Unmanned Systems Technology 010 | nuTonomy driverless taxi | Embedded computing | HFE International marine powertrain | Space vehicles | Performance monitoring | Commercial UAV Show Asia report

44 networks providing ground-to-air, air-to- air and air-to-ground comms. While all the UAVs in the network would be essentially the same, one would remain within direct comms range of a base station and act as a master node to control all the others by relaying instructions to and through them, while they form a ‘masterless’ ad hoc network that provides cellular comms services to end-users. The UAVs could be small machines such as Boeing Insitu ScanEagles. The control base could be handheld, mobile or stationary, with one option being to use an existing cell site. Emergency autonomy Human crews are trained to recognise and deal with a myriad of emergencies aboard manned aircraft, and now Boeing has come up with a means of enabling UAVs to do it autonomously. Along with inventors Lars Fucke and Stephen Sweeney, the company was granted patent number US9359067 B2, published in June. Implemented through the flight controller, the software has to define a ‘plurality’ of emergency conditions, prioritise them and associate each with an objective that defines what ultimately must be done about them. Sensing a range of parameters and processing them to detect emergency conditions, it then calculates a trajectory for the vehicle in response to the one with the highest priority, then commands the vehicle to follow the trajectory it has defined. The system would have a stored database of predetermined flight termination points and generate a trajectory that ends at the best one available to it. A condition such as an engine failure would be assigned the highest priority level, and in response the controller would calculate the most efficient gliding trajectory to the selected flight termination point. An electrical power failure, defined as current falling below some threshold value, would have the second highest priority level and cause the controller to calculate and implement the fastest return to a flight termination point. A third priority emergency might be depletion of some stored resource, such as fuel, below a threshold level. The controller would define that threshold, identify a flight termination point, calculate the amount of stored resource needed to reach it and generate the most economical trajectory that ends there. A weak remote control signal – again below a calculated threshold value – is a fourth and lowest priority emergency, in response to which the controller would again calculate the most economic trajectory to a flight termination point. Software police In patent application US20160202699 A1, published in July, Insitu wants protection for software to ensure that UAVs comply with export regulations that limit their performance. Inventors Jeffrey Knapp, David Tasker and Gary Lee Viviani’s method stores a description of the UAV’s initial configuration and identifies tamper- resistant trusted components. This combination is designed to ensure that the initial configuration complies with export control requirements and that at least one of the trusted components is configured to limit the UAV’s range. Using encrypted comms, the software would query the trusted components for their configurations. If the component is not installed or has been modified since its initial configuration was stored, the software would divert the UAV if it travels beyond a predetermined distance from its launch position or if comms with its control station has been lost. Paint jobs Painting very large structures such as bridges to stop them from corroding falls squarely into the dull and dirty category of jobs for unmanned systems, so Luryto has applied for a patent (US20160082460 A1, published in March) covering ways and means of “applying liquid to a surface with a UAV”. The system, devised by inventors Ryan McMaster, Luke Andrew Busby and Todd Iverson, comprises a UAV’s flight control system that receives the ‘first control signals’ and a liquid delivery assembly that receives its own – the second control signals – both of which are handled by the painting system’s control unit. Paint supply options include a reservoir and lift pump that would stay on the ground but coupled to the vehicle with one or more hoses, and an onboard pump that would feed the paint nozzle on the end of a boom. Another is a paint bladder carried by the UAV that would enable it to get into areas that the hoses might make inaccessible, while a third option is a cradle to carry an aerosol can and an actuator to press the valve. The UAV would have sensors configured to work with a set of corner cube reflectors fitted at precisely known locations on the structure to be painted. Outputs from the sensors would be used to calculate the October/November 2016 | Unmanned Systems Technology Boeing’s patented flight management software can prioritise emergencies such as engine failures, then execute the best trajectory to a termination point (Courtesy of Boeing)