Sea Technology

FEB 2013

The industry's recognized authority for design, engineering and application of equipment and services in the global ocean community

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sensor measures the downward raThe hexacopter���s power supdiation fux exclusively. ply consists of three Hacker MoSix brushless motors with a tor GmbH (Ergolding, Germany) shaft power of 110 watts are TopFuel LiPo 30C-LIGHT 4,000 mounted at the end of the arms milliampere-hour 3S lithium polyand point upwards. All momer batteries, with 11.1 volts, 45 tors have 12-inch-by-4.5-inch watt-hours and an overall nominal fxed-pitch propellers. With this capacity of 12 ampere-hours. Two propeller size and the engines of the batteries (8 ampere-hours) running at a maximum speed of are assigned to the engine circuit, 10,000 revolutions per minute, providing power for fight electronthe thrust of the hexacopter is apics and engines. A computer-aided design model of the hexacopter. proximately 47 newtons. As the With an average power conhexacopter itself weighs about 3 kilograms, or 29 newsumption of 32 amperes during fight, the hexacopter is able tons, the remaining 18 newtons can be used for dynamic to fy for about 15 minutes. One battery (4 ampere-hours) is fight control. Roll, pitch and yaw rate of the hexacopter assigned to the payload circuit, providing power for the GPS are controlled exclusively via motor speed. A microconreceiving-transmitting unit, the PAR sensor and its data logger. troller processes the control commands of the pilot and To extend the endurance of the hexacopter, an energythe data of an onboard gyro to provide stable maneuversaving sleep mode was implemented. In this mode, fight ability throughout the fight. The hexacopter is remotely electronics, which normally consume up to 0.4 amperes in controlled by a radio transmitter operating at a frequency standby, are almost entirely switched off and only the payof 35 megahertz. load circuit remains powered. The hexacopter���s payload includes a GPS receiver, a As lithium polymer cells are commonly known to react UHF transmitter to broadcast the GPS position to the ship quite sensitively at low temperatures, and as the hexacop(869 megahertz, 500 milliwatts), a Satlantic LP (Halifax, ter���s interior is not actively heated, the batteries had to be Canada) PAR-LOG-S sensor and a data logger for the PAR tested in cold conditions. Cooling the cells down to -4�� C data. In contrast to the position data, the PAR data are not resulted in a 10 percent capacity loss, which was defned transmitted via UHF but stored internally. The measurement as tolerable. interval of the position, as well as the interval of the PAR Additionally, after spending several hours on the ice measurement, is 1 hertz. and with its cells entirely cold, the hexacopter has to 62 st / FEBRUARY 2013 www.sea-technology.com

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