Unmanned Systems Technology 017 | AAC HAMR UAV | Autopilots | Airborne surveillance | Primoco 500 two-stroke | Faro ScanBot UGV | Transponders | Intergeo, CUAV Expo and CUAV Show reports

71 instructions to each motor to steer the ScanBot, stopping it in the right place for the next scan. It then sends the height value to the scissor lift controller, and sends the configuration data to the Faro Focus camera via a wi-fi radio link. The controller also has to fuse the data from the Lidar sensors and the two cameras to detect obstacles, humans and stairs. Comms The ScanBot acts as a mobile wi- fi hotspot so the user and the Faro camera both connect directly to the wireless server on the platform. This allows for real-time control, where the user can see where the robot is, how far through a scan it is, how long to go and so on, says Santos. The user can also access the camera controls to manually start and stop a scan, as well as navigate. While the wi-fi connection is used for configuring the camera, the data from the scan is stored on an SD card in the camera. Once all the scans are performed the card can be removed from the camera and transferred to a PC running the user’s choice of 3D modelling software. The future Currently the ScanBot needs to stop to perform a scan, but that is a limitation of the camera, which needs to have a static point of view, says Santos. Faro plans to update the camera to allow the ScanBot to navigate and scan at the same time with the same accuracy as now, which highlights the advantages of having control of the sensing camera as well as the supporting platform. “It will be really hard to achieve the same accuracy otherwise,” Santos says. Charging is also an area the company plans to work on. “The charging system is one of the drawbacks [of the current Husky], and we are trying to change it,” says Santos. “As soon as the battery is running low you have to switch off to charge. “Ideally, how we see the robot working is that it knows when it needs to go to recharge – if you still need to take it to charging then it’s not fully autonomous. That needs changes to the chassis, and a wireless charging docking station would be the way to go,” he says. Unmanned Systems Technology | December/January 2018 External dimensions: 508 x 430 x 250 mm Ground clearance: 65 mm Weight: 17 kg (without accessories); 28 kg (with scissor lift and camera) Maximum height (with scissor lift): 1 m Operating time: 4-6 hours Charge time: 4 hours Maximum speed: 2 m/s (limited to 1 m/s) Key suppliers Chassis, motors and battery: Clearpath Lidar: Velodyne Scanning camera: in-house Specifications The ScanBot is based around the A200 Husky UGV from Clearpath Robotics