lancektm
Heliman
Location: Lawrence
| WePilot US SupportHello All,
I am with Viking Aerospace, a small UAV products and services company located in Lawrence Kansas. We are the American agent, sales, support and integrator of the wePilot line of UAV autopilots.
wePilot has the fully functioning helicopter autopilot complete with automatic takeoff, automatic landing, automatic return home (if link lost) and automatic waypoint navigation. New missions can be loaded in flight as well. We use an optical sensor for AGL only during landing(which we have found to be much more robust than cheaper sonars out there).
The autopilot can also operate in assisted mode. This is where the operator can give high level commands (Vx, Vz, r) within limits either from an rc transmitter or a joystick which is passed up the UHF link.
The autopilots are mostly transceiver independent and thus, can accommodate many modems (we are currently doing an Iridium satellite modem vehicle Meridian UAV which is designed to map arctic regions with ice pen. radar)
These autopilots are well developed and have passed European Airworthiness on several vehicles. The wePilot2000 had originally be designed to meet the high requirements of the DRAC military program, but can be adapted to other aircraft due to its flexible hardware architecture.
weControl sells the wePilot not as a plug and play product, because our experiences show that every customer needs application specific modifications which can seldom be covered by one generic product. Our strength lies in the capability to quickly customize our product for any given aircraft and application. For every aircraft we first build up an aerodynamics model which reflects accurately the dynamics and flight characteristic (system and/or parameter identification). Based on this model weControl synthesizes the H-infinity based flight controller specifically for your helicopter or airplane. This allows us to achieve a wide flight envelope also under high wind conditions. Furthermore our control system is based on a fully integrated GPS/inertial navigation solution based on an Extended Kalman Filter which allows to track the aircraft state also during complex maneuvers. Optionally the wePilot can be delivered to control a camera for aerial photography applications.
In the US, some representative customers of wePilots are AFRL (Tyndall AFB, Lockheed Martin SI, Honeywell, University of Kansas, Carnegie Mellon, and several other Universities and labs. We have done many RMAX helicopters and weControl developed a special form factor which integrates tightly into the RMAX payload and utilizes the high performance (RLG i think) IMU found on the RMAX. RMAX is by no means, however the limit to these autopilots in terms of helicopters. We have automated Maxi Jokers, Spectra G's, Bergens, etc.
For the Fixed Wing stuff, we just finished a 33% YAK54 which works really nicely with a 3W-80, and we are working on a 135hp turbo diesel powered 1100 lb all carbon skin UAV which I will report on once we complete initial evaluations.
Anyway, Hope this helps. There is much more to talk about so if you are interested in further information on the wePilot line my name is Lance and can be found at Viking Aerospace www.vikingaero.com. Call anytime.
Keep up the good work! I feel lucky to be in this industry with you all.
Photo wePilot flown Maxi Joker
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