Technology Workshop Highlights New Equipment, STEM Education

The Selex ES Falco Evo on display at IDEX. AUVSI photo.

By Brett Davis



While defense sales and operation of unmanned systems will likely enter a lull in coming years, the commercial market is expected to take off and eventually overtake — and even dwarf — the defense market.



That message was part of an overview given by AUVSI Executive Vice President Gretchen West at an Unmanned Systems Technology Workshop, organized by AUVSI and held at IDEX 2013 in Abu Dhabi.



Global spending on unmanned aircraft is expected to hit $11.3 billion in 2013, according to the Teal Group, but, "We believe that defense spending will not be growing like it has in the last 10 years," West said. It will likely stagnate for a time, but then will recover "as more commercial systems start to drive capability, reliability and some of the price points."



The commercial market, in the meantime, will continue to grow, and "over the next five to 10 years, we believe the commercial market will be the largest market for unmanned aircraft," and eventually dwarf defense spending, she said.



Several other speakers, representing the makers of small- to mid-sized unmanned aircraft, outlined the various ways their products support the defense market but could also help the transition to the commercial world.



Gregory Gottlieb is the program manager for Abu Dhabi Autonomous Systems Investments, or ADASI, a company that develops its own systems, integrates equipment into other companies' systems, operates and maintains equipment in UAE government use, and trains both UAE nationals and foreign customers in some systems use.



Gottlieb outlined a relatively new company effort, that of building helium-filled aerostats, which it is developing both for security purposes and to boost economic activity in the area. Everything but the outer shell will be built in Abu Dhabi, he said.



Aerostats can provide flexible, long-term surveillance at relatively low cost, Gottlieb said.



"If you're there all the time, it means you'll be there at the right time," he said. "If you only come and go, you may miss the critical activity."



Persistent surveillance is not just of use to the military, but is good for border patrol and for providing security to conferences and other activities, he said. During the Atlanta Olympics, the British military was operating a civil airship over the area, but it was on the ground for refueling when a bomb went off.



"If we had persistence, we would have been able to control the system much more rapidly," he said.



The company plans to build three models of aerostats: Aerostat 200; the larger 500, which will roll out in about a year; and the larger still Aerostat 900, expected to come online in 2015.



Piero Pastrello, the manager for marketing at Italy's Selex ES, outlined his company's unmanned aircraft offering, which now extends from tiny, hand-launched systems to the mid-sized Falco, a model of which was on display at the show.



The latest variant, the Evo, has extended wings and twin tail booms, which help provide it up to 18 hours of persistence versus 12 hours for the original model.



Paul Allen and Andrew Duggan of Insitu said increasing endurance has been on the company's mind in recent years. Its venerable ScanEagle has already demonstrated endurance of up to 28 hours, but its small size, until recently, held it back when it came to payloads.



The company then developed the larger Integrator, which could carry multiple payload turrets and currently forms the basis for the U.S. Navy/Marine Corps' Small Tactical UAS program. There is also a commercial variant "that we  are currently selling internationally," said Allen, the Vice President of business development of Insitu.



The company has also debuted a new turret for the ScanEagle that gives it more capability. The turret packs in better technology that gives it a fivefold improvement over the current daytime imager, including picture-in-picture view, as well as providing electro-optical and infrared sensors in ScanEagle at the same time, Allen said.



"This sensor will be out in June of this year. It allows a lot more capability in ScanEagle that we have not had before," he said. "We are very proud of this turret. This is a game changer."



Ian McDonald, the vice president of product and marketing at Aeryon Labs, said his company's diminutive Scout rotorcraft has seen a wide array of military and nonmilitary use, including surveilling drug compounds in South America and being used by rebels in Libya for situational awareness.



"What you might pick out right away [is] that, particularly in law enforcement, some of the scenarios that the systems are used for are actually just different versions of similar types of scenarios in the military," he said. Applications there include evidence gathering, traffic monitoring and even VIP security, such as was provided by an Aeryon Scout for a recent G50 Nuclear Security Summit in South Korea.



"Aeryon's heritage is really on the military side of these systems, but in the last few years we've seen a strong interest in public safety uses as well," he said.



Education



Science, technology and math education were also highlighted at the workshop by Northrop Grumman's Gene Fraser, the sector vice president for engineering and global product development.



His company, the AUVSI Foundation and Abu Dhabi's Higher Colleges of Technology have created an unmanned aircraft challenge that sees teams of HCT students design, build and fly their own unmanned aircraft.



Eleven teams will compete at this year's event in April at Abu Dhabi's soccer stadium, with the winner receiving a trip to AUVSI's Unmanned Systems 2013 in Washington, D.C., where they will making a presentation on their aircraft.



"At the end of the day, everybody who participates is a winner in that they get to experience firsthand the whole process of developing a product, getting a chance to actually fly it and explain it," Fraser said.