Aerospace Developments

Acuity Introduces SRI-500 Scanning Imaging Rangefinder with Inertial Image Stabilization

August 24, 2010, Denver, CO. -- Acuity Technologies Inc. introduced its SRI-500 Scanning Rangefinding Imager with Inertial Image Stabilization for autonomous vehicles at AUVSI 2010 today. The SRI-500 Laser Rangefinder is an omnidirectional scanning range image acquisition system for obtaining range images from stationary or mobile platforms at distances up to 500 feet and 800,000 points per second. Scanning is a combination of fast vertical scans at 500 lines/s combined with an azimuth sweep rate of up to 1000 degrees/s.

3D point datasets are acquired by setting vertical and horizontal sweep rates, and commanding acquisition of a sequence of vertical scan lines through a specified elevation and azimuth range. The SRI-500 can be programmed to auto-cycle through an azimuth region repeatedly, automatically reversing direction.

In mobile applications, the optional internal inertial measurement unit captures platform vibration and rotation at 200 Hz and is used to correct the 3D coordinates of each sample point to create a stabilized world referenced dataset. Data for each scan is corrected to the initial platform inertial orientation during acquisition. Platform orientation and velocity changes between and during scans are reported with each scan, so multiple scans may be registered in a world map and vehicle motion may be derived.

SRI-500 Press Release

Acuity Introduces New ISS Intelligent Servo System

August 24, 2010, Denver, CO. -- Acuity Technologies Inc. introduced its ISS line of intelligent servos at AUVSI 2010 today. The servos are designed as compact sealed actuators for autonomous and remotely controlled vehicles in aerospace, surface, marine, and industrial robotic applications.

Available in industrial and extreme environment grades, the line of servos is capable of 1 to 12 Nm of torque and speeds from 15 to 500 rpm. They can be controlled via CANBus, serial lines, pulse-width or analog signals, and will accept 12 to 48 Volts power. A single power/signal cable simplifies installation. The wide speed and power range makes them suitable for control surface actuators, retractable landing gear, drive motors for wheeled or tracked vehicles, and robotic arms.

“These servos fill a need for power and reliability above the high-end R/C servos, where virtually no standard products have previously been available.” said Robert Clark, Acuity’s president. “We started out looking for servos for a Navy UAS but had to build them, due to the lack of selection in speed, power, and form factor.” For those requiring high reliability, configurable status/error reporting allows monitoring of servo status and bus integrity. The servos may be operated in position, velocity, or torque mode, with update rates of up to 1000 per second for high performance autopilot or human control.

The Network Servo Controller provides a single serial interface and power distribution for a network of up to 32 servos in a star/daisy chain topology.

ISS Press Release

Acuity Introduces AT-10 Hybrid VTOL UAS

August 24, 2010, Denver, CO -- Acuity Technologies Inc. introduced its AT-10 UAS at AUVSI 2010 today. The AT-10 is a Tier II / tactical size hybrid propulsion Vertical Takeoff and Landing UAS with a nose camera mount and a large payload bay. Propulsion is provided by twin electric motors and batteries installed in the wings. The inner section of each wing rotates for the transition between vertical and forward flight. For flights of two hours or less, additional batteries in the upper fuselage provide all-electric propulsion. For longer endurance a heavy fuel generator, fuel cell, or other energy conversion system may be included in the aft fuselage. Analysis shows that this configuration is lighter and more efficient than using internal combustion engine(s) for both VTOL and forward cruise, and this advantage will increase as electric power technology evolves. In addition, the electric power system can provide over 1000 Watts of power for payloads. Unlike many runway-independent UAS, the AT-10 requires no catapult or arresting gear.

Acuity has tested the AT-10 in hovering and forward flight and is seeking R&D / EMD funding to develop the AT-10 into an operational VTOL UAS based on fuel/electric hybrid propulsion. The components of the planned system are

• The air vehicle with electric motors, batteries, and battery charge/balance controller.
• An on-board heavy fuel base small engine based generator, which can be used in flight and on the ground.
• Flight control computer, sensors, and software for vertical and forward flight.
• Ground station for flight operations, simulation and pilot training.
• Payload: Sensors and communication equipment integrated with the vehicle and ground station.

Press Release

A flight video is available at www.acuitytx.com/AT-10.htm

NAVAIR Selects Acuity UAV for Further Development, AIr Launch Test

Menlo Park, CA November 12, 2006 - Acuity's design for a wing and bomb bay launched UAV has been selected by the Naval Air Systems Command for further development and testing. Negotiations on the 2.5 year contact concluded November 8 and work will begin this week.

Acuity's design, a prototype of which was demonstrated in phase 1, was selected from among several competing concepts presented by UAV developers. The design specfications call for a very low drag profile for the aircraft before deployment and a launch speed of up to 275 kt for use with the Navy P3 Orion and the successor Multimission Maritime Aircraft. The UAV will be a multi-use recon, data relay, and persistent observation platform with payload capacity of 250 lb.

Acuity Receives NASA Funding to Develop New VTOL Aircraft Concept

Menlo Park, CA November 22, 2005 - Acuity has received funding for their proposal to build a novel lift-generating mechanism that would enable winged vehicles to perform a Vertical Takeoff with the controllability of a helicopter, with transonic forward speeds.

3D Structure Capture for Engineering Test, Reconaissance, and Navigation

Acuity to Apply 3D Capture Technology to Transonic Wind Tunnel Testing

Menlo Park, CA February 25, 2007 - Following a Phase 1 feasibility demonstration, Acuity's 3D snapshot technology has been chosen for construction and installation in Tunnel 16T at Arnold AFB for for real-time attitude and vibration analysis transonic wind tunnel tests. The proposed system will use Acuity's proprietary projction technology to capture thousands of points on wind tunnel models at up to 40 Hz, and extract and present real time model attitude and deformation information to test engineers.

Acuity Begins Work on 2nd Phase of 3D Model Reconstruction from Monocular Aerial Videos with Eglin AFB

Menlo Park, CA June 1, 2003 - Acuity's algorithms for generating 3D representations of terrain and structures from a video stream have been selected for continued development by Eglin AFB. The work will extend Acuity's phase 1 work on automatic extraction of the shape of terrain, buildings, and other objects viewed from airborne platforms. Video from cameras with zoom lenses and significantly compressed video with associated compression artifacts can be processed and the path of the aircraft and the terrain below are simultaneously reconstructed. In phase 2, the processing speed will be increased and continuous data reduction on the aircraft will be performed, allowing high resolution representations of the terrain to be transmitted over low bandwidth downlinks.

Acuity Begins Work on DARPA/Army Phase 2 Contract to Capture 3D Models from Video

Menlo Park, CA June 21, 2004 - Acuity Technologies' development proposal titled "Sensor Enabled 3D Model Reconstruction from Video" submitted to DARPA has been funded and work has begun. Under the contract Acuity and two subcontractors, ImageCorp and PercepTek, are developing a system for constructing 3D models from digital video taken by a freely moving camera equipped with a MEMs-based inertial measurement unit. Acuity is working with Dr. Thomas Strat, program manager inthe Information Exploitation Office of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, under funding from the Army Aviation and Missile Command.

Defense applications of the technology include reconnaisance and navigation of urban areas and building interiors, and model construction to support asset position tracking to improve combat situational awareness. Commercial applications include use by real estate agents, resorts, and hotels to create interactive promotional material, and architecture, engineering and construction uses as a tool for capturing scenes and objects for the creation of 3D color models in design software.

In a typical commercial application, transportation engineers planning the addition of an onramp to a freeway interchange would film the interchange with a camera equipped to track its own position and motion. From this, an engineering CAD model would be built, allowing designers to plan and visualiz the changes. As construction progresses, the site can be periodically filmed and compared to plans as part of the project’s quality management.

Other applications for this capability exist in games, simulations, unmanned air and ground vehicle navigation, forensics, forest inventorying and remote medical diagnostics.