Inside Unmanned Systems provides actionable business intelligence to decision-makers and influencers operating within the global UAS community. Features include analysis of key technologies, policy/regulatory developments and new product design.
Issue link: https://insideunmanned.epubxp.com/i/668560
56 unmanned systems inside April/May 2016 AIR, SEA OPPORTUNITY SELECT NAVY AND MARINE UNMANNED SYSTEMS NAVY • CURV 21–remotely operated underwater system • Deep Drone 8000–remotely operated underwater system • MQ-8B Fire Scout–air vehicles • MQ-5B Hunter–air vehicle • MQ-4C Triton–air vehicle • MQXX (Formerly CBARS/UCLASS) in development • Puma–air vehicle • SAFFiR (Shipboard Autonomous Firefghting Robot) • Scan Eagle–air vehicle • The Sea Hunter-anti-submarine warfare vessel (in testing) MARINES • RQ-7 Shadow–air vehicle • RQ-11B Raven–air vehicle • XM1216 Small Unmanned Ground Vehicle (SUGV) NAVAL RESEARCH LAB • CRACUNS (Corrosion Resistant Aerial Covert Unmanned Nautical System)-water/air vehicle • Flying-Swimmer (Flimmer)–air/water vehicle • Sea Robin–air/water vehicle The CURV 21 The MQ-5B The RQ-11B And how the Navy designs its future ships will be a factor in how easy it will be to inte- grate new technology. "Things like decoupling the payloads from the platforms and building in enough mar- gin in your systems in terms of the space and weight and power—all those kinds of margins in terms of the actual ships—so later down the line, as new technologies evolve, you can rap- idly bring them into the capital f leet of your ships," she told Inside Unmanned Systems. Photos courtesy of U.S. Navy Tech Wish List And what about managing all the data that a continuously operating network of unmanned systems can produce? "Let's say you shoot 30 frames," Engelhardt said. "Do I need to look at all 30 or do I see something that's unique? What technology would tell me that something's different?" DASN has requested money in fiscal year 2017 (FY17) to specifically support research into data systems, Engelhardt said, including an effort to reach out to companies that may have developed technology like change detec- tion algorithms for other purposes. DASN UxS also plans to reach out to industry for advances in undersea technology. "We're looking at doing a lot of work in the un- dersea world," Engelhardt said, "where we will actually go out to industry to actually ask them through RFIs (requests for information) and RFPs (request for proposals) to help build and bring to the table some of these new technologies." The key is getting the money, she said. DASN and N99 were a late add for the Navy and launched on a shoestring. "If that money withstands the wherewithal of congressional scrutiny, " she said, "then we'll be busy come FY17 going out and looking for this technology." N99 has been focusing, so far, on payloads that can be plugged into existing vehicles. When the group does get into prototyping vehicles it will be trying to keep things modular with stan- dardized plug-and-play capability, said Murphy. This is so, "as the technology advances, we can add better sensors, we can add increased power and energy so that the vehicles can operate lon- ger and can operate more sophisticated or more power-consuming payloads." Murphy said N99 would be interested in advances in energy and power—that is better batteries and ways to use those batteries more efficiently. Autonomy development is also a very, very important area of research, said Murphy, whose "SOMETIMES IT FEELS A LITTLE BIT LIKE THE WILD, WILD WEST RIGHT? We're still in the days of fguring out if the steering wheel goes on the left or right of the car." Cara LaPointe, DASN chief of staff