ABSTRACT
Competitions have been a regular feature at almost every ICRA and IROS conference. So far, the organization of competitions has been entirely up to the conference organizing committee (OC). The OC usually issues a call for competition proposals;collects them;and decides which competitions will be hosted based on the conference site and budget conditions. Many big companies, such as Amazon, Airbus, and DJI, have successfully organized competitions at ICRA and IROS, some of which have continued for multiple years and have driven technological advances in robotics. The OC may also organize competitions based on the interests of its financial supporters. Many such competitions have been one-time events, but the Autonomous Drone Racing competition, which ran for four years until it was interrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic, was a successful testbed for vision-based autonomous navigation of quadcopters and attracted participation from many top-tier research teams.
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An additional helicopter base has been built for the Government Flying Service at the former Kai Tak airport runway site in Hong Kong, China. The base allows high-rise development to take place at Tung Chung new town near the service's existing base at Hong Kong International airport, which would have restricted emergency helicopter operations during poor weather. The project involved construction of a take-off and landing pad, parking bays and hangar for two helicopters, plus an office building for the flight planning centre and air command and control centre. This paper describes how use of an NEC contract helped ensure close collaboration between the employer and contractor, leading to timely completion with zero accidents despite restrictions caused by the Covid-19 pandemic.
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BEL and AAI collaborate on Air Traffic Management Systems In a major boost to its own diversification drive into non-defence and the Government's 'Make in India' programme, Bharat Electronics Limited (BEL) and Airports Authority of India (AAI), under it's R&D initiative, at Wings India 2022, entered into an agreement for the joint, indigenous development of systems for air traffic management and surface movement of aircraft at airports in the country which were hitherto being imported. Under this Agreement, BEL and AAI will jointly develop Civil Air Traffic Management System (ATMS) with Advanced-Surface Movement Guidance and Control System (ASMGCS), a complex ground surveillance system that manages air traffic at airports and in Indian Civil Airspace for safe operation of flights from take-off to landing. The aim of ATMS with ASMGCS is to provide the air traffic controller with the complete air traffic picture of the coverage area while interacting with Primary/ Secondary Radar, Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast (ADS-B), Multi-lateration System (MLATs), and navigational equipment such as GPS, Instrument Landing System (ILS) and Doppler Very High Frequency Omni Range (DVOR). Boeing: India to lead South Asia air traffic growth Boeing shared projections for South Asia's commercial aviation sector over the next 20 years, with the region leading the world in yearly passenger traffic growth.
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Some of the major orders executed during the year included Long Range Surface to Air Missile;Akash Weapon System;Fire Control System;Integrated Air Command & Control System;Advanced Composite Communication System;Integrated Electronic Warfare Suite and Coastal Surveillance System. Some of the new products/systems introduced during the year included Laser Fence System, IR Jammer for Active Tank Protection System, Gimbal for Tethered UAV, Drainage Intrusion Detection System, Solid State Power Controller Cards for Akash NG / QRSAM, S-Band 150W Power Amplifier, GNSS Receiver, Managed Ethernet Switch -12 Port, IP EPABX System, Navigation Complex System, C BAND GaN PA & C BAND GaAs MMICs and Oxygen Concentrator 5LPM & 10 LPM and Dialysis Machines. Signifi cant among these orders included avionics package for LCA, Advanced Electronic Warfare (EW) suite for fighter aircraft, Instrumented Electronic Warfare Range (IEWR), CDR TI cum Day Light Sights for T-90 Tanks, Electronic Voting Machine & VVPAT, RWR & MAWS for C-295 aircraft, Gun Electronic Upgrade, Electronic Warfare Systems for Ships, Weapon Locating Radar and Integrated Observation Equipment.
ABSTRACT
[...]based on the improved financial performance and cash flow position, the Credit Rating Agencies CARE Ratings and ICRA Limited have upgraded the Company's credit rating from AA+ Stable to AAA/Stable during the financial year. HAL and BEL sign contract for indigenous IRST HAL and BEL signed a contract for co-development and coproduction of Long Range Dual Band Infra-Red Search and Track System (IRST) for Su-30 MKI on 26 April 2022 under the MAKEII procedure of Defence Acquisition Procedure (DAP) 2020, as part of the 'Make in India' initiative. The proposed IRST system will be a high end strategic technology product in the field of defence avionics and technically competitive to existing IRST system in the global market with features of Television Day Camera, Infrared and Laser sensors in single window for air to air and air to ground target tracking and localisation.
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[...]sixteen Anti-Submarine Warfare Shallow Water Craft have also been contracted. Concurrently, there is also a need o enhance the capacity and expertise of our public sector shipyards to reduce build-times, and also involve the private sector to make good current short-falls in our force levels. Special Ops, Anti Surface Warfare (ASuW) and Anti-Submarine Warfare (ASW> and we have asked them to submit a fresh PPR for development of a common multi-role helicopter with both ASW and ASuW capability.
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[...]we are like an oiled Swiss Army knife, which has proven its added value over the years, and is quickly available when called upon". The 'Cougars' of 300 squadron also deployed to Afghanistan several times during 2006 to 2010 Operations took place out of Kandahar Airfield in support of the Task Force Uruzgan. Besides a transport role of supplies also missions to support Special Operations Forces (SOF) where executed. 300 Squadron also supports humanitarian missions like fighting forest fires (Fire Bucket Operations - FBO), in 2004 the squadron deployed two Cougars to Portugal, and in August 2007 towards Greece to support the firefighting there. For these amphibious overseas missions six Cougars (serials S-419, 441, 442, 445 and 447) are available with maritime equipment like floats to prevent the helicopter from sinking when it comes in the water. [...]2015, the squadron was tasked as Patients transport (Air Ambulance) from the Wadden Islands, which are located in the upper north of the Netherlands in the Wadden Sea, to hospitals on the mainland. According to 1st Lieutenant Niels Henderson, Chief Helicopter Maintenance of 300 squadron, this is a unique opportunity.
ABSTRACT
This paper presents a heterogeneous configuration of the multirotor unmanned aerial system (UAS) that features the combined characteristics of the helicopter and quadrotor in a single multirotor design, featuring the endurance and energy efficiency similar to a helicopter, while keeping the mechanical simplicity, control, and manoeuvrability of the standard quadrotor. Power needed for a rotorcraft to hover has the inverse relation with the rotor disc. Therefore, multiple small rotors of the quadrotor are energetically outperformed by a large rotor of the helicopter, for a similar size. Designing the stable control system for such a dynamically complex multirotor configuration remains the main challenge as the studies previously carried out on these designs have successfully demonstrated energy efficiency but at the cost of degraded attitude control. Advancements in the energetics of the multirotor results in enhanced endurance and range that could be highly effective in remote operation applications. However, a stable control system is required for accurate positioning. In this paper, a cascaded PID control approach is proposed to provide the control solution for this heterogeneous multirotor. Automatic tuning is proposed to design the PID controller for each loop of the cascade structure. A relay feedback experiment is conducted in a controlled environment, followed by identification of the open-loop frequency response and estimation of dynamics. Subsequently, PID controllers are tuned through approximated models with the help of tuning rules. A custom-designed flight controller is used to experimentally implement the proposed control structure. Presented experimental results demonstrate the efficacy of the proposed control strategy for heterogeneous multirotor UAS.
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The U.S. Army defines Short-Range Air Defense (SHORAD) as dedicated air defense artillery (ADA) and non-dedicated air defense capabilities that enable movement and maneuver by destroying, neutralizing or deterring low altitude air threats to defend critical fixed and semi-fixed assets and maneuver forces. SHORAD units were historically embedded in Army divisions, providing them with an organic capability to protect their critical assets against fixed-wing and rotary-wing aircraft. However, in the early 2000s, these ADA units were divested from the Army to meet force demands deemed more critical at that time.
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The military-civilian SAR duties of 82nd squadron includes regular cooperation with the mountain rescue unit CNSAS, the police and the firefighting forces of Vigili del Fuoco. Since 2018, the unit is also equipped with water-bambi buckets to assist with forest fires. The region around Trapani air base is an ideal for these purposes, not only for sea ops training, but also the rough Sicilian mountainous landscape is perfect to practice in a wide variety of circumstances", Capt Conforti informed us. When needed the HH-139 can be made available to transfer patients between hospitals, with a supplementary bio-containment cradle, the patient was isolated to secure a safe working area for the crew.
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A wide range of operations like Anti - Submarine, Surface Manoeuvers, Replenishment at Sea approach, Firing on target, Visit Board Search & Seizure (VBSS), Steam Past, Air Defence, Air Picture Compilation, Vertical Replenishment and crossdeck operations were exercised by the ships. Eastern Fleet Ships on overseas operational deployment In pursuit of India's Act East' policy and to enhance military cooperation with friendly countries, a Task Force of Indian Navy's Eastern Fleet is on an Overseas Deployment to South East Asia, the South China Sea and Western Pacific for over two months. Besides regular port calls, the task group will operate in conjunction with friendly navies, to build military relations and develop interoperability in the conduct of maritime operations. Indian Navy Ships Shivalik and Kadmatt are the latest indigenously designed and built, multi-role guided missile stealth frigate and anti-submarine corvette respectively, and form part of the Indian Navy's Eastern Fleet based at Visakhapatnam under the Eastern Naval Command.
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The IAF's transport and helicopter fleet have been carrying out Herculean efforts flying reinforcements, equipment and supplies to the Ladakh region/ Covid support and natural disaster relief over the past 2 years. To increase the logistical gaps and a future acquisition plan, what is the status of India's Avro replacement programme with the C-295W being the top choice? IAF is looking at augmenting its medium tactical airlift capability thorough replacement of the Avro fleet. [...]on helicopters, any plans to acquire any more Chinooks?
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Despite the advances achieved in Medical Sciences, no substitute has been found for blood as a vital factor. Therefore, preparing sufficient and healthy blood in crisis conditions is a challenge that health systems encounter. Along with examining the conducted investigations in this field, the main contribution of current research is to develop a biobjective Mixed-Integer Linear Programming (MILP) model for relief supply under crisis condition. For this purpose, this paper proposes a model for routing of bus blood receiver under crisis conditions considering different blood groups. Besides, hours of unnecessary travel by bloodmobiles (buses) between each blood station (BS) and the crisis-stricken city for dispatching the collected blood is prevented thanks to considering a helicopter. The mentioned model has two objectives: maximizing the amount of blood collected by bloodmobiles and minimizing the arrival time of the blood receiver buses and a helicopter to a crisis-stricken city after the collected blood is used up. The model is coded by CPLEX software, and the results obtained from solving the model indicate that, without considering a helicopter, the demand is not supplied within the critical period after crisis. Given that blood cannot be artificially produced, its primary resource is blood donors. Concerning the importance of this issue under crisis conditions, this research investigates the relief vehicles’ routing problem, including bus and helicopter, in a crisis considering supply and transfer of different blood groups to a crisis-stricken city for maximum relief supply and blood transfer within the shortest period.