Brushless rotary servo-actuator family

Hitec Commercial Solutions brushless rotary servo-actuators are a family of rotary servo actuators for unmanned aircraft and other commercial systems, made by Hitec Commercial Solutions of San Diego, California. The range includes brushless models with a magnetic encoder for position feedback and CAN or DroneCAN command interfaces, alongside versions with PWM, PWM/TTL and RS485 command protocols.

The family is sorted by stall torque from 25 kgf-cm or less up to more than 100 kgf-cm, by supply voltage (4.8 V, 6.0 V, 7.4 V, 12.0 V and 24 to 28 V), by case size from 8 mm to 33 mm, and by no-load speed. Hitec describes its actuators as suited to manage the control surfaces and payloads of professional unmanned aircraft. Selection starts from the torque needed at the control surface or mechanism, the available bus voltage and the space in the airframe.

Two models show the range. The BD10BL-CAN-DroneCAN is a 10 mm brushless actuator with a plastic case, weighing 11.8 g, measuring 25.0 x 10.0 x 28.0 mm, operating on 4.0 V to 8.4 V, with a stall torque of 2.8 kgf-cm at 7.4 V; it is rated to 500 hours MTTF and 1.2 million cycles. The MDB961WP-CAN-DroneCAN-28V is a 20 mm brushless actuator with an aluminum case, five hardened steel gears and an IP67 rating, operating on 8 V to 32 V, measuring 40.0 x 20.0 x 39.0 mm and weighing 90 g.

The CAN versions use DroneCAN (UAVCAN v0.0) and CAN 2.0A/B, so they connect to any DroneCAN-capable flight controller on a shared two-wire bus and return position and telemetry data. Parameters such as end points, direction, fail-safe, dead band, speed, soft start rate and overload protection are set with the Hitec DPC-20 or DPC-CAN programmers, and the maker supplies a protocol manual, a register header file, a configuration app and CAD files.

Hitec states ISO 9001 certification for the company and describes the BD10 as NDAA compliant. Typical applications are flight control surfaces, payload mechanisms and valve or latch actuation on small and medium UAS, as well as robotics, unmanned ground and underwater systems and industrial automation.