What is Vigilanteä?

Vigilanteä is a SAIC developed family of Optionally Piloted and Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV) that are available to fly your payload. These lightweight, low cost, highly capable air vehicles are based on the commercially available Ultrasport 496 sport helicopter. since the Vigilanteä is based on a kit it uses a large number of Commercial Off-the-Shelf (COTS) components.  Commercial production and use of COTS means fewer spares required on hand and less expensive long-term support.

 

This fully capable UAV system includes air vehicle and ground support systems.  It is easily transported via trailer towed by auto/truck/van.  It is reconfigurable for variety of datalinks and payloads.  It can be operated by as few as two people.

 

 There are two variants of Vigilanteä.  Having both have a maximum gross weight of 1,100 pounds, a main rotor diameter of 23 feet, an overall length of 20 feet and a main rotor height of 7.5 feet.  They both have a shrouded tail rotor and the rotating tail rotor drive shaft enclosed in tailboom for safety.  All variants have high sink rate (900-fpm) landing gear and excellent autorotation capabilities.

 

The Vigilanteä 496 OPV is either optionally piloted or an autonomously UAV.  It is capable of a maximum true air speed of 75 knots and ceiling of 12,000 feet. It has 12 cu ft interior volume and a 300-lb. payload capacity with its full fuel capacity of 18 gallons.  With its Hirth engine it has about 5 hours of endurance.

 The Vigilanteä 500 is a UAV only aircraft.  It is capable of a maximum true air speed of 117 knots and ceiling of 13,000 feet. It has 5 cu ft interior volume, a 150-lb. payload capacity with its full 36-gallon fuel capacity in a crashworthy fuel system and less drag for improved aerodynamic performance.  It has a Rotax 914 turbo engine.

Payload can be traded for range and endurance.

This estimate based on a Vigilante 502 with an empty weight of 720 pounds:

• 4 gal /hr endurance at 30 to 40 knots
• 5 to 6 gal/hr in cruise at 80 knots, 30 minute reserve

The dashed line represents the current fuel tank of 36 gallons.  To meet mission requirements it could be increased to a maximum of 58 gallons.

 

The aircraft avionics system uses a high-quality navigation sensor, an integrated INS/GPS solution, an integrated air data system, whit robust fault detection and recovery.  It has a PC104-based processor suite using proven, off-the-shelf hardware in a compact, easily accessible packaging using the low-cost Linux-based operating system

 

The Vigilanteä Ground Control Station is a complete system providing dynamic real-time control of the Vigilante VTOL UAV.  The Vigilanteä Ground Control Software incorporates special controls and displays tailored to the special requirements of rotary wing vehicles, especially distinguishing between hovering and forward flight modes.  The system has provisions for multiple modes of operator interactions, including real-time flight director style commands, supervised autonomy of waypoint-based navigation, and fully autonomous flight (for recovery after lost link).  The ground station software suite includes control of redundant command and status data links, real-time system safety monitoring functions, telemetry recording, and display/playback of recorded data.

 

The Ground control station features redundant command/status RF links in 900 MHz and 2.4 GHz.  There is also a 72 MHz backup safety pilot command link and a 425 MHz flight termination link.  A variety of additional real-time sensing elements are recorded by the ground station including: engine health & status instrumentation, EGT and CHT, separate rotor and engine speed, electrical power system status, a radar altimeter (0-600m), and an ultrasonic ground proximity warning system. 

 

Mission control is done via the GCS through redundant frequency-hopping digital datalinks having a 20 n. mi range. The operator may select levels of control authority over the vehicle ranging from hands-off, waypoint inputs (from A to B at C speed at D altitude) to joystick controlled velocity commands (climb at x rate, turn at y rate, cruise at z rate, etc). Automatic take off and land, pre-programmed lost link recovery, and emergency autorotations are also executed autonomously. Situational awareness is provided by digital maps, air vehicle health displays, and payload operations screens presented on the GCS display. A stand-alone Flight Termination System is available optionally.

 

This ground control station is a hardware implementation based on the field-proven SAIC Direct Dissemination Element (DDE) ground station for the Global Hawk long endurance UAV.  It provides a complete ground control software suite, flight systems controls and displays, data acquisition recording and file management and mission management tools.

Its user-friendly interface permits safe employment by low-time operators and its modular design permits rapid incorporation of specialized interfaces.

 The Vigilanteä system has also demonstrated integrated operation of a POP-100 EO/IR sensor in flight.

 

 

 

The initial Flight Test Program has demonstrated speeds up to 50kts, altitudes up to 500 ft (limited by test range) and ranges out to 2 miles (limited by COTS datalink performance).  We have over 12 hours of flight time in autonomous flight modes and 150 hours of airborne flight-testing.