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 realtime 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 uncrewed and autonomous systems for more than 20 years. He started his career in the military, working with early prototype uncrewed systems and exploiting imagery from a range of 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. Professor James Scanlan Professor Scanlan is the director of the Strategic Research Centre in Autonomous Systems at the University of Southampton, in the UK. He also co-directs the Rolls-Royce University Technical Centre in design at Southampton. He has an interest in design research, and in particular how complex systems (especially aerospace systems) can be optimised. More recently, he established a group at Southampton that undertakes research into uncrewed aircraft systems. He produced the world’s first ‘printed aircraft’, the SULSA, which was flown by the Royal Navy in the Antarctic in 2016. He also led the team that developed the ULTRA platform, the largest UK commercial UAV, which has flown BVLOS extensively in the UK. He is a qualified full-size aircraft pilot and also has UAV flight qualifications. Dr David Barrett Dr David Barrett’s career includes senior positions with companies such as iRobot and Walt Disney Imagineering. He has also held posts with research institutions including the Charles Stark Draper Laboratory, MIT and Olin College, where he is now Professor of Mechanical Engineering and Robotics, and Principal Investigator for the Olin Intelligent Vehicle Laboratory. He also serves in an advisory capacity on the boards of several robotics companies. Uncrewed Systems Technology’s consultants 16 MARSS is developing a portable version of its UAS countermeasures aircraft (writes Nick Flaherty). The MARSS Interceptor, unveiled last year and currently under development, is an AI-enabled autonomous UAV alternative to short-range missiles to neutralise hostile UAVs. The Interceptor-SR (Short Range) version is designed to be launched from a 5 in-diameter tube to neutralise CAT1 drones at a range of 1 km. The electric UAV is inherently safe, as no explosives or jet fuel is required, and it uses the ground-based MARSS Nidar C2 radar and sensor system and an onboard thermal image sensor to hone in on, and crash into, a target UAV using kinetic energy rather than an explosive payload. The closed-loop thermal sensor works at a range of up to about 100 m, said Stephen Scott, head of r&d for defence at MARSS. The 5 in diameter presented a key design challenge for the motors, propellers and the battery pack needed to get the 8 kg craft up to a speed of 60 m/s. The avionics control system will be off the shelf with custom-designed motors and folding wings, as well as propellers that allow the UAS to be fired from the launcher tube. Its battery provides 2 kW to the motors, giving a mission time of about 30 seconds. Depending on the time to interception and the impact, the Interceptor might be able to return to its launch site, but it is more likely to be disposable, which is driving the vehicle’s design choices. Airborne vehicles Portable UAV killer December/January 2024 | Uncrewed Systems Technology The Interceptor-SR is designed to be fired from a 5 in tube launcher
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