1. What am I purchasing?
Youre purchasing an integrated and tested turnkey system not a piece of a system that you must integrate. Our flight control system is thoroughly tested with the airframe over the various flight modes under other than benign conditions (temperature, wind effects, changing GPS coverage, etc.). The attitude & navigation components of the avionics (Crossbow attitude & heading reference unit and Novatel OEM4 GPS system), that are critical to safe navigation of the skies, are flight-proven in other manned and unmanned systems both for the military and for civilian applications. Our flight
controls approach takes advanced, mature avionics hardware and integrates
it with advanced neural network based flight control techniques this total
approach provides for a smooth, reliable, and robust flight control system. Our design includes two backup systems: 1) an automatic autorotation flight mode, and 2) a parachute recovery system. We also provide a channel
to liability insurance, which is a "must have" for those who intend to
perform commercial work. For an additional charge we will integrate the
customers choice of camera mount
as we have an in-house RC helicopter aerial photography expert.
2. Why are you providing liability insurance?
All of our customers must carry liability insurance to protect them as well as us. Most professional jobs that would require use of the AutoCopter will also require liability insurance. Therefore insurance is not a luxury it is a necessity.
3. Why not use cheaper hobby-type components for the flight control system?
Because we are building a professional system that needs to be robust and must endure under non-hospitable environmental conditions. The Crossbow AHRS is a very rugged and accurate system that has stood the test of time. It
also allows us the luxury of increasing the flight
control performance over time we can pass those changes
along to the customer (without additional cost). For example, the Novatel GPS unit is capable of calculating position and velocity at 20 times per second very accurately with minimal lag time. As we increase the performance of the flight control system we will be able to take advantage of the ability
of the hardware capability without changing out the
customers equipment. For serious aircraft applications
reliable and proven avionics are a must.
4. Why dont you just sell the avionics system and let the customer
use their own helicopter?
Most of the people we have talked with prefer a turnkey system. In addition our insurance company was sold on the idea of a turnkey system being produced inhouse. Their concern with our selling just the avionics box was that we would
have no control over how the customer integrated
the box to their particular helicopter. The liability
issue is much more significant with this particular approach.
5. What are you doing to add reliability to the baseline helicopter airframe?
One of the most critical safety modifications is the implementation of 4-servo CCPM. We are also performing various structural modifications. Another aspect is that we are limiting the total allowable payload weight so
as to preserve significant power margin.
6. Why use artificial intelligence (neural networks) for flight
control instead of conventional control methods?
