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Aerospace anddefense oranizations advance unmanned avionics to amplify system safety,security, efficiency, and interoperability. The unmannedaerial vehicle (UAV) for years has been a focal point of the aerospace anddefense community, as well as a bright spot in an otherwise bleak economicpicture. The impressive growth and advancement of unmanned technologies showfew signs of slowing, as militaries worldwide continue to adopt and adaptunmanned aircraft systems (UAS) for a variety of missions. Operational efficiency The role of UAVscontinues to expand, as aerospace and defense technology firms enhance thecapabilities of unmanned vehicle, system, and payload electronics. The focus ofmilitary organizations the world over, especially in times of economicpressure, is on operational efficiency. As is the case today with mannedmilitary aircraft, UAVs can no longer assume just one role or function; rather,militaries increasingly require multi-role systems.
'Unmanned airsystems will need to be able to carry out a broader range of surveillancemissions, demonstrating interoperability with other platforms and a flexiblemulti-role capability to fulfill a variety of mission objectives,' says arepresentative of Selex ES Ltd., a Finmeccanica company in Essex, England. The focus is oninteroperability and re-use, explains Chip Downing, senior director ofaerospace & defense at Wind River Systems in Alameda, Calif.'Next-generation systems will need to prove they have a systemsarchitecture that can rapidly integrate a wide range of capabilities from avast ecosystem of hardware and software suppliers. 'Static,single-source capabilities will quickly be replaced by platforms that canrapidly morph into the chal- lenge of the hour,' Downing adds. 'Theexcellent work by the Future Airborne Capability Environment (FACE) and theUnmanned Control Segment (UCS) teams will drive and accelerate this platformexpansion.' Drones no more 'Some early UAVsare called drones because they are no more sophisticated than a simple,radio-controlled aircraft being controlled by a human pilot (or operator) atall times,' says Donald Palmer, chief technology officer, General MicroSystems (GMS) in Rancho Cucamonga, Calif. 'More sophisticated versionshave built-in control and/or guidance systems to perform low-level human pilotduties, such as speed and flight path surveillance, and simple pre-scriptednavigation functions such as convoy and warfighter tracking.' Unmanned aerialvehicles and systems continue to grow in sophistication and complexity,spurring the aerospace and defense community to increasingly abandon use of theterm 'drone'-which often carries negative connotations. Yet, infusingcompact UAVs with advanced, capable electronics, and the necessary power andthermal management systems, is no mean feat. UAVs present someof the most difficult design challenges, Palmer says. 'It is because ofthe need to package a high level of computing power and data collection/distributioncomponents within minimal size, weight, and power (SWaP) constraints-all whilepreserving ruggedized capabilities to operate in very demandingenvironments.' GMS electronicssystems have been deployed in no less than four UAV models, in the UAV itselfor as part of the ground station. 'Command and secure communication is themajor theme in the deployment of these products,' Palmer reveals.'The GMS S802 (Golden Eye II) and GMS S902 (Golden Eye III) have beenselected as high-performance computing platforms for UAVs. These lightweight,rugged systems are designed from the ground up to perform in the harshenvironments that UAVs operate.' UAV engineers mustalso ascribe a high priority to security, Palmer says. 'Securecommunication links are vital for UAV operation, both to control the UAV basedon mission objectives and to deliver data reliably to mission controllers onthe ground. Encryption and decryption are inherent requirements, addingcomplexity and cost in the UAV electronics.' Onboard data processing Advanced UAVsensor payloads are acquiring a wealth of data, including full-motion video(FMV) and high-definition (HD) images. Bandwidth is often limited, however, andcan prevent the transmission, sharing, and display of mission-criticalinformation. Such network limitations are driving the need for efficient dataprocessing directly on the UAV. Militaries andtechnology firms worldwide are focused on: the ability to do as much autonomousonboard processing as possible and to reduce the volume of data exchangedbetween the UAV and ground station, says Michael Carter, chief executiveofficer of Sabtech Industries in Yorba Linda, Calif. The goal, he adds, is toexchange processed information instead of a raw data stream. 'Per the recentOffice of Naval Research (ONR) Navigation Sensor Fusion solicitation, thechallenge was for precision landing on a pitching deck with low/zero visibility(night, weather) with no electronic emissions so as to avoid detection,'Carter says. 'It required highly accurate fusion of data from multiplesensors (optical, infrared, lidar) in real time. 'While it didnot specify that the data had to be crunched onboard the UAV, the only way itcould be done while meeting all the objectives would be to do it autonomouslyonboard the UAV itself,' Carter continues. 'It requireshigh-performance, low-power, low-weight processors and sensors that arescalable for the vehicle payload size.' Sabtech is workingwith an un- named UAV manufacturer on an avionics system that can provide datainput/output (I/O) interfaces for RS-232, 422, 1553, STANAG, and other outputsfor various on-board sensors converted to Ethernet for processing on ahigh-performance single-board computer with a field-programmable gate array(FPGA) that will perform configurable operations. Integrated operations 'The key tothe future of drones and robots will be their ability to work together,'predicts Nelson Paez, CEO of DreamHammer in Santa Monica, Calif. Aerospace anddefense firms are working to deliver enabling technologies to facilitateintegrated operations, such as swarms or tiered systems of UAVs, wherebyvarious aircraft systems work together in a coordinated effort to support thewarfighters on the ground. DreamHammer hasunveiled a commercial off-the-shelf (COTS)-based, intelligent control platformthat integrates unrelated unmanned vehicles from different manufacturers into asingle system. Managing multiple drones is a unique challenge, given that eachUAV type has proprietary control systems. 'In the past,anyone wanting a unified system had to develop the actual drone hardware.Ballista allows government or commercial customers to link together machinesfrom numerous developers performing a variety of tasks,' Paez describes.'Some unmanned systems take as many as 200 people to manage a singledrone, much more resources than manned vehicles. Ballista allows a single userto manage multiple drones simultaneously. 'Until now,there has been no way to tie [UAVs] together,' Paez says. 'A user whopreviously required extensive training to manage one drone or robot can nowmanage multiple drones or robots simultaneously-all to achieve a single task orcoordinated mission.' DreamHammer'sBallista COTS software is designed to military and safety-critical standards,works with all unmanned drones and robots, and can be used to link multipledrones into one master system, all controlled by one person. Ballista is builton an open software platform which allows for autonomous and simultaneouscontrol of multiple unmanned vehicles across all domains-space, air, sea, andland-and can be run from virtually any computer, including a tablet orsmartphone. Elbit Systems Ltd.in Haifa, Israel, unveiled its Hermes Universal Ground Control Station (UGCS),capable of controlling two concurrent missions when allocated two ground dataterminals. Elbit's UGCS is built to enable the control of any type of UAV,providing mission debriefing and simulation as well as in-flight missionediting and payload control. The UGCS system includes: a ground data terminal,a remote video terminal, and a flight line tester/loader. The UGCS featuresside-by-side identical and redundant operator consoles with ruggedized COTShardware and commercial software tools for mission planning, management, andcontrol. Built-in data exploitation and dissemination and an advanced systemconcept enable single-operator ground control station use. In fact, Elbit UAVs,such as the Hermes 450 UAS, are equipped with an autonomous Auto Takeoff andLanding (ATOL) system for auto-landing and advanced digital communicationsystems for transmitting data in real time to ground stations. Autonomous activity Engineers atPiaggio Aero Industries in Italy have completed testing of the autonomousengine control capability, normal and auto brake features, and complete groundhandling control of the company's new Piaggio Aero P.1HH HammerHead, amulti-role unmanned aerial system (UAS). The P.1HHHammerHead UAS mission management system (MMS), based on Selex ES SkyISTAR technology,is designed to be modular and flexible to enable a wide selection of payloadsto be integrated and aligned with customers' concept of operations (CONOPS).'The P.1HH mission management system is fit for a multi-role UAS, allowingthe HammerHead to perform missions including but not limited to wide-areaterritorial and aerial surveillance, maritime patrol, environmental monitoring,and electronic warfare,' says a Piaggio Aero Industries spokesperson. Selex ES providesthe vehicle control and management system (VCMS), the remote-piloting groundcontrol station (GCS), and the UAS datalink and communications systems 'toensure safe operations during all flight activities, throughout the whole chainof UAS command and control,' the spokesperson adds. 'Due to the highlevel of functionality and multiple redundancies, the P.1HH UAS is able toperform command and control and data exploitation for multiple UAVs, operationsin line-of-sight (LOS) and beyond-line-of-sight (BLOS) conditions, and flexibleasset usage for the pilots and ground crew.' The advanced MMScombines with the VCMS to manage the HammerHead UAS and its mission-specificequipment. HammerHead's VCMS, controlled from the GCS via an airborne data-linksystem, commands the aerodynamic control surfaces and manages the on-boardequipment with a triple-redundancy Flight Control Computer and multiple remoteServo Interface Units (SIUs), designed to achieve a high level of safety andmission reliability. The VCMS also features an ATOL system offering dualredundancy external sensors for reliability and safety. |
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