Kestrel Autopilot 2.22 and Virtual Cockpit 2.2 - Unmanned Aircraft ...

News Release
Procerus releases Virtual Cockpit 2.2 as well as significant new features for Kestrel Autopilot
OREM, Utah. August 1, 2006 – Procerus ® Technologies today announced the release of
compelling new features for the Kestrel Autopilot and Virtual Cockpit ground control software.
Procerus is the developer and marketer of the world’s smallest, lightest, and most robust mini
autopilot on the market. It is particularly well suited for small UAVs and MAVs.
The focus of the Kestrel Autopilot MA7 firmware and Virtual Cockpit 2.2 releases are important new
features and capabilities and the continuing evolution of the Kestrel Autopilot System. New features
are a result of customer feedback and internal innovation. The motivation is to continue to move the
product forward in significant ways for to better support our current customers and future customers.
Kestrel Autopilot Firmware Upgrade:
• Forward look loiters - airplane will loiter around point visible in forward look camera. UAV
will switch to side look once loiter is established.
• Loiter radius re-computes on altitude change. When using side look camera in optimal
radius loiter, loiter altitude is optimized based on user commanded altitude.
• Altitude can be adjusted using game pad in loiter mode.
• Improved gimbal support
o Gimbal customization parameters to aid in the integration of gimbals
o Gimbal servo limits to prevent stripping servo gears in gimbal
o Gimbal points at lat/lon/alt target
• Flapperon mixing for use on airframes with dual aileron servos and/or flaps
• Additional servo channel (8 th channel) to support second aileron servo and gimbal at
same time.
• Gimbal servos moved to channels 7 and 8 to open up channel 6 for flapperon mixing
following RC convention.
• GPS home timer to make users more aware of the status of whether autopilot has valid
GPS home.
• Estimate of roll angle bias to help aircraft track path in loiter.
• Estimate roll angle bias in level flight to help aircraft track paths between waypoints
• Include support for current shunt.
• Add packet loss counter (displayed as bar graph in Virtual Cockpit).
• Add RSSI using Maxstream modems (displayed as bar graph in Virtual Cockpit).
Virtual Cockpit TM v2.2 Upgrade:
• Correct units are displayed in relative fields. For example miles per hour, knots, feet,
meters, meters per second.
• Flight plan list improvements makes changing and adding waypoints easier.
• Servo channels 7 and 8 added to Servo configuration screen.
• Password protection to disallow access to settings and configuration screens.
• Manual control now allows support for almost all direct input compatible joysticks. Virtual
Cockpit provides for button remapping abilities for user configuration.
• Flight Plan Pop-ups: as flight plan is changed, pop-up buttons appear to give the user
immediate visual notice of the change and makes flight plan uploading easy. Especially
useful when flying multiple UAVs.
• Maps are displayed at native resolution with zooming in and out from 1 to 1000%.
• Add packet loss counter.
• Add received signal strength indication when using Maxstream modems.
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• Terrain elevation Map loading and elevation display.
• Multiple Image Map support
o Includes world file generation and loading
• All registry settings are moved to settings XML file. This makes it easier to have different
configurations for more than one installation of the VC.
• XML file integrity checking.
• Gimbal support
o TCP/IP access to Gimbal position
o Standard Telemetry Gimbal position information
o Gimbal Mode status display in Artificial Horizon
o Debug File
o Waypoint upload/download/editing abilities
o Change gimbal mode with gamepad
• Video settings screen enabled for VCE-Pro capture card.
• Video System Revamped using DirectShow
o Ability to swap to previous Video System for overlay support
• General enhancement (includes tool tips and minor changes to button layouts).
Please see the following links for the latest Technical Marketing sheets:
1. Kestrel Autopilot 2.2 www.procerusuav.com/Documents/Kestrel_2.22.pdf
2. Virtual Cockpit 2.2 www.procerusuav.com/Documents/Virtual_Cockpit_2.2.pdf
Kestrel TM Autopilot 2.2
The Kestrel Autopilot 2.2 includes an onboard magnetometer, wind estimation, easy-to-use Mode
support, smart loiters, user configurable failsafes, and more. The Kestrel (small falcon) Autopilot is an
intelligent, lightweight autopilot solution for mini and micro Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs). It is
small, reliable, and easily integrated. Yet it sacrifices nothing for its weight-cutting, size-shaving
design while integrating all sensors into a neat, elegant hardware package.
The Kestrel Autopilot System provides autonomous flight control of attitude, altitude, and GPS
waypoint navigation as well as autonomous take-off, flight, and auto-landing routines and pilot-in-theloop
control. The autopilot software includes servo loops, Kalman filters, and communication
protocols. Its sensors are 3-axis rate gyros and accelerometers for attitude estimation, differential and
absolute air pressure sensors for airspeed and altitude measurement. It is a small, low-power
solution that provides real-time trajectory generation and tracking and simple intuitive user interfaces.
Virtual Cockpit TM 2.2
The Virtual Cockpit 2.2, our easy-to-use ground control application, allows users operate and manage
single and multiple UAVs in a variety of different modes that include stick & rudder, altitude-headingvelocity
commands, and dynamic waypoint specification, while providing easy to use interfaces for
Mode support, flight and mission planning, execution and monitoring. Targeting non-engineers and
non-RC pilots with easy-to-use, uncluttered interfaces, this major upgrade offers an abundance of
new features and focuses heavily on easy integration, configuration, and tuning.
Procerus Technologies
Procerus Technologies, makers of the world’s smallest, lightest (16.7 grams), full-featured autopilot
for mini and micro UAVs. Procerus is focused on intelligent, autonomous guidance and control
systems for small unmanned aircraft as well as enhancing the overall user experience and utility of
micro UAVs. Procerus is also a leading developer and manufacturer of ground control software, the
Virtual Cockpit, and associated hardware. www.procerusuav.com
Procerus is a registered trademark of Procerus Technologies in the United States and other
countries. Kestrel and Virtual Cockpit are trademarks of Procerus Technologies.
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Press Contact:
Phone: (801) 224-5713
email: info@procerusuav.com
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