Electrical System Evaluation Platform for Uninhabited Autonomous Vehicles

A status report on the development of an electrical test-facility for the SEAS DTC (Systems Engineering for Autonomous Systems, Defence Technology Centre) project ‘ultra-compact intelligent electrical networks’ is presented. The electrical platform has initially been based on a small, aerial, uninhabited autonomous vehicle architecture, which consists of two electrical generators, a DC distribution system, an energy storage device and various electrical loads. The issues that arise when implementing such a test platform are discussed and a suitable design strategy is proposed along with progress to-date.