Servo - January 2012

GEERHEAD

Note the camera beneath the Scout’s belly.

the user all the information necessary to operate the system and all of its features. “We can have a user up and flying in less than 10 minutes,” says Aeryon.

An operator can begin to use the Scout immediately when it is first shipped. “From opening the box to turning on the power is about one minute. It then takes the system a few minutes to get the tablet turned on and the program loaded on it. I

have consistently been able to put the Scout in the air within five minutes of arriving at a new location. It takes about a minute between battery swaps for the system to self-check,” Walker explains. For pre-flight checks, the system verifies all the sensors are operating correctly and ensures a good GPS lock before allowing the user to take off. A built-in flight simulator gives the user a chance to experience the process of getting the Scout operating on a map. “There is no image on the screen during the simulation, so it is really more of a tool for flight operations familiarity. It was handy for this purpose but was used little after the first day or so of practice,” Walker notes.

The Scout is as mobile as it is maneuverable. An operator can easily remove the robot’s arms, legs, payloads, and batteries; place it in its carrying case (which meets commercial passenger plane carry-on requirements in size) along with the operator’s touchscreen tablet device, and transport it anywhere.

Walker with ground station in hand next to the Scout, readying for takeoff.

was developed in order to meet the goals of interoperability between UAVs. The Scout uses add-on software so that its interface can meet the formats required by STANAG.