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Application Briefs

itate a safe takeoff. During the flight, the aircraft’s fuel manage- pre-defined space, since space aboard any aircraft is tight. Before
ment system selects the specific fuel tank that fuel is drawn from, the Valcor Engineering team could begin designing the new fuel
so that the aircraft’s CG is always maintained. management system, they needed to know how many fuel tanks
With an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), there is no flight at- were in the UAV, how the fuel would be consumed, and how to
tendant or pilot to help balance the change in fuel weight and its interface with the UAV control system. Also needed were the end
effect on the maneuverability of the aircraft. UAVs usually have connections and locations for the fuel lines, as well as operating
two or more tanks to hold fuel. As the tanks are depleted, the bal- pressure and required flow rates.
ance on the vehicle can change, which would result in a poten- Valcor utilized an existing solenoid valve design as the basis for
tially unstable aircraft. A sophisticated system composed of the valving components. The solenoid valves were mounted in
pumps, valves, temperature and pressure sensors can be used to custom manifolds to save space and weight. This also made final
automate the balancing of fuel prior to, and during flight. assembly easier. Third party components included off-the-shelf
Fuel levels can vary based on atmospheric pressure, radiant heat pressure and temperature sensors and fuel pump. The final de-
transfer, and of course, consumption by the engine. In addition, sign included two pairs of fuel supply valves: one each for supply
the fuel temperature can be controlled to maintain relatively con- to the engine, the other for fuel return to the in-service tank. A
stant viscosity at varying altitudes and temperatures. The dynam- dump valve was also incorporated into the design in case fuel has
ics of flying for extended periods at extremely high altitudes, with to be discharged from the UAV. In service, the fuel management
sudden drops in altitude for surveillance, necessitate a responsive system draws fuel from one tank at a time, but switches from one
and accurate system to control fuel flow from the wing tanks in tank to the other to minimize the imbalance of the UAV due to
order to maintain the correct CG and vehicle stability. fuel consumption in flight. The control system monitors the fuel
Valcor Engineering was tasked by a long-time customer to cre- consumption and actuates the appropriate valve pair based on
ate a turn-key fuel management system for a new UAV. The ob- the fuel levels in the tanks.
jective was to create a manifold assembly that would fit into a For Free Info Visit http://info.hotims.com/76503-466

Rebar Tying Robot poured or when laborers walk on top of it during the process of
installation.
SkyMul Moving the rebar during any of the above processes makes the
Atlanta, GA building less strong than it was designed to be.
contact@skymul.com There are currently over 600,000 bridges in the USA and a large
https://skymul.com number are aging and will require replacement in the next few
years. SkyMul founders believe that their SkyTy solution can help
kyMul, a Comcast incubated company founded by Georgia speed up the construction of the more than 22,000 bridges that
STech Robotics Institute alumni and supported by a Small will need to be replaced in the next 10 years.
Business Innovation Research (SBIR) grant from various federal Rodbusters who do this work, usually with metal wire and a
government agencies, is getting a lot of attention in the construc- plier-like tool or, in some cases, a rebar tying gun, currently
tion industry with their new invention called SkyTy, a swarm of have the highest rate of soft tissue damage (10x more than
drones that perform the back-breaking physical work of rebar other industrial trades) and take significantly more time to re-
tying for concrete flatwork and other slabs at construction sites. cover for each injury. It is estimated that rodbusters will spend
The process of making structures from concrete is to first place more than 2000 man-years over the next few years solely tying
rebar, tie it, pour the concrete, and wait for it to set. The rebar has rebar to fix the 22,000 bridges that need to be fixed in the US.
to be tied so that it doesn’t move around when the concrete is SkyMul believes it has a robotic solution to solve that problem.
SkyTy consists of a control station and a swarm of drones. The
swarm size can be varied with the size of the jobs and the sched-
ule for completion. The technician manning the system identi-
fies the rebar installation area that needs tying. A divided section
of the work area is assigned to each drone. After the technician
selects the percentage of ties (50%,75%,100%) and the pattern
for tying, multiple drones from the SkyTy swarm are deployed.
The drones fly over the rebar and identify rebar intersections
without using CAD files or programming utilizing computer vi-
sion technology. They identify the untied intersection, land, tie it
with metal wire, and takeoff towards the next intersection. Each
drone, which operates independently of the others and is easily
replaceable, then comes back to the landing station for spool and
battery replacement.
After the completion of tying, SkyTy’s control station
provides a report of the successful ties for quality control

32 www.aerodefensetech.com Aerospace & Defense Technology, May 2020