Veronte Autopilot DRx flight control system

The Veronte Autopilot DRx flight control system from Embention is a distributed, redundant flight controller for eVTOL aircraft, urban air mobility vehicles and other autonomous or fly-by-wire platforms. In the flight controller category it targets aircraft that must keep control after a local failure, and it is built around separate autopilot cores and management boards installed in different parts of the airframe.

Safety rests on three autopilot cores working with distributed management boards that carry configurable voting logic. The cores and boards are linked by a redundant bus, and the architecture is described as having no single point of failure and as fail-operational. The system carries redundant sensing in total: 6 IMUs, 6 magnetometers, 6 barometers and 3 pitot sensors, plus 9 GNSS receivers, with support for RTK and GNSS heading. For communications the system provides 3 line-of-sight links and 4G, with external line-of-sight, LTE and satcom links as options.

The maker lists supported vehicle types as planes, multirotors, helicopters, autogiros, VTOL and unmanned surface vessels. Control modes are assisted, manual and automatic, with fly-by-wire through an onboard joystick and display. Flight phases such as takeoff, landing, cruise, hover and transition, along with failsafe, phase change, operation and payload automations, are configurable. Navigation uses a sensor mix with a Kalman filter and external sensors. Control logic and guidance, navigation and control programs are produced with model-based design tools, and custom programs can be added.

Integration is through PWM/GPIO and ADC ports and CAN, I2C, RS-232, RS-485, Ethernet and ARINC buses. Veronte CEX expansion supports up to 32 actuators. Peripherals named by the maker include gimbals, ADS-B, altimeters and cameras, and sense-and-avoid inputs include radar, lidar, camera, ADS-B and Remote ID. A mission computer can be connected, and custom protocols and STANAG are supported. The supply input is 6.5 to 36 VDC with a redundant power input, and consumption is 3 x 5 to 15 W. Each core weighs 198 g and measures about 40 mm x 64 mm x 75 mm, and the operating temperature range is -40 to 60 degrees C.

On certification, the datasheet states that the design is prepared for aircraft certification with DO-178C, DO-254 and DO-160G compliance, and it also names ESS, ATR and STANAG among the references. Typical uses are eVTOL and UAM flight control, manned-aircraft flight control and autonomous vehicles that need redundant control authority.