Billypix
Life in 3D for Rick Simon, left, and Greg Walker of
Spacial Integrated Systems
Sea Con
releases
connector line
Sea Con (Europe) (booth 4153)
has released a line of wet-mate
remotely operated vehicle connectors,
developed primarily for
modular subsea monitoring systems.
The Sea-Mate series is compact
to comply with smaller vehicles
already on the market.
“The smaller the better, especially
with these smaller vehicles,”
says Susan Beckwith,
outside sales representative for
the company’s Brantner division.
In development for the past
few years, the new rubber-molded
connectors have a wet-mate
ability to 13,500lb/in 2 . The line
was made for systems that do
not need numerous mate and
de-mate cycles, allowing the
connector’s sockets to be removed
for maintenance every
five to 10 mate and breaks.
Sea Con plans to add new
contact configurations in the
near future to expand on the
product line.
flightglobal.com/AUVSI
Where to shop in
Washington, DC?
SURVIVAL GUIDE p22
Texas A&M, which doubles as
the state of Texas agency for
emergency response, recently
completed a study on wildland
robotic firefighting with Lockheed
Martin and revealed the
results yesterday at the show.
Robin Murphy, of the university’s
Department of Computer
Sciences and Engineering and
founder in the field of rescue robotics,
said the three main functions
that firefighting robots
need to perform are hauling
supplies in all types of terrain,
Israeli company Aeronautics
Defense Systems’ Orbiter unmanned
air vehicle family, marketed
in the USA by Textron company
AAI, achieved a double at
the AUVSI’s 10 August demonstration
day held at Patuxent
River NAS Webster Field annex
with two of its type flying at the
same time.
performing reconnoiter missions
and suppressing the fire,
primarily through labor-intensive
activities like fuel removal
and trench digging.
Although UAVs have been
used to reconnoiter fires, Murphy
said that UGVs would be
more useful.
“[UAVs] can’t see in the canopy,”
she said. “They don’t usually
fly at night, and there’s poor
coordination.”
The study has determined
that ground vehicles similar to
HEADLINES
Autonomous patrols gain buoyancy
Spatial Integrated Systems (booth 1451) displayed its Autonomous Maritime Navigation
system in the exhibition hall yesterday via a signal from a Naval Sea Systems Command
boat off Fort Monroe in Virginia retrofitted to patrol autonomously. The company’s system
is currently on a total of three Navsea boats for the project, which is in its testing phase.
Through a subcontract with NASA, the Autonomous Maritime Navigation system’s software
is the same as the autonomous control software behind the Mars Rover.
According to Rick Simon, director of Spatial Integrated Systems, examples of applications
for the system include harbor protection, pirate diversion and preliminary surveillance.
In addition to showcasing the company’s autonomous surface vessels technology, Spatial
Integrated Systems also has examples of its 3D camera imaging system at its booth, which it
uses to feed data into a 3D printer to make models of surface vessels and people.
UGVs poised to blaze a trail
as robotic wildfire-fighters
Lockheed’s Squad Mission Support
System would be most
ideal for wildfires, with the exception
that firefighters want an
optionally manned vehicle, said
Murphy.
“I thoroughly, sincerely think
wildland firefighting would
benefit from a medium-sized
UGV,” she said.
While there haven’t been any
Texas A&M UGV firefighting demostrations
yet, Murphy said
they are in the process of arranging
a prescribed burn.
AUVSI demo day sees two Orbiters fly
Orbiter aloft: UAVs make
double debut
At AUVSI AAI told Flight Daily
News about the status of its marketing
of Aeronautics’ Orbiter,
which was announced last year.
It said that it was at the “beginning
of a relationship” and that
the US company has a long-term
plan to integrate the UAV family
with its existing ground control
station product.
13 August 2009 | Flight Daily News | 11
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