Unmanned Systems Technology 027 l Hummingbird XRP l Gimbals l UAVs insight l AUVSI report part 2 l O’Neill Power Systems NorEaster l Kratos Defense ATMA l Performance Monitoring l Kongsberg Maritime Sounder

56 Show report | AUVSI Xponential 2019 communication bandwidths,” explained Mark Juhrig. “CAN gives just the means to send and receive data, and takes care of all the lower levels of the protocol. Open standards such as UAVCAN are designed for communicating with servos, or we can design a custom standard with the customer to fit their specific architecture, for example to talk to their servos as well as their onboard sensors.” The company will next be installing the interface on its single-lane servos, such as the DA-26, DA-30 and DA-36, as well as its high-torque DA-30HT servo and its DA-22BLDC, largely by porting the same processes developed for the DA-15N. Vertical Partners West has signed a partnership with Teledyne Energy Systems for the latter to provide the former with reverse engineering and domestic assembly services, towards developing future energy storage and battery management systems. “In particular, the use-cases that will benefit from this partnership and the kinds of products that could come out of it will include applications with extreme pressures – such as UUVs – or situations where an unmanned vehicle is moving through extreme cold, and other challenging environmental conditions where you need to keep dust, sand and water out of the battery,” said Keith Wallace. “The technologies our partnership is aiming to develop will also be useful for operations at high elevations – any situation where you have to precisely heat or cool the battery to keep it within its operational envelope,” he added. “Those are areas where Teledyne Energy Systems’ experience in working with spacecraft and underwater vehicles over the past several decades will be useful. We already have multiple projects in place with some of our customers.” UAV developer Autoflight attended the show to unveil its new B15 UAV, which is designed for heavy-lift applications, particularly fast cargo delivery for logistics companies. “We have designed it with a nose that opens to access the cargo bay at the centre of gravity, in which 5 kg can be stored, after which it can fly at up to 140 kph with a 100 km data link,” said Thomas Hartzdorf. “That enables timely ‘last-mile’ deliveries of end-user products and components.” The craft is battery-powered, with up to 90 minutes of endurance. A hatch on the rear fuselage contains the UAV’s electronics, and its twin-boom design integrates four downward-facing electric motors for VTOL, with one pusher propeller at the rear of the assembly. Ascent and descent speeds of up to 2 m/s (7.2 kph) are typical. The B15 has two tailplanes, one at the rear of each boom, with only two servos across the entire airframe and one elevator on each boom to minimise the number of potential points of mechanical failure. Alternatively, the UAV can be designed with two ailerons instead of the two elevators if preferred by an end-user. “Adding this tail assembly to what is otherwise a flying wing design makes the B15’s flight much more stable, and easier to control,” Hartzdorf said. “Our software department worked to develop autopilot algorithms, hardware and even motors in-house to work with this UAV’s specific airframe body design and flight profile.” Autoflight also displayed its V40 White Shark survey UAV, which was unveiled in early 2019 and features eight VTOL motors that run along the twin booms August/September 2019 | Unmanned Systems Technology Vertical Partners West now has an energy storage deal with Teledyne Energy Systems Autoflight’s V40 White Shark survey UAV The Volz DA-15N actuator, with CAN interface