including novel power and propulsion systems, sensor technologies, communications, avionics and physical platforms. His experience covers a broad spectrum of domains from space, air, maritime and ground, and in both defence and civil applications including, more recently, connected autonomous cars. Unmanned Systems Technology’s consultants Airbus Defence and Space is developing an autonomous rover that will collect samples left by other rovers on Mars (writes Nick Flaherty). The Fetch rover is different from the others on the planet in that it will travel much further and faster to collect samples. This requires far higher levels of autonomy. The rover is part of the Mars Sample Return project with NASA and ESA. NASA’s 2020 Mars rover mission Perseverance, which at the time of writing was due to launch shortly, will collect Martian soil and rock samples and leave them on the surface in small metal tubes. It will travel a total of 4 km over the length of the project. In 2026, the ESA rover will travel to Mars to collect these tubes. Landing in 2028, it will then travel an average of 200 m a day over a period of six months and a total distance of 15 km to find and pick up 36 of the 43 sample tubes. It will then carry them back to the lander and place them in a Mars Ascent Vehicle, which will launch them into orbit around Mars. Another spacecraft developed by ESA (with a NASA payload), the Earth Return Orbiter, will collect the samples from orbit and return them to Earth. Image recognition algorithms for spotting the sample tubes on the Martian surface have already been developed by the Airbus-led team. A dedicated robotic arm with a grasping unit to pick up the tubes is being designed with a group of European companies. The 125 kg Fetch Rover will have four wheels, all larger than the six flexible wheels used on the ExoMars Rover to better cope with the range of terrain it will encounter. The rover has to move more quickly than ExoMars to meet the timings for returning the samples so that they can land back on Earth in 2031. Space vehicles Fetch samples August/September 2020 | Unmanned Systems Technology The Airbus Fetch Rover will cover about 15 km of the surface of Mars in six months