3D Printed Antenna Project Progresses to Integration

Event 38 is currently working on a project supported by OFRN to 3D print antennas for sUAS (small unmanned aircraft system). The intent is to use additive manufacturing research to produce geometrically complex antennas with unique structural and aerodynamic properties. In this instance, the 3D model replaces the aircraft nose cone to function as both an antenna and an aerodynamic structure.

The part is made with a combination of metal and polymer 3D printing to achieve the antenna. Currently, Event 38 is integrating the antenna onto its E400 aircraft and plan to perform flight demonstration and functional evaluation this summer.

Event 38 Unmanned Systems Completes Delivery of E400 To Air National Guard

Event 38 Unmanned Systems recently completed delivery of the E400 to the Air National Guard (ANG) 178th Wing Fire and Emergency Management teams. The E400 was identified by the Air Force Rapid Sustainment Office (RSO) as a promising commercial technology that could reduce cost and increase readiness for multiple Air Force sustainment objectives. The aircraft was customized for ANG, adding VTOL as well as a live-streaming thermal and RGB video payload. Additionally, Event 38 designed a custom all-in-one handheld ground control station. The aircraft is intended for use by emergency response personnel.

Event 38 provided in-person training, documentation, and the user manual. Four operators were trained to proficiency in 1.5 days of class time and practice flights.

The smaller team allowed Event 38 to provide a more hands-on approach to training, giving each member the opportunity to disassemble and reassemble the aircraft and act as pilot in command. 

The operators found the training to be beneficial and efficient. This group had limited experience with UAS, but found it was easy to set up and control. Learn more about the E400 VTOL here.

Event 38 Develops UAS For Wildfires

Event 38 Unmanned Systems recently completed a project with a UAS service provider to develop and field an aircraft for wildfire response. The aircraft carries an EO/IR gimbal tied in to a geotagging system that provides real time fire location data to firefighters. It is currently flying missions on behalf of the Department of the Interior.

While this company had previously worked with UAS for ISR and mapping, none of their aircraft were suited for wildfire response. The work calls for long endurance flights at high density altitude within a TFR, and usually without space available for traditional launch and recovery equipment. The drone engineered in collaboration with Event 38 features electric vertical takeoff and landing and a gasoline engine for forward thrust. These are crucial for flying in mountainous regions and over forests, allowing for long flights and requiring minimal space for takeoff and landing.

Event 38 integrated the avionics, including the autopilot, and developed custom flight software and ground control station functions. The team was also responsible for flight-testing the drone from first flight to final testing with DOI.

With up to 9 hours endurance, a ceiling above 12,000’ MSL and an all-up weight over 65 pounds, this project demonstrates Event 38’s ability to develop and deploy high performance UAS for flight in mixed manned/unmanned airspace.

Event 38 Unmanned Systems to Build Heavy Lift eVTOL

Event 38 Unmanned Systems has been commissioned by a university research team to build a heavy lift electric vertical takeoff and landing aircraft (eVTOL) for a highly specialized physics payload. The partnership will allow the university to perform a cutting-edge research project and allow Event 38 to expand its portfolio of uniquely capable unmanned aircraft.

The team at Event 38 is responsible for building the eVTOL to lift a 150-pound payload and hold it almost completely motionless for data collection purposes. The aircraft will be impressive in size – 11’ x 11’ and 600lbs all up weight with a flight time of 30 minutes.

Event 38 was selected for this opportunity due to their deep understanding of aerodynamics, electronics, and flight software using Ardupilot and PX4 flight controllers. Possessing these capabilities makes the team uniquely qualified to take on such a challenging aircraft build.

“The work we do at Event 38 lends itself perfectly to this research because the size and sensitivity of the payload require careful design consideration,” said Event 38 Founder and President, Jeff Taylor. “It’s a more economical solution and poses less risk to personnel compared with using a manned helicopter.”

Event 38 believes this technology has many applications including disaster response, personnel recovery and industrial logistics. The first flight is currently scheduled for Q4, 2020 with additional development to follow.

Event 38 and Ghostwave Awarded Sense and Avoid Research Funding

Funding through OFRN for developing radar systems for drones

Akron, Ohio – June 3, 2019 – Event 38 is excited to announce that we are a member of a team that was recently awarded research and development (R&D) funding to develop a sense and avoid system for unmanned aircraft. The Ohio Federal Research Network (OFRN) awarded $6.3 million to just four of thirty three teams who submitted proposals.

Funding for this project was awarded under OFRN’s Sustaining Ohio’s Aeronautical Readiness and Innovation in the Next Generation (SOARING) initiative. This initiative is designed to help Ohio push ahead and expand in defense and commercial aerospace research, development, and sustainment. The four awarded project teams are comprised of collaborators from all across the state of Ohio.

Event 38 is proud to join Ghostwave, Inc in the integration of its anti-jam radar technology into a sense and avoid system. Other team members include researchers from Ohio University, The Ohio State University, and Lockheed Martin Advanced Technologies Lab.

The project is titled “UAV Detect-and-Avoid Sensor Fusion”. Right now, UAS operators in the US typically operate beyond line of sight only by closely controlling large sections of airspace to avoid collisions. In order to safely fly in unmanaged airspace, UAS must be able to detect manned aircraft with varying levels of electronic communication capability. Optical sensors alone may be insufficient to detect and avoid other aircraft in degraded visual environments (DVE). The objective of this project is to demonstrate radar-optical sensor fusion to enhance optical sensing in clear environments and in DVEs such as darkness, dust, fog or smoke.

The future is unmanned, and an unmanned craft moving in congested areas must avoid all other air traffic and confirm landing sites are clear. Event 38 is thrilled to be part of this ground breaking project.

Event 38 Unmanned Systems operates out of Akron, Ohio, and has customers all over the world. Event 38 designs and manufactures long range drones, onboard data processing solutions, and other equipment for unmanned aerial systems.

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If you would like to learn more about Event 38 or this project specifically, please contact us via phone at (234) 206-0410 or email us at
sales@event38.com.

Event 38 Flies Under AFRL COA at Ohio UAS Test Center

Event 38 recently completed flight demonstrations of a custom-built aircraft that is a major milestone in a multi-year research project into structural energy storage led by Dr. Vikas Prakash at Case Western Reserve University. Event 38 founder, Jeff Taylor, had previously studied aerospace engineering under Dr. Prakash in 2008 and said, “I’m proud that Event 38 has reached a level where we can collaborate on cutting edge research projects, and working with my former professor makes it all the more exciting for me.”

For the demonstration, Event 38 built a custom version of its latest E400 composite aircraft, with battery cells molded directly into the structure of the wings. This technique saves weight and allows the aircraft to store more energy for flight without reducing the payload volume or increasing the size of the aircraft’s structure. Event 38 uses composite construction techniques to conform the aircraft fuselage and wings to the custom shape dictated by the payload or mission profile. The E400 used in this demonstration was also outfitted with a Ping2020 ADS-B transceiver to help improve situational awareness of manned aircraft flying nearby.

As part of the demonstration, Event 38 coordinated with the Air Force Research Lab (AFRL) and the Ohio UAS Test Center to fly on the grounds of Springfield Beckley Airport immediately adjacent to active runways. Event 38’s E400 passed a combined technical and safety review board administered by AFRL in order to fly under their Certificate of Authorization (COA) for flight test activities. Event 38 implemented multiple fail-safe procedures to ensure that the E400 could not, under any circumstances, exit the boundaries of the COA or interfere with manned traffic.

A series of systems, procedures, and technologies were used to ensure safety of manned traffic operating near the Springfield airport. The Ohio UAS Test Center and AFRL have collaborated to build a one-of-a-kind Ground Based Detect and Avoid (GBDAA) system centered around Springfield. The system uses combined radar returns from nearby airports to provide comprehensive radar coverage of a 225 square-mile area. The fused radar data is routed to a mobile operations center, where it can be accessed and read by test center personnel and operators. The system is set up to enable BLOS flights throughout the 225 square-mile area, where test center personnel can manage mixed manned and unmanned operations.

Before flying, AFRL issued a Notice to Airmen (NOTAM) for nearby traffic to be aware of the unmanned operations. For the duration of the flights, Ohio UAS Test Center personnel operated radios to notify incoming and departing traffic of the nearby unmanned traffic. Dozens of takeoffs and landings took place while the E400 loitered at 600′ AGL just a couple hundred feet away from the runway, without causing any safety concerns.

The flight was monitored by an Event 38 pilot in command located inside the mobile ground station and a visual observer who maintained sight of the aircraft. The pilot inside monitored the ground control station, performed trend monitoring as part of the structural energy test procedures, and liaised with the Ohio UAS Test Center airspace manager operating the radar and radios.

The test compared an E400 fitted with structural energy to a standard Li-Ion battery configuration. The addition of structural energy elements allowed the E400 configuration to achieve 1.6x greater endurance than the standard configuration, which is volume-limited with certain payloads. This resulted in a three-hour flight, a duration practically unheard of for hand-launched, commercial UAS.

Event 38 customers benefit from the success of this demonstration in two ways.
First, Event 38 aircraft offer an even greater endurance advantage while fully equipped with the most capable mapping and surveillance sensors used on small UAS.  For collecting orthophotography, LiDAR point clouds, or monitoring critical infrastructure, the E400 leads its class in terms of endurance and versatility. Second, customers benefit directly from the experience the Event 38 team has gained in documentation and procedures used to receive approval to fly under the AFRL COA on an active airport. We can advise customers on achieving regulatory compliance through implementation of risk mitigating technology and procedures.

Partnering with uAvionix to add ADS-B Integration

Event 38 Unmanned Systems Partners with uAvionix to Improve Airspace Safety for Manned and Unmanned Aircraft

Akron, Ohio—March 6, 2019—Event 38 Unmanned Systems announced today that it has entered into a collaborative agreement with uAvionix to resell and integrate uAvionix ADS-B products with Event 38 aircraft.

Unmanned aerial systems and manned aircraft equipped with uAvionix ADS-B transceivers can track each other electronically while in flight. ADS-B transceivers like the Ping2020, which is small enough for Event 38 drones, receive and transmit information about air traffic such as location, altitude, and speed. The Ping series can detect ADS-B messages from aircraft up to 100 miles away.

When a uAvionix ADS-B transceiver is integrated with an Event 38 aircraft, operators can see the locations of manned air traffic overlaid directly on their ground station display. This capability improves both operator and pilot situational awareness, so operations near manned aircraft can be performed with an added level of safety. This risk mitigation tool may also increase the chance of being approved for Part 107 waivers such as high altitude and BLOS operations, depending on the location and airspace of the operation.

With this added ADS-B capability, Event 38 aircraft continue to lead the industry in long range mapping aircraft for EVLOS and BLOS operations. “Our prediction is that the FAA will require ADS-B as part of its eventual integration of unmanned aircraft into the NAS,” says Jeff Taylor, President, Event 38. “By partnering with uAvionix to offer this capability, we hope to make it easier for our customers to obtain Part 107 waivers now and to build flight heritage for future changes in regulation.”

Event 38 will carry all of uAvionix’s products for unmanned aircraft, including Ping2020, Ping1090, Ping200S(r) Transponders, and PingUSB. These products will be available on all Event 38 long endurance aircraft starting with the E384-Heavy and E400.

To learn more, get in touch with Jeff Taylor at jeff@event38.com or visit www.event38.com.

About Event 38 Unmanned Systems

Founded in 2011, Event 38 Unmanned Systems operates out of Akron, Ohio, and has customers all over the world. Event 38 designs and manufactures long range drones, onboard data processing solutions, and other equipment for unmanned aerial systems.

E386 Now Equipped with Parachute Recovery

Due to popular demand, the E386 aircraft now supports automated parachute recovery for landing in confined areas, on rugged terrain, or in territories requiring a parachute for safety purposes. The parachute is deployed automatically by a command built into the mission. The E386 also retains popular features of the E384-LR such as terrain follow and Wind Resist for further reliability in difficult environments. It is also possible to land the E386 manually onto its ABS plastic skid plate using the hand controller when that is more convenient.

The E386 uses the Harrier launch system from FruityChutes to safely deploy the parachute in flight. After testing a variety of parachutes and launch systems, we’ve found the Harrier to be the most reliable and easiest to pack parachute system available for small UAS.

The E386 is available now with all sensor options under 400g, including the R10C, RedEdge, Sequoia and FLIR cameras.

Learn more about the E386 here.

Intellishoot L1L2 PPK Geotagging System Now Available

The Intellishoot L1L2 PPK Geotagging System is now available as a stand-alone module for integration with Event 38, Pixhawk and DJI powered unmanned aircraft. This PPK GPS system is built in-house by Event 38 and is powered by the Piksi Multi core. Currently, it supports GPS L1/L2C, Glonass G1/G2 and SBAS. It is hardware ready for Galileo E1/E5b, BeiDou B1/B2, and QZSS L1/L2 via firmware update in the future. The primary advantages of working with a dual frequency setup are a faster time to fix, more reliable fix holding, and single solution post-processing. By using two frequencies from each satellite, dual frequency receivers are able to more quickly determine ionospheric conditions and calculate a high accuracy fix faster. This also allows them to recover from a loss of fix and pick up new satellites as they come into view more quickly. With single frequency PPK, there can be multiple solutions produced when post-processing the GPS data. This means that the solution can be affected by, for example, where in the GPS string you clip the data to start and stop processing. L1L2 produces only a single solution, making post-processing easier and more consistent.

The accuracy produced by an L1L2 system in good conditions is typically not higher than with an L1-only system. However, in marginal conditions where a Q1 solution may be intermittently lost, L1L2 is better at maintaining Q1 solutions for longer and re-acquiring them more quickly when lost. In our case study, we produced results with horizontal and vertical RMSE of 2.82cm and 3.62cm respectively from 100m AGL flying height. To learn more, see the full case study.

The Intellishoot System from Event 38 consists of an enclosed module with external GPS antenna and precision geotagging softare which extracts event markers from the RINEX file and performs additional adjustments to the geotags to improve accuracy depending on the parameters of your sensor and setup. Systems are available for purchase both individually and for integration with Event 38 aircraft. Please contact us for further information.

FLIR Vue Pro Radiometric Sample Data Now Available

Thermal imagery, with its lower resolution and contrast, can be particularly challenging to collect at high quality and even more challenging to stitch into an orthomosaic. With a radiometric sensor, it usually makes sense to perform the actual image analysis individually for each image. For visualization purposes though, creating an orthomosaic does help provide a better big picture view. With the FLIR Vue Pro line of cameras, images are automatically geotagged in flight when purchased or otherwise integrated with an Event 38 aircraft. The operator must then collect data at an appropriate altitude and time of day depending on the application, and collect imagery with enough overlap to be stitched. Here we have a scene with mixed vegetation, pavement, buildings and cars, making stitching relatively easy. Still, we planned for 70% overlap and sidelap to be safe. Higher overlaps may be needed in areas with less distinct features. We also recommend planning to leave at least 2.5 seconds between image captures and to use a class 10 SD card. FLIR cameras can sometimes get behind while trying to save imagery to memory, and then subsequently start missing images. This can be particularly tricky with FLIR cameras because they can usually handle the higher trigger rate for dozens to hundreds of images before falling behind and then missing every other shot for the rest of the mission. Remember to keep winds in mind if you must plan to fly any down-wind segments. If possible, fly crosswind and advance flight lines into the wind so the apparent groundspeed is always less than standard cruise speed.

If you’d like to download the full set of images, you can get access here. This is radiometric data, so be sure to also download a trial of FLIR Tools to get started analyzing in depth. See the annotations below for some interesting features to inspect.

1. Human standing at corner of pavement as seen from FLIR Vue Pro R 640, 9mm from 140m AGL
2. Bare metal roof reflects low temperature of sky
3. Section of grass field damaged by persistent standing water