This fall, EasyMile will open its U.S. headquarters in Denver, Colorado at the Panasonic Enterprise Solutions campus, according to the Denver Post.
The office will be located in a 6,000-square-foot office and warehouse space, after that space has its renovations completed.
According to Lauren Isaac with EasyMile, the company does not have a lot of employees in North America as of right now, but there are plans in place to change that very soon.
“There are only two employees in North America now, but we do have significant growth plans for the next two years,” Isaac says.
“Our team will be focused on everything from sales and government regulations to technical deployments and vehicle maintenance.”
The new office, which will “easily fit 20 people” according to Isaac, will be in the same building as the Panasonic Enterprise Solutions Co. technology center.
Panasonic is leading an effort in Denver to convert the area into a “smart city experiment for solar power, renewable energy and autonomous transportation,” and the company has said before that it expects EasyMile’s shuttles to provide transportation “to and from the nearby rail stop and area office and future residential communities.”
The announcement of the new office in Denver comes shortly after EasyMile partnered with the Regional Transportation District in Colorado to showcase EasyMile’s autonomous EZ10 shuttles in Denver.
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Minnesota Department of Transportation begins testing autonomous shuttle bus
On Dec. 12, an EasyMile-manufactured autonomous shuttle bus made its debut on the road in Minnesota, as a part of the Minnesota Department of Transportation's (MnDOT) autonomous shuttle bus pilot project.
The vehicle operated in light snow, which is productive for the overall goal of the pilot project, which is to test and analyze how autonomous vehicles operate in cold weather.
“I can't think of a better day in Minnesota to show off and test this autonomous technology,” says MnDOT Commissioner Charles Zelle, via the Star Tribune. “We have just the right amount of snowflakes, a little ice on the road.”
Testing took place at MnDOT’s pavement test facility (MnROAD), which is a self-contained area in Monticello, Minnesota that is closed off to normal traffic. For Zelle, the opportunity to test this technology in less than ideal conditions is greatly beneficial.
“We have a unique opportunity to test this vehicle in compromised conditions,” Zelle adds. “This is not California.”
Using a series of lasers, the vehicle can identify potential roadblocks, and those lasers were put to use during its Dec. 12 drive, as the bus stopped when a snow squall kicked up near its nose. The vehicle also stopped as it tried to reconnect to its server.
The pilot project will last through February. During the last weekend in January, and the first weekend in February, the vehicle will be tested on a closed segment of Nicollet Mall, giving the public a view of the technology during Super Bowl LII festivities in Minnesota.
“The Nicollet Mall demonstration will introduce the technology, let people get on it and see if it works,” says Frank Douma of the University of Minnesota.
Douma adds that when it comes to this technology, he's learned not to put a timeframe on when it could be potentially ready and available to the public, saying, "one thing I've learned about this technology is that if you put a date on it, it will happen earlier."
Ouster says its newest lidar sensor is the highest resolution lidar on the market
On Jan. 3, Ouster announced the OS-1-128, the company’s newest multi-beam flash lidar sensor.
Ideal for “safety-critical robotics applications” such as autonomous vehicles, the OS-1-128 is the highest resolution lidar on the market, Ouster says.
With no change in size, mass, power consumption, or ruggedness compared to the OS-1-64, the OS-1-128 continues to deliver on the promise of “Moore's Law-esque” product improvements enabled from Ouster's Multi-Beam Flash Lidar architecture, the company explains.
Priced at $18,000, the OS-1-128 is six times cheaper than the competing 128-channel lidar sensor, according to Ouster, allowing the company to extend its commitment of providing the lowest pricing at every performance level.
“Ouster continues to push the frontier of what is possible in lidar; our multi-beam flash lidar architecture gives us the ability to constantly improve our performance while keeping prices low, reliability high, minimizing the sensor's size, weight and power consumption, and producing at volume,” explains Ouster CEO Angus Pacala.
“In a market where all of these metrics matter and under-delivering on even one of them is a dealbreaker, Ouster continues to provide performance without compromise.”
The OS-1-128’s 45-degree vertical field of view is the widest available of any commercially sold high-performance lidar sensor, according to Ouster. The sensor provides a consistent and dense point cloud, thanks to incorporating .35-degree vertical angular resolution, uniformly spaced throughout the field of view.
Ouster adds that the OS-1-128 also takes the “perfectly correlated 3D and 2D range, intensity, and ambient camera-like images” that it is known for to the next level, with double the vertical resolution.
The company notes that these improvements in resolution benefit from the same quality and reliability achievements that it continues to build on. Ouster also says that its simple design “sets a new bar in the lidar market and offers increased resolution without reliability compromises.”
The OS-1-128 is expected to be available for volume purchases this summer.
Attollo Engineering introduces Phoenix shortwave infrared camera
Global engineering expert and infrared imaging technologies supplier Attollo Engineering has introduced the Phoenix, which is a 640 x 512 shortwave infrared (SWIR) camera with the industry’s smallest VGA sensor and an extremely small 5 µm pixel pitch.
Described as “revolutionary,” the cost-efficient and miniature sensor is ideally suited for broadband imaging, as well as daylight and nighttime laser see-spot and range-gated imaging.
Small gimbals and other low size, weight, and power (low-SWaP) devices, such as handheld, helmet- and soldier-mounted systems would all benefit from being equipped with the indium gallium arsenide (InGaAs) uncooled SWIR camera. The camera can also be used for machine vision, precision agriculture, driver vision enhancement (DVE), covert illuminated imaging, and laser designator imaging and decode (with separate Attollo laser event detector module). Compared to competitive SWIR cameras, Attollo Phoenix also offers significant cost savings at the system level.
The high-performance, InGaAs 640 x 512, 5 µm pixel pitch SWIR camera’s spectral response ranges from 1.0 µm to 1.65 µm with more than 99.5 percent operability and 70-plus percent quantum efficiency. Selectable frame rates include 30 Hz, 60 Hz, 120 Hz, and 220 Hz, with windowing available.
The Phoenix has a global shutter imaging mode and presets and user-defined integration time of 0.1µs (minimum). It also has triggering options of sync-in (low-latency see-spot and range-gating) and sync-out. Other specifications include onboard processing with non-uniformity corrections (NUCs) and bad pixel replacement.
Logos Technologies’ Redkite WAMI sensor successfully tested aboard TigerShark UAS
Logos Technologies has announced that its Redkite wide-area motion imagery (WAMI) sensor was successfully tested aboard the Navmar Applied Sciences Corporation (NASC) developed tactical UAS called TigerShark.
The flight, which was conducted on behalf of the U.S. Navy’s Naval Air Systems Command (NAVAIR), once again showcased the versatility of Redkite to be mounted on, and successfully operated from, a plethora of airborne platforms.
“We’ve had Redkite on planes and helicopters, and just recently we tested an integrated version of the WAMI sensor inside the payload bay of a Group 3 unmanned aircraft system (UAS),” says John Marion, president of Logos Technologies.
“Now we’ve integrated a Redkite pod to the underside of a TigerShark wing.”
During the demonstration with the UAS, Redkite was used by sensor operators to collect real-time wide-area motion imagery, geo-register it, and stream it down to the tablets of mobile users on the ground without any issues.
Carl Engelbert, Vice President for Airborne Systems and Logistics at NASC, was very pleased with the performance of Redkite on the TigerShark.
“This is the first time that we’ve put WAMI on one of our unmanned aircraft,” Engelbert says.
“It’s an amazing capability to have on a Group 3 UAS and under the control of the tactical commander.”
Production CUSV to gain new sonars, begin testing and demonstration
Textron’s Common Unmanned Surface Vehicle program will see two production vehicles built this year, with new side scan sonars being integrated and testing and demonstration to continue through 2019.
Textron began its CUSV program in 2008, after migrating its core competency — command and control for automated systems — from the air domain to the maritime.
After developing CUSV, currently in its fourth generation, Textron began participating in various exercises and demonstrations with the U.S. Navy, such as Trident Warrior 2011 and Trident Warrior 2012. The company went on to compete for, and win, the Navy’s Unmanned Influence Sweep Systems (UISS) program, which aims to conduct minesweeping missions for the Navy by taking humans out of the minefield, and replacing them with unmanned systems. The CUSV can be used for a variety of missions, including mine sweeping and neutralization, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR), and harbor security.
Last year, the Navy awarded Textron a $14.8 million contract for two additional fourth- generation CUSVs. Textron was also awarded the integration contract for the Q-20 and Q-24 side scan sonars, which are used to detect and identify mines underneath the water.
The company is currently building the two production craft, and later this summer, it will begin integrating those sonars. Through fiscal year 2019, it will begin testing and demonstrating that capability.
“Our technology is continuing to grow and evolve in its mission space for mine countermeasures,” says Wayne Prender, vice president, Control and Surface Systems at Textron Systems Unmanned Systems, in an interview with AUVSI during the Surface Navy Association’s 30th Annual National Symposium.
Recently, Textron signed a cooperative research and development agreement with the U.S. Navy, specifically Dahlgren, the Navy’s Surface Warfare Center, to start initial concepts and early prototypes of surface warfare packages.
This will move Textron beyond just mine countermeasures, into new capabilities.
“It’s pretty exciting to see the growth of unmanned systems in the maritime market,” Prender says. “Maritime is really an emerging market that we think we’re well suited for.”
Moving from the air to maritime has been fruitful for Textron, but there have been challenges along the way. Prender says every development program has it challenges, and every domain is unique, so maritime was no different.
“In the sea, it’s less contained, in terms of the operational space,” Prender says, adding that the company had to work with various technologies such as autonomous collision avoidance technologies.
Despite the challenges though, Prender says Textron’s technology transitioned fairly well to the maritime domain.
While Textron is known for providing its customers with the technology for their respective missions, the company offers a human element as well, as it regularly provides field service representatives to help support its customers, whether it be Marines, sailors or soldiers operating the technologies out in the field, or in the water.
According to Prender, the feedback he gets about the human element of the company is just as rewarding as the feedback he receives about the technology.
“Very often I’ll get emails back from deployed units saying how important our people were in supporting our product and that mission down range,” Prender says.
“While we talk a lot about unmanned systems from a product perspective, supporting it with our people, and the impact that they make, and the feedback we get on that, that’s probably the compliment I appreciate the most.”
Newly launched Wave Relay Ecosystem designed to deliver true networked battlefield to warfighters
Persistent Systems has announced the launch of the Wave Relay Ecosystem, which the company describes as an alliance of unmanned systems and sensor companies working together to deliver a “true networked battlefield to warfighters.”
There were six formally announced partners for the Wave Relay Ecosystem as of Tuesday, Jan. 15, including the likes of Insitu, Endeavor Robotics, and MartinUAV. All of the Ecosystem partners are building products that seamlessly operate on Persistent’s Wave Relay mobile ad hoc network (MANET), which allows warfighters to carry less equipment and do more through connected devices on a single, unified network.
Persistent notes that in the past, unmanned systems were “stove-piped” with unique datalinks, modems, and controllers; all of which had to be carried and operated by soldiers. Not only did this create unnecessary burden and complexity, but it also limited the information flow from the unmanned system solely to the system operator, Persistent says.
Integrating all of these systems onto a common network allows anyone on a team to consume all of the information produced by the UAS and UGV, which, according to Persistent, is essentially the definition of a “capability multiplier.”
“The needs of the warfighter are at the center of the Wave Relay Ecosystem, and furthermore the networked battlefield,” says Nick Naioti, vice president of business development for Persistent.
“Our product portfolio heavily focuses on reducing SWaP and lowering the burden on the warfighter, so they can focus on the mission at hand. The Ecosystem furthers that effort by reducing information overload, enabling the systems and sensors to talk to each other on a common network.”
All products available in the Ecosystem operate on Persistent’s Wave Relay MANET, which Persistent notes is the only network that has been demonstrated to scale beyond 320 nodes. Information on which products are supported can be found on the Wave Relay Ecosystem website, which helps users easily find products that they know will seamlessly operate on their existing Wave Relay MANET.
Persistent adds that the Ecosystem facilitates the needs of the future-friendly networked battlefield where everyone and everything operates on the same network. Teams have access to every platform’s capabilities through the integrated Android computer available on every Wave Relay-enabled device, which gives users the option to drive any UGV, fly any UAS, steer any camera, and operate any sensor from a single device.
All partner’s available Wave Relay-enabled products can be found on the Wave Relay Ecosystem website, which helps highlight important features such as externally accessible RF modules and Wave Relay as standard equipment. Additionally, users can see all partner products that will seamlessly integrate into their existing Wave Relay MANET.
Northrop Grumman's Firebird demonstrates multi-mission capabilities during recent exercise
Northrop Grumman has announced that it recently completed a series of mission focused engagements, including integration and testing of Overwatch Imaging’s TK-9 Earthwatch sensor on its Firebird system.
A provider of automated airborne imaging systems for piloted and unmanned aircraft, Overwatch Imaging's TK-9 Earthwatch sensor is equipped with a flexible onboard AI-enabled automatic image processing engine that allows the system to quickly adapt to new roles in new environments such as natural disaster emergency management, border security patrol, or large-scale infrastructure inspection.
As part of ongoing capability flights, the sensor was integrated onto the Firebird system in just one day. The ongoing capability flights are designed to validate the numerous missions the Firebird system is capable of performing for government and commercial customers.
“During this exercise we rapidly integrated sensors and utilized Firebird’s operational flexibility to demonstrate the system’s unique capability,” says Jane Bishop, vice president and general manager, autonomous systems, Northrop Grumman.
“We leveraged Firebird’s communications suite and data processing power to patch in customers to our virtual feed so they were able to view flight activities in real time.”
During a four-day period, Firebird performed a number of data collection missions, including wide-area surveillance, search and rescue and hostage recovery, to name a few. The Firebird team conducted four 10-plus hour manned flights with 100 percent aircraft availability for day and night operations.
According to Northrop Grumman, its Firebird product line delivers medium altitude, long endurance multi-mission flexibility and affordability. Designed to deliver critical intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) capability to meet customer needs, Firebird is available in autonomous and optionally-piloted configurations. Capable of delivering 30-plus hours of endurance, the system flies up to 25,000 feet, allowing it to provide customers with near real-time actionable intelligence.
BAE Systems to develop United Kingdom’s first dedicated autonomous systems testing service
BAE Systems, a company that provides “advanced, technology-led defence, aerospace and security solutions,” will “design and deliver the UK’s first dedicated autonomous systems testing service,” after being awarded a grant of £457,000 from the Solent Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP).
The new service, which is expected to be ready for use later this year, will give customers a “safe, controlled and realistic environment in the Solent” where they can conduct trials and test a variety of systems such as unmanned boats, air vehicles and autonomous sensors.
“Autonomous and unmanned systems are widely regarded as a vital technology for the future, but there is a great deal of work to be done if we are to unlock its true potential and understand how they are best integrated into wider systems,” says Frank Cotton, BAE Systems’ Combat Systems Head of Technology.
“A wide range of organizations from the defence and commercial sectors, along with academia, have ambitions for this technology and this unique service will allow them to find valuable ways to use it whilst furthering its development.”
Ian Millen, Solent LEP Maritime Chairman, adds, “from the Port of Southampton, the most productive port in Europe, to Portsmouth Naval Base, HQ of the Royal Navy and soon to be home to the largest aircraft carriers in UK history, the Solent is used to making waves on an international stage.”
“The key to this success has always been founded in innovation and, through our investment to create the UK’s first autonomous systems testing service in the Solent, the LEP will ensure that the area and its businesses, large and small, continue to be a driving force for UK innovation for years to come.”
According to Millen, the Solent is “the heart of the UK’s Marine and Maritime sector.” Millen adds that the assets possessed by the Solent allow for the region, its business and the UK economy to compete globally.
The service will be backed by a comprehensive safety case, and will utilize a secure maritime communications network, as well as a mobile command and control center, which featuers the same technology that BAE Systems provides to UK Royal Navy platforms.
The service’s infrastructure will be provided by BAE Systems, with help from ASV Global (ASV), Blue Bear Systems Research (Blue Bear), Marine Electronic Systems (MES), SeeByte and the University of Southampton.
Additional organizations are set to join later this year.