May 1 2018 – Montreal, Canada – Presagis™, a recognized leader in simulation software and solutions, today announced the delivery of its UAV (Unmanned Aerial Vehicle) simulator platform – UAV CRAFT – to Laflamme Aero, the firm leading the LX300 unmanned helicopter project.
Working closely with NGC Aerospace, Laflamme Aero’s LX300 boasts an intermediate size (300kg), gas-powered engine, powerful tandem rotors, and an ability to handle large payloads in any weather. The LX300 UAV – or drone – has already garnered a great deal of interest from many of the world’s most prestigious military organizations.
Both located in Quebec, Canada, Laflamme Aero is a rapidly growing aerospace company that designed and manufactured the LX300, whereas NGC specializes in autonomy-enabling guidance, navigation and control (GNC) algorithms, simulators and real-time software for space, aeronautical and terrestrial applications.
“Each of these customers shine a spotlight on the UAV CRAFT’s fundamental strengths – not only from a simulation or manufacturing standpoint, but from a research and development approach,” explains Stephane Blondin, Presagis’ Vice President of Product Management and Marketing. “From on-board equipment development using a validation and verification process, to creating rich research environments, UAV CRAFT’s modularity and flexibility proved to be a huge asset in the realization of the LX300 .” Both Laflamme and NGC made excellent use of UAV CRAFT’s realistic environments and flight models, as well as its sensor modeling capabilities. Laflamme used UAV CRAFT to validate and refine GCS ergonomics, helicopter model concepts, and simulate UAV prototypes, while NGC used it to refine and validate proximity object detection and collision avoidance algorithms and to perform a wide range of LiDAR sensor, and other hardware-in-the-loop simulations.
“By using UAV CRAFT for the flight model testing, our company was able to group more and more components into the flight envelope such as autopilot systems, GCS, navigation and helicopter models from the conceptual phase to real development. We were then able to refine all of these components through simulation to advance our development,” said Enrick Laflamme, co-founder of Laflamme Aero.
David Neveu, Project Manager at NGC Aerospace, adds, “Another validation approach often used in the industry is to test a system directly on an experimental aircraft. The problem with that is that the environment is not controllable and there are many uncertainties - it is also very inefficient, expensive, and time consuming.”
Launched in 2015, the UAV CRAFT is a high-performance, high-fidelity simulator that gives customers full control of avionics, aerodynamics, weight and balance, engines, flight control, navigation, payloads, weather, and much more. Customers can easily customize and configure the UAV CRAFT for pilot and payload training, “test bench” research, or new product development and design.
Laflamme Aero’s LX300 boasts an intermediate size (300kg), gas-powered engine, powerful tandem rotors, and an ability to handle large payloads in any weather.
