Silicon Chip – May 2019

16 Silicon chip Australia’s electronics magazine siliconchip.com.au

You can view a video of the land-

based launch and recovery of a Sca-

nEagle by the Australian Army in Af-

ghanistan, titled “Insitu ScanEagle

Launch And Capture” via siliconchip.

com.au/link/aaon

Schiebel Camcopter S-

The RAN also had an Austrian-made

Schiebel Camcopter S-100 on display.

It is a helicopter-type unmanned aerial

system used for shipborne intelligence,

surveillance and reconnaissance – see

Figs.9 & 10.

It’s equipped with a Wescam MX-

10MS multi-sensor multi-spectral im-

aging system, that can read the num-

ber plate of a car from 250m away and

it also has night-vision capabilities.

The S-100 has a payload capacity

of 50kg, is 3.1m long and 1.2m wide

with a main rotor diameter of 3.4m. It

weighs 110kg empty and has a maxi-

mum take-off weight of 200kg, 120

knot (222km/h) top speed and a cruise

speed of 100 knots (185km/h) with an

endurance of 6 hours and ceiling of

18,000ft (5500m).

The RAN unit has a heavy-fuel capa-

ble engine of unknown specifications,

but the gasoline-powered versions use

a 41kW Wankel rotary engine.

The RAN engine uses JP-5 low flash-

point heavy fuel (kerosene-based),

which is typically used as an aviation

fuel on navy vessels and is safer than

gasoline.

This engine can also run on JP-

(also kerosene based, but more simi-

lar to diesel) and Jet A-1, the civilian

equivalent of JP-8.

See the videos titled “Schiebel

CAMCOPTER S-100 - Royal Austral-

ian Navy Trials” via siliconchip.com.

au/link/aaoo and “Schiebel CAMCOP-

TER S-100 - Heavy Fuel Engine” via

siliconchip.com.au/link/aaop

RIEGL laser measurement

RIEGL (www.riegl.com) make a va-

riety of laser-scanning systems that en-

able three-dimensional images of a va-

riety of scenes to be built quickly from

land-based or aerial platforms.

Applications include scanning ar-

chaeological sites, architectural sites,

monitoring land movements (such as

in landslide-prone areas or glacier ar-

eas), monitoring city developments,

monitoring mining sites, monitor-

ing earth moving works, monitoring

growth and density of forests and many

others – see Figs.11 & 12.

Event-based Neuromorphic

Space Imaging (Astrosite)

Neuromorphic imaging, as the name

implies, is an imaging system modelled

upon how the human eyes and brain

register images.

The human eye tends only to no-

tice changes in images rather than re-

acquire a whole new image each time;

to do so would be wasteful of mental

resources (or computational resources

in this case).

Western Sydney University’s In-

ternational Centre for Neuromorphic

Systems (ICNS), in conjunction with

RAAF’s Plan Jericho and Defence Sci-

ence and Technology (DST) group, has

developed Astrosite, a camera system

that registers only changes in an im-

age, just like the human eye and brain

(see Fig.13).

It does this in hardware rather than

Additional Airshow Video

Shortlinks

Here are some videos showing some of the

sights of the show and other information.

• US Air Force Northrop Grumman RQ-
  Global Hawk unmanned aerial vehicle
  flying in and landing at Avalon. It flew
  in from Andersen Air Force Base in Ha-
  waii, and this was the first time one land-
  ed at an airshow. See the videos titled
  “Global Hawk Achieves Historic First at
  Avalon 2019” via siliconchip.com.au/
  link/aapb and “USAF Northrop Grum-
  man RQ-4 Global Hawk UAV Arrival Into
  Avalon Airshow 2019” via siliconchip.
  com.au/link/aapc


• Video of “F 35 F 22 F 18 Flying In A Close
  Formation First Time Ever In Australia At
  Avalon Airshow 2019” via siliconchip.
  com.au/link/aapd


• Air-to-air refuelling of RAAF F/A-18 by
  a KC-30A tanker, titled “RAAF KC 30
  Mid Air Refueling Two F 18 At Avalon
  Airshow 2019” via siliconchip.com.
  au/link/aape


• RAAF F-35A demonstration, titled
  “RAAF F 35 Power Pack Aerial Display At
  Avalon Airshow 2019” via siliconchip.
  com.au/link/aapf


• Bird strike! USAF C-17 ingests a bird and
  aborts take off. See the video titled “Bird
  Strike | USAF C17 Engine EXPLOSION
  on Takeoff | 2019 Avalon Airshow” via
  siliconchip.com.au/link/aapg


• Video titled “[4K] 2019 Avalon Air-
  show: F/A-18 Hornet, F-35A and F
  Raptor display (RAAF and USAF)” via
  siliconchip.com.au/link/aaph


• Glider display, titled “Johan Gustafs-
  son SZD-59 ‘ACRO’ Display Avalon
  Airshow 2019” via siliconchip.com.
  au/link/aapi


• Avalon Trade Day 1 round up, titled
  “Snapshot of Avalon Airshow action -
  Trade Day One” via siliconchip.com.
  au/link/aapj


• Avalon Trade Day 2 round up, titled
  “Avalon Airshow 2019 - Aircraft of Day
  Two” via siliconchip.com.au/link/aapk


• USAF B-52 fly past, titled “Boeing B-
  Stratofortress evening flypast - Ava-
  lon Airshow” via siliconchip.com.au/
  link/aapl


• Australian industry participation in the
  F-35 Joint Strike Fighter Program, vid-
  eo via siliconchip.com.au/link/aapm


• An alternate view on the inadvisability
  of incorporating artificial intelligence in
  military platforms, titled “Artificial Intel-
  ligence: it will kill us | Jay Tuck | TEDx-
  HamburgSalon” via siliconchip.com.
  au/link/aapn

16 Silicon Chip

Fig.11: an airborne laser (LiDAR)

scan of Melbourne from the RIEGL

LMS-Q560.

Fig.12: the RIEGL VQ-1560i-DW

airborne LiDAR scanning system uses

two different wavelengths for

enhanced information. It has

primarily environmental applications.