Lightware – Rethinking sensor payload and flight times

Nadia Nilsen

Regardless of your UAV application, payload matters, and counting grams is something all engineers and mission managers do.

It’s worth remembering how the word ‘payload’ came into being. The term combines ‘pay’ and ‘load’, originating in the early 20th century, as logistics companies started adding truck and flight options beyond ship and rail.

For many UAV applications, the payload’s value isn’t a delivery – it’s sensory. Gimbal sensor payload adds features and capabilities that operators need for security, search and rescue (SAR) or wildlife applications. A UAV’s gimbal payload value is measured in the sensor’s features and capability at a given weight.

Compact UAVs are superior for complex low-altitude missions in challenging natural terrain, like hilly areas, ravines and forests, or densely developed urban environments with high structural collision risk. They operate between buildings, securing perimeters navigating tree canopies, avoiding ledges or searching deep into ravines. These are missions where compact UAVs fly more confidently and have less collision risk and limitations than large UAVs.

Vehicle integration is another considerable advantage of using compact UAVs. First responder transport and logistics are much easier when a security, search and rescue (SAR) or wildlife UAV is compact enough to fit in a vehicle.

Amongst first responders is a saying: “the best equipment is what you have with you.” UAVs that can fit in a trunk, loadbed or passenger vehicle cargo area are also usually light enough to be easily handled and launched by one or two people, instead of requiring a team and additional rotor assembly technicians to get it set-up and configured for flight.

Sub 2kg (4.4lb) UAVs and payloads

For all the benefits of portability and flight agility that compact UAVs have, like all UAVs, they are proportionally sensitive to payload mass. Adding components increases their payload weight and erodes flight endurance, but how much does that really matter?

Canadian aerospace research and testing company, Tyto Robotics, has evaluated the influence of payload weight on flight time. The conclusions are notable for operators interested in the performance of compact UAVs under 2kg (4.4lb) in weight. Why? The testing benchmarked a 1.6kg (3.5lb) UAV, which is something in the weight category that agile security, law enforcement, wildlife, and SAR teams could use.

Using the Tyto Robotics’ model, a 1.6kg (3.5lb) UAV has an unladen flight endurance of just under 40 minutes, and the influence of payload is dramatic. Adding just 400g (14oz) of payload reduces the flight time to just over 30 minutes, meaning you sacrifice nearly 10 minutes of operational capability. Larger batteries aren’t the solution, as bigger ones add more weight, compounding the issue.

Engineers and mission managers must balance the needs when operating in demanding conditions with the challenge of sourcing and integrating the best components at the lowest possible weight. Efficiency and lightweighting are both guiding principles and challenges for UAV and gimbal OEMs, when selecting components and calculating weights.

Go lighter – fly longer

Accommodating all the sensors and optics to create true sensor fusion for a UAV in the security, conservation or search and rescue role, requires a diverse selection of components, each complementing each other – but also compounding weight.

If 400g (14oz) of payload reduces a 1.6kg (3.5lb) compact UAV’s flight time by nearly a quarter, it’s obvious how valuable lightweighting the sensor payload is – by even a few grams. Those few grams saved by choosing lighter components can become precious minutes and seconds of flight time, which makes the difference between discovering or missing a person’s location during a search and rescue mission.

LightWare’s LiDAR rangefinder sensors are globally proven and widely used for UAV applications, bringing all the benefits of ultralight design and enhanced flight time to UAV fleets across diverse applications. During demanding law enforcement, security, or search and rescue missions, LightWare’s ultralight LiDAR sensors enhance capability and help keep your UAVs airborne – for longer, by being lighter.

Even a few seconds of flight endurance and hover time can be the difference between identifying, locating or missing a search object or area of interest. Whether your UAV provides security overwatch or is the primary technology driving a time-critical search and rescue operation, you never want to overpromise and underdeliver on operational flight time.

Enter the ultralight laser rangefinder

The challenge for OEMs producing UAVs with gimbal sensor payloads is delivering comprehensive capabilities with the least influence on flight time. LightWare’s product solutions are true to the company name: ultralight sensors, that enables sensor fusion and optimize flight times.

Ultralight sensors from LightWare, like the GRF-250 LiDAR rangefinder, can create a payload that earns its keep by helping keep those UAVs in the air longer.

Developed by LightWare’s dedicated engineering team, the GRF-250 delivers 250m / 820ft laser rangefinding capability for your gimbal payload into your compact UAV fleet – at only 10.65g / 0.376oz.

Engineered for efficiency

Beyond delivering the depth detection and sensor capability users need from a laser rangefinder, the GRF-250 is designed for ease of integration and total power system efficiency.

Some components and technology applications can have a ravenous appetite for precious UAV battery power. Adding battery capacity creates an escalating weight-trap for UAV engineers. It’s not the solution. Choosing sensors designed, tested and proven to be terrifically power efficient is.

GRF-250 is engineered to have amazingly low power demands at only 120 mA, delivering excellent mid-range laser rangefinder performance in demanding conditions without robbing your UAV of valuable onboard power. The result is uncompromised functionality and optimized flight endurance.

When first responders activate in an emergency or provide primary overwatch for an escalating situation, every second of UAV flight endurance matters. By selecting gimbal payload sensors optimized for integration and designed with true lightweight engineering principles, mission managers can gain those valuable flight time seconds that make all the difference in real-world conditions.

Compact UAV flight times are dramatically influenced by weight – and the margins are small. You don’t need to sacrifice capability to save critical weight on your gimbal sensor payload. With GRF-250, LightWare’s created the gimbal integrated mid-range laser rangefinder commercial UAV operators need, saving valuable specification mass that matters when your UAV gets airborne.

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