100 Show report | DSEI 2023 “As the Siphon QD will probably be bonded to carbon fibre, we apply a special phosphoric coating that ensures a safe, rigid and reliable connection,” Mishriky said. “It’s also designed to be fully flush, with a cap, so that it won’t alter the aerodynamic profile of a UAV after being integrated, and we can scale it from a Dash 2 size up to a Dash 40 [sizings for fuel lines according to the JIC/AN measurement system].” Systel showcased its Kite-Strike II embedded computer system, its latest solution built around the Nvidia Jetson AGX Orin (both the 32 and 64 Gbyte versions) and ruggedised to military standards including Mil-Std-810H, 461G for EMI protection, and 1275E/704F for uninterrupted power. “It’s designed as a modular platform, to tailor it for customer needs such as software-defined radios or capture cards, and to future-proof it in terms of replacing future generations of computer hardware while keeping the same architecture,” said Brian Russell. “There are severe trade-offs and challenges with building rugged systems like this, such as removing and dissipating heat from powerful boards like the Orin while still making the housing rugged enough to keep shocks and vibrations away from the board. It’s hard sometimes for uncrewed vehicle OEMs to have the time and tools to manage those inhouse, especially when designing a UAV presents so many other challenges, so ruggedised computer enclosures often end up as an afterthought.” The Kite-Strike II measures 21.5 x 20 x 10.7 cm and is IP66-rated, with integrated cooling fans that blow over an internal heat sink. With the Orin, it integrates a GPU with up to 2048 CUDA cores and 64 Tensor cores, a CPU with up to 12 Carmel ARM v8 cores and a maximum frequency of 2.2 GHz, and up to 64 Gbytes of onboard memory, as well as a 64 Gbyte eMMC 5.1 storage system. Also, in October, Systel introduced its Sparrow-Strike, which integrates an Nvidia Orin NX and is entirely passively cooled. “It’s designed to be our ultrasmall form-factor rugged computer offering, weighing about 3 lb [1.36 kg], but with its Orin NX it’s still powerful enough to provide edge AI processing,” Russell said. “We’ve also designed the SparrowStrike to integrate smaller, single-board computers such as the Intel Atom or SMARC boards, for users who want the Sparrow-Strike’s form factor and ruggedisation but want to integrate it as something like a flight controller instead of an edge AI solution.” Avidrone displayed its flagship 210TL UAV, which it manufactures and supplies to users across defence and industry. The system is designed as a tandem rotor helicopter, a configuration often associated with the US Army’s Chinook helicopter. “It’s a fully electric dual rotorcraft, and a lot of our projects are all about carrying cargo, particularly fully autonomous deliveries of cargo with no pilot in the loop or FPV camera requirement,” said Scott Gray. “We write all the software, assemble the hardware, and construct the aircraft in-house as a turnkey system. We designed the airframe from a blank sheet, because there was no-one on the market that could feasibly supply us with a tandem rotor airframe, and we wanted to optimise and exploit the highspeed and heavy-lift capabilities that we know the Chinook is capable of, but in a smaller package.” December/January 2024 | Uncrewed Systems Technology Systel’s Kite-Strike-II embedded computer Avidrone’s 210TL
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