Posts

Unmanned Commercial Domestic Flights: Expert vs. Expert

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Airplane1 resized 600One of the hottest topics in the unmanned systems community is civilian applications. As Smithsonian.com reports in Drones Ready for Takeoff:

“The potential seems limitless—handling routine monitoring of pipelines and power lines, for instance, or gathering geomagnetic data about natural resources (a job that entails flying hundreds of miles in a straight line, at low altitude, then moving 50 yards over and flying straight back). Drones could help farmers monitor crops in distant fields, allow real estate developers to perform simple construction jobs in remote or difficult locations or enable environmentalists to spot polluters.”

Read more

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Battlefield Connectivity for Dismounted Forces-Free Whitepaper

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This short whitepaper discusses the problems facing front-line computing, including: data explosion, form factor, power, ruggedness, reliability, and interoperability. We review several approaches to overcoming these challenges, the potential of smartphones, and look at some of the Atom-based rugged computers currently on the market. To download this free whitepaper, click here.

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AMREL at AUVSI 2011

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See AMREL’s new interoperable Payload Controller Paylaod Controller, handheld OCU, as well as the the Rocky DB6, the world’s smallest rugged computer with full Windows 7/Linux. Stop by AMREL’s booth #3030, and get a good look at our line of fully rugged computers as wll as our suite of interoperable solutions.

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Don’t believe the bunny: Power & Unmanned Systems

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Despite the ad with the drumming bunny, batteries in unmanned systems do not last forever. In fact the performing rabbit robot’s power lasts only three to four minutes.Robot power

Battlefield robots do better (a typical UGV batteries may last about 2 hours), but power is a huge challenge. This seems counter-intuitive, since one of the main advantages of unmanned systems is that, by definition, they don’t have to lug around people. However, mobility is only one source of power consumption. Communications and cooling systems may actually be more of a drain than simple transport. Read more

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COTS – the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

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One of the big changes for military vendors in recent years has been the greatercots-good-bad-ugly  emphasis placed on acquisition of Commercial Off The Shelf (COTS) products by the Department of Defense (DoD).  In the past, COTS constituted a few percent of all items purchased by the DoD.   While the overall amount is still low, some weapon systems are composed by as much as 50% of COTS.  What are the good, the bad and the ugly about COTS?

Good:

1)    Cost:  One of the main drivers for the acquisition of COTS has been the price. By definition, COTS products have no development cost, so, in theory, the DoD gets a cheaper item. Despite its behemoth budget, Defense still accounts for a minuscule part of the electronics market.  So, by buying from the much larger commercial sector, DoD also benefits from economy of scale. Read more

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Baja Torture Test

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“Imagine a test where you: blow dust at your laptop for hours at aBaja Torture Test  time; vibrate it all day for days at a time; subject it to altitude variations of 0 to 10,000 feet; operate it in temperatures reaching 130 degrees Fahrenheit; virtually soak the laptop in water for two days; expose it to humidity of 95 percent for prolonged periods. While this may seem like a specially designed test to force a laptop to fail, the truth is that this was an actual situation.”

A few years back, some folks decided that it would be amusing to take an AMREL ROCKY computer on a bike ride through the harsh environment of the Baja. Kacey Smith, author of the Baja GPS Guidebook for off-road dirt bikes, reported that the ROCKY computer successfully operated through extremes of rain, vibration, and heat.  What really surprised her was how it survived the omnipresent dust. Read more

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MIL-STD 461 Whitepaper

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Modern computers operate in a “noisy” electronic environment.MIL STD 461 E They are surrounded by powerful electromagnetic interference (EMI) generated by radios, radar, microwave transmitters, other computers, and a wide assortment of electronic equipment.  Battlefield computers have to contend with an exceptional level of interference created by military-specific items, such as IED jammers. Of course, EMI protection has grown in importance with the adoption of net-centric warfare doctrine.

EMI requirements vary widely from one application to another (jeeps vs. airplanes, for instance) and even within an application (above deck and below deck on a Navy ship).  MIL-STD 461 incorporates a broad range of requirements for numerous environments. Read more

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COTS Obsolescence & Total Cost of Ownership

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The initial purchase price of your rugged computer may only be aCOTS Obsolenense  small part of the Total Cost of Ownership (TCO). Platform support, customization, integration, connectivity, and inadequate durability may make your “bargain” very expensive.  Will your rugged computer be good for your ROI five or ten years from now or just for today?

Commercial Off the Shelf (COTS) products are attractive for the price and established supply chain. However, there is a fundamental problem buying mass-produced off-the-shelf items. New and upgraded products typically generate more profit than old ones. Corporations prioritize the overhead of product support for the greatest revenue earners, i.e. the new products. Support for older platforms is phased out. Read more

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What is “MIL-STD 810”?

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The primary purpose of MIL-STD 810 is for “…generating  confidence in the environmental worthiness and overall durability of materiel system design”(U.S. Army Developmental Test Command (DTC)). This standard establishes specifications and testing procedures for resistance to rain, shock, vibration, dust, humidity, salt fog, and extreme temperatures. 810

Some think of 810 as “the” rugged standard, which of course, is not true. Many other standards come into play, such as MIL-STD 461 for electromagnetic emissions or the Navy’s MIL-S-901D for equipment mounted on US ships.

MIL-STD 810 is sufficiently complex and multivariable, that it may be more appropriate to think of it as a set of environmental standards, rather than a single specification. This is especially true when evaluating compliance. It is quite common for commercial companies to claim that their product “meets” MIL-STD 810, when actually it only meets a small fraction of the specifications. Read more

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AMREL at Ground Robotics Capabilities Conference

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AMREL at the Ground Robotics Capabilities Conference
March 22 – 24, 2011 – Orlando, Florida – Booth #112

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Flexpedient® Technology now extends existing radio modules’

capabilities to both our OCUs AND payload controllers

 

Come see AMREL’s latest platforms, including:

  • New 986 series laptops with standard Flexpedient device bays
  • Atom-based handheld computers & OCUs
  • Up-to-minute OCU form factors

To find out about AMREL’s hospitality suite, contact Mike Castillo at:

Office: (626) 443-681, ext 190

Cell: (626) 482-8791

Email: michaelc@amrel.com

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