Sponsored by The British Robotics Seed Fund
http: www.britbots.com/fund
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24 Aug 22. UL Solutions Issues First Statement of Conformity for Drone Product in India. The IoTechWorld Avigation’s AGRIBOT drone met design, material, specification, construction and performance for safe operation as specified by the Indian Ministry of Civil Aviation’s Certification Scheme for Unmanned Aircraft Systems. UL Solutions, a global leader in applied safety science, issued a statement of conformity for IoTechWorld Avigation’s AGRIBOT drone, confirming the drone meets requirements put forth by the Certification Scheme from the Indian Ministry for Civil Aviation for Unmanned Aircraft Systems (CSUAS). The statement of conformity issued by UL Solutions, a provisionally approved certification body for the Quality Council of India driving the CSUAS, enabled IoTechWorld Avigation’s AGRIBOT to receive the first type certification for a drone in India from the Directorate General of Civil Aviation.
UL Solutions helps advance drone safety in India its issuance of a statement of conformity for IoTechWorld Avigation’s AGRIBOT drone, confirming the drone meets requirements put forth by the Certification Scheme from the Indian Ministry for Civil Aviation for Unmanned Aircraft Systems.
After receiving the Quality Council of India’s provisional approval as a certification body under the CSUAS, UL Solutions began drone evaluation services at its Bengaluru, India facility per compliance with the CSUAS.
“With safety mechanisms in place, unmanned aircraft systems have the power to transform sectors such as agriculture, healthcare and logistics as new use cases emerge every day,” said Suresh Sugavanam, regional vice president in South Asia for UL Solutions. “On acquiring the type certificate, IoTechWorld Avigation has taken a significant step in advancing drone safety. Their proactive step demonstrates a commitment to safety, and we’re pleased they are placing their trust in UL Solutions to help deliver on that promise.”
The CSUAS is an effort to establish an impartial, independent third-party conformity assessment framework to scale and support safe, efficient and secure access to the Indian airspace by unmanned aircraft systems. The framework includes assessing and confirming the design, material, specification, construction and performance for safe operation. The CSUAS requirements help manufacturers meet regulatory compliance, as mandated by the Ministry of Civil Aviation, by mandating third-party evaluations through certification bodies complying with ISO/IEC17065 and achieve eligibility requirements for India’s Government e-Marketplace procurement processes.
Manufacturers of unmanned aircraft systems in India must have their drone models evaluated by a certification body, which states conformity to product requirements. The certification scheme applies to four categories of drones: micro, 250 grams to 2 kilograms; small, 2 kilograms to 25 kilograms; medium, 25 kilograms to 150 kilograms; large, up to 500 kilograms. These standards aim to encourage safe use of drones in various applications, such as agriculture, surveillance, monitoring, disaster management, healthcare and logistics.
“IoTechWorld Avigation has been committed to the safe use of our drones and how they can help our customers safely, securely and efficiently advance their businesses,” said Deepak Bhardwaj, co-founder and director at IoTechWorld Avigation. “To that point, our customers trust us to create world-class drones. Acquiring the type certificate, after tests performed by UL Solutions, demonstrated our commitment to maintaining excellence while validating the quality, performance and safety of our AGRIBOT product.”
About UL Solutions
A global leader in applied safety science, UL Solutions transforms safety, security and sustainability challenges into opportunities for customers in more than 100 countries. UL Solutions delivers testing, inspection and certification services, together with software products and advisory offerings, that support our customers’ product innovation and business growth. The UL Certification Marks serve as a recognized symbol of trust in our customers’ products and reflect an unwavering commitment to advancing our safety mission. We help our customers innovate, launch new products and services, navigate global markets and complex supply chains and grow sustainably and responsibly into the future. Our science is your advantage. (Source: PR Newswire)
21 Aug 22. After 64 days in the sky, across multiple states and countries, eventually breaking records every second it stayed in flight, the Airbus Zephyr S drone crashed. The drone apparently dropped out of the sky, toppling to a hard impact on the ground in Arizona. That’s according to the outlet Simple Flying, which was tracking the drone’s flight over the Yuma Proving Ground and the other locations the Zephyr S flew over. On Friday, Aug. 19, after continuing to fly at normal around 60,000-70,000 feet above ground, it dropped in altitude roughly 20,000 feet, before eventually and suddenly plummeting to the ground. Simple Flying reported that data showed it dropping at a high speed, suggesting a destructive ending.
The U.S. Army’s Army’s Assured Positioning, Navigation and Timing/Space Cross-Functional Team, part of Army Futures Command, confirmed that the flight ended, but did not specify if a crash occurred.
“Following 64 days of stratospheric flight and the completion of numerous mission objectives, Zephyr experienced circumstances that ended its current flight campaign. No personal injury occurred,” the Army APNT/CFT said in a statement to Task & Purpose. “Our teams are currently analyzing more than 1500 hours of stratospheric mission data. The valuable experience from this prototype’s ultra long-endurance flight has proved to be a positive step toward the Army’s high-altitude platform goals. Once aircraft recovery and data analysis occur, more information will be available.”
The Airbus Zephyr S was a new high-altitude uncrewed aircraft meant for the stratosphere, with a kind of minimalist skeletal design with a 75-foot wingspan that made it incredibly lightweight. It ran on a solar-powered rechargeable battery and the test, initiated on June 15, was in part to test both how much the battery could handle and the drone’s overall endurance. By all accounts it was pretty good. Task & Purpose previously noted its milestone of 47 days aloft at the end of July. At the time, the Zephyr S had already broken a previously established flight record of 25 days and 23 hours. And it kept breaking records. The Army had said it would keep it aloft for as long as possible. As The War Zone reported, the goal for its followup flight after this one eventually ended was to fly for 60 days, which the drone surpassed.
The Zephyr even ventured outside of the Yuma Proving Ground, traveling to other states and then across Central America, over the Gulf of Mexico and into Belize. The operators even had it draw patterns over Yuma Proving Ground during its flight. The Zephyr S itself, beyond its targeted high altitude of operations, could hold multiple payloads, from cameras and radars to jamming technology.
Airbus sent Task & Purpose a statement near identical to APTN/CFT’s, but missing their final sentence.
Previously the Army APNT/CFT had intended for the Zephyr S to do another test flight over the Pacific Ocean. It’s currently unclear whether that is still the case or when such an operation would start. (Source: News Now/Task & Purpose)
19 Aug 22. US Army taps AeroVironment’s Jump 20 to replace Shadow unmanned system. The U.S. Army has chosen AeroVironment’s Jump 20 unmanned aircraft system to be the first Future Tactical UAS, an effort to replace the runway-dependent Shadow unmanned system.
The $8 m contract announced Thursday will pay for one system, which includes six air vehicles, ground data terminals and ground control stations, according to the Army. The system will go to a single Brigade Combat Team.
“Based upon the results of testing, Army leadership may decide to procure and field up to seven additional [Increment 1] systems,” the service added in a statement.
This initial purchase is meant to inform requirements for a second program increment, which will rely on “a separate competitive acquisition,” the statement noted.
In 2018, the Army began considering requirements for a replacement for the Textron-manufactured Shadow UAS. This unmanned system is widely used, but is one of the most accident-prone unmanned aerial systems in the service’s inventory, is difficult to deploy and has a loud engine, making it easily detected.
In 2019, the service narrowed the pool to two competitors: Martin UAV and the team of Northrop Grumman and Textron’s AAI. Martin UAV supplied its V-Bat system, while the Northrop-Textron team offered Textron’s Aerosonde HQ.
Shortly after, the Army added two more aircraft for evaluation: Arcturus UAV’s Jump 20 system and L3Harris Technologies’ FVR-90.
For about a year, operational units evaluated the four different tactical unmanned aerial systems, culminating in a rodeo in spring 2021 at Fort Benning, Georgia. Last year, AeroVironment acquired Arcturus for $405m. (Source: Defense News)
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The British Robotics Seed Fund is the first SEIS-qualifying investment fund specialising in UK-based robotics businesses. The focus of the fund is to deliver superior returns to investors by making targeted investments in a mixed basket of the most innovative and disruptive businesses that are exploiting the new generation of robotics technologies in defence and other sector applications.
Automation and robotisation are beginning to drive significant productivity improvements in the global economy heralding a new industrial revolution. The fund allows investors to benefit from this exciting opportunity, whilst also delivering the extremely attractive tax reliefs offered by the Seed Enterprise Investment Scheme (SEIS). For many private investors, the amount of specialist knowledge required to assess investments in robotics is not practical and hence investing through a fund structure makes good sense.
The fund appoints expert mentors to work with each investee company to further maximise the chance of success for investors. Further details are available on request.
www.britbots.com/fund
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