Company Presentation

Summary

• Company profile• Unmanned Systems

– STRIX– SIXTON– Precision Airdrop System– Ground Software

• Electronics– Autopilots

• Guidance, Navigation and Control• Space • Advanced Research

Integrazione

Elettronica

Software

UAS

Ricerca Avanzata

Computer Vision

A3RProfile

• Objectives– Develop and sell Unmanned Systems.– Design Guidance, Navigation and Control Systems in aeronautics.– Research and Develop new technologies in mecatronics– Advanced research in aerospace and robotics engineering

• Partnership with Alpi Aviation– Development, marketing and sales of Unmanned Aerial Systems

• Young and dynamic SME focused in research and new technolohies.

• Engineering background in the following fields:– Aeronaunatics and Space– Microelectronics– Unmanned Systems– Mecatronics– Computer Vision– Real time computations

• Offices– Rome and Pordenone

A3RActivities

• New technologies in house – Research– Design– Development

• Know-how and IPR

• Partnership with other companies in manifacturing

A3RProduct Flow

Research

Engineering

Testing

Know-how

Computation

Prototype

PARTNERS

Project

Manifacturing

PRODUCTS

Unmanned Aerial Systems

UAS SystemsKnow - how

• Ground Segment (CUCS + CDT)– System Design– Ground Software & Hardware – System Integration– Data & Video Communications – HRI & Simulators

• Flight Segment (UAV)– On board systems design – On board software– Autopilots– Power Supply & Monitoring Unit– Communication boards – Payload– Propulsion design

Core UAVControl Station Control Data

Terminal

Telemetry/CommandVideo Downlink

IWUAV

Unmanned AerialSystems

• Joint venture with Alpi Aviation• A3R

– System design– Autopilot– onboard Avionics– Airborne Software– Ground Segment Software– Systems integration

• Alpi Aviation– Airframe design and manufacturing– Systems integration– Marketing and sales

UAS Products

• Currently main focus in the Mini-UAV market• Fixed Wing UAV

– STRIX– Currently in use with Italian Airforce– Military Type Certificate (AERP-2)

• Rotor Wing UAV– SIXTON– March 2010 entry into service with Italian Army– Military Type Certificate (AERP-2)

• Strix UAV– Electric Propulsion– Maximum Takeoff weight = 8.6kg– Range = 12.5km– Endurance = 135min– Cruise Speed = 60 km/h

• Features– Auto-takeoff (Catapult)– Auto landing– Way point navigation– Payload Target Tracking

UAS ProductsStrix

• Payload Pan/Tilt– Pan ± 80°– Tilt ± 70°

• Day-time Cartridge– Zoom 10x

• Night-time Cartridge– IR Camera– Zoom 2x

UAS ProductsStrix

• Strix Core UAV Control Station– Moving Map– Control of 3 UAV in flight– Real Time Video Display & Recording– Warning system

• Strix Control Data Terminal– Video data terminal– Telemetry data terminal– Wi-Fi access point

UAS ProductsStrix

• SIXTON UAV– Max takeoff weight = 2 kg– Max Range = 7 Km (video link)– Max Endurance = 30 min

• Features– Auto Vertical Takeoff and Landing– Hovering– Perch and Stare

• Strix Commonalities– Common Core UAV Control Station– Common Control Data Terminal– Common Payloads

UAS ProductsSixton

Core Uav Control Station (CUCS)

• Sixton Core UAV Control Station– Ruggerized Pc with touch screen– Dynamic control keys– Moving Map– Terrain Elevation Data– Control of 3 UAV in flight– Mission variations during flight– Real Time Video Display & Recording– Loiter & Fly-By Waypoints– Route informations (time to go)– Geographic data importation– Warning system– Mission Debriefing and Analysis

Remote Video Display

• External Unit– Light and portable– Touch screen– Plug & Play– Low battery consumption

• Video autonomous operator – Complete camera control– Autonomous target tracking– Recording management– MUAV video control

Precision Airdrop System

• Partnership with Aerosekur• The ability to deliver accurately a

payload by means of a steerable parachute

• Motivations– Reduce dispersion due to wind– Increase standoff (protection for Air

Vehicles. – Resupply of Special Operations Forces– Soft Landing Capabilities– Resupply behind enemy lines

• Composed of three main elements– Ram Air Canopy– Airborne Guidance Unit (AGU)– Payload

• Ram Air Canopy– Has a glide ratio between 2 – 4 – This means that for every 1 Km of vertical

descent the system can travel up to 4 Km horizontally

– Deploying the system from 5km altitude one has at least 20km standoff (can be increased with wind)

Ram-AirCanopy

PayloadAirborneGuidance

Unit

Precision Airdrop System

• Airborne Guidance Unit (AGU)– Autopilot – 2 DC motors – Batteries

• Autopilot– Inertial Measurement Unit– 3 Axis Magnetometer– GPS– Barometric Sensor

• Airborne Software– Sensor fusion Kalman Filter– Trajectory generation and following– Wind Estimation

DCMotors

Batteries

Precision Airdrop System

• Mission Planner (MP)– Laptop PC with MP software– Target is given– Dispatch Point is determined by

wind conditions and canopy performance.

– All above aspects are automatically taken care of by the mission planner

• Feasible Area– Area from which it is possible to

reach the target given the wind and canopy characteristics.

Dispatch Point

Target Point

Feasible Area

Precision Airdrop System

3D Simulation Environment

• Back-end simulator– 6DOF vehicle dynamics– Sensors emulation– Vehicle Data terminal emulation– Real embedded GNC C code– Network communication

protecol over UDP

• Front-end visualiser– 3D terrain model– Real terrain elevation data– Real time data fetching over

local /remote server– HUD visualization

Guidance, Navigationand

Control

Guidance

• Mainly applied to UAV systems• Trajectory Generation: dynamic optimization• Path Planning• Obstacle Avoidance• Online recursive • Auto landing

– terminal area energy management– Minimum time optimal trajectories

• Waypoint & Loiter guidance

Navigation

• Mainly applied to UAV systems• Sensor Fusion

– Inertial sensors– Magnetic sensors– GNSS– Air data sensors

• Techniques– Extended Kalman Filtering (UD Filtering)– Adaptive Kalman Filtering

A3R AHRS software implementedon Eclipse by Flybox (Microel)

Control System Design

• Linear Control– Optimal Control: LQR, LQG, LMI– Robust Control: H, -syn, LMI

• Non Linear Control– Back stepping– Dynamic inversion

• Adaptive Control– Model Reference Adaptive– Neural networks

• LPV• Model Predictive Control

C Pu

y

er

Electronics

YAAP AutoPilot

• Characteristics– 3 axis accelerometer– 3 axis gyro– 3 axis magnetometer– Barometric Pressure sensor– Differential Pressure sensor– All sensors are temperature compensated

from -20 °C to +70 °C– Dimensions: 9.2[cm] x 6[cm] x 3.6[cm]– Weight: 60 [gr]

• Sensor Fusion Kalman Filter – Real time attitude (50 Hz)– Real time position (10 Hz)

YAAP+ AutoPilot

• Characteristics– 3 axis accelerometer, gyro and magnetometer– Barometric and Differential Pressure sensors– EEPROM– Dual Processor– SD Flight Data Recorder– All sensors are temperature compensated from

-20 °C to +70 °C– Dimensions: 7.4[cm] x 5.9[cm] x 2.7[cm]– Weight: 48 [gr]

• Sensor Fusion Kalman Filter – Real time attitude (100Hz)– Real time position ( 50Hz)

YAPSU

• Power Supply and Monitoring Unit (PMSU)– Input : 18V – 30V – Output:

• 12V, 6V, 3.3V & 5V• Current, 100Ah• Temperature, -55 °C – 150°C• RPM, Consumption

– Interfaces:• UART, I2C, SPI • ADC, DAC• PWM

– Dimensions: 8.0[cm] x 4.5[cm] x 1.7[cm]– Weight: 55 [gr]

Space

European Space Agency

• ESA ITT – Robust Model Predictive Control for Space Constrained Systems– Applications: rover locomotion, Formation Flying and lunar landing – A3R responsible for Formation Flying Yardstick application

European Space Agency - 2

• ESA ITT – Robust Flight Control System Design Verification & Validation Framework (RFCS)– Applications: Space Launchers, Re-usable Launch Vehicle , Re-entry

Vehicles.– A3R responsible for developments of advanced V&V techniques and

tools for analysis and design of Robust Control Systems for Space Launchers.

Launch Vehicles

• Consulting for ELV SpA• Lyra Launch Vehicle

– A3R responsible for GNC

• Vega Launch Vehicle– Thrust vector control algorithms – Attitude control algorithms– Simulations

Advanced Research

Computer Vision Research

• Mainly applied to UAS– Real time video processing– Stabilization– Target detection and tracking– Sensor fusion– Collision avoidance– Pattern recognition – Vision based Navigation and

Control

• Non UAS applications– Automatic Observation Systems – Traffic monitoring – Motion detection– Obstacle localization

Computer Vision Workflow

• Software development– Propriety base libraries – High level interface– Mobile devices implementations

• Hardware implementation– Better performance– On board computation– Embedded systems

Real Time Visualization

• Main specifications– MPG4, H.264, MJPEG– High frame rate: 25fps– High resolution: D1– Low latency: <80 ms

• High level operability– On Screen Display

(video post processing)– Head up Display

(manned vision based navigation)– Augmented Reality

(vision based mission planning)

Stabilization

• Main specifications– Real time processing– Translational– Rotational– Background projection

• Implementation– Ground software: CUCS– Ground hardware: GDT– On board hardware

STABILIZATION

BOARD

Target Tracking

• Main specifications– Real time processing– Low latency– Different algorithms

• High level operability– On video pointing and

selection

DEVELOPMENT

BOARD

Pattern recognition

• Main specifications– Real time processing– People tracking– Face recognition– Object counting

• Main application– Traffic monitoring– Border surveillance

Conclusions