On May 13, General Atomics Aeronautical Systems Inc. (GA-ASI) conducted a “Public Day” demonstration of its Guardian Remotely Piloted Aircraft (RPA) for the community of Iki City and Nagasaki Prefecture in Japan.
GA-ASI will spend three weeks conducting demonstration flights out of Iki Airport, in an effort to promote the “civil and scientific applications” of the RPA.
“We thank the Mayor of Iki and the many other public and private stakeholders for their making this demonstration possible,” says Linden Blue, CEO GA-ASI.
Sensors
Sensors
Kongsberg Geospatial and Survae announce partnership to help UAS operators manage multiple UAS simultaneously
Ottawa-based Kongsberg Geospatial and Wilmington, North Carolina-based Survae have announced the integration of the Kongsberg Geospatial IRIS UAS Ground Control Station (GCS) with Survae’s digital asset management platform for geolocated video, imagery and data.
With this integration, a single operator will be able to seamlessly manage the real-time display and storage of multiple video streams from the multiple UAS being managed by the IRIS GCS.
In addition, videos will be meta-tagged and stored for “near real-time analysis or for post-mission archival search of missions flown.”
Middle Eastern country awards AeroVironment contract for its Puma AE UAS
A major country in the Middle East has awarded AeroVironment, Inc. a contract valued at $44.5 million (USD) for its Puma II AE small UAS featuring the new Mantis i45 sensor.
Puma AE UAS equipped with the Mantis i45 sensor suite gives operators the ability to “see better and farther than ever before,” which provides more actionable intelligence, so users can proceed with certainty.
Described as rugged, portable and fully waterproof, Puma AE gives operators “unmatched operational flexibility in the small UAS class,” according to AeroVironment.
Terabee's new TeraRanger Hub Evo provides 'lean sensing' for robotics
Terabee, which created the TeraRanger Time of Flight distance sensors, has announced the release of the TeraRanger Hub Evo, which the company describes as a new generation “plug and play solution for using multiple distance sensors.”
A “small, octagonal, PCB,” the TeraRanger Hub Evo allows users to connect up to eight TeraRanger Evo distance sensors and place them in whatever configuration they might need, so that they can monitor and gather data from just the areas and axes they need, and create custom point clouds, optimized to their application.
EasyMile's EZ10 electric driverless shuttle bus to begin trial in Ipswich, England
EasyMile's EZ10 electric driverless shuttle bus will begin a trial in Ipswich, England starting on Monday, Feb. 26.
Ipswich City Council is trialing one of the driverless shuttles around its Orion water theme park lagoon near the Orion Shopping Centre on John Nugent Drive at Springfield. The trial is open to anyone who would like to ride the shuttle during the public demonstration times.
“The loop along John Nugent Way takes about five minutes, so it’s a great way to get a taste for what the future of public transport might be like,” says EasyMile spokesman Simon Pearce via the Brisbane Times.
VStar Systems announces new MA-C MiniPod, a rapid deployment SIGINT Sensor
VStar Systems has announced the new MA-C MiniPod, which is a pod version of the company's MA-C SIGINT Sensor.
VStar designed its MA-C Sensor System to provide signal intelligence such as “signal copy, signal identification and direction finding” to a wide variety of platforms. The MA-C system is designed to function as a “modular, scalable, flexible tactical COMINT sensor,” specifically intended to address design challenges posed by Class 2 or 3 UAVs, while also optimizing operator efficiency.
RIEGL receives MAPPS Geospatial Excellence Award for its LiDAR sensor for unmanned laser scanning
RIEGL, which provides cutting edge technology in airborne, mobile, terrestrial, industrial and unmanned laser scanning platforms, has announced that it is the recipient of the 2017 MAPPS Geospatial Products and Services Excellence Award.
RIEGL received the award for its RIEGL miniVUX-1UAV miniaturized LiDAR sensor for unmanned laser scanning, in the Technology Innovation category at the 2018 MAPPS Winter Conference. RIEGL says that it is “thrilled to be the winner of the MAPPS Geospatial Excellence Award!”
According to the company, the RIEGL miniVUX-1UAV is a “user-friendly and cost-efficient device to acquire survey-grade measurement data” by use of remotely piloted multi-rotor, rotary-wing, or fixed-wing UAVs, for different applications.
Production CUSV to gain new sonars, begin testing and demonstration
Textron’s Common Unmanned Surface Vehicle program will see two production vehicles built this year, with new side scan sonars being integrated and testing and demonstration to continue through 2019.
Textron began its CUSV program in 2008, after migrating its core competency — command and control for automated systems — from the air domain to the maritime.
Minnesota Department of Transportation begins testing autonomous shuttle bus
On Dec. 12, an EasyMile-manufactured autonomous shuttle bus made its debut on the road in Minnesota, as a part of the Minnesota Department of Transportation's (MnDOT) autonomous shuttle bus pilot project.
The vehicle operated in light snow, which is productive for the overall goal of the pilot project, which is to test and analyze how autonomous vehicles operate in cold weather.
“I can't think of a better day in Minnesota to show off and test this autonomous technology,” says MnDOT Commissioner Charles Zelle, via the Star Tribune. “We have just the right amount of snowflakes, a little ice on the road.”