Crossbow Technology Introduces Three New MEMS Based Inertial Systems Targeted for Unmanned Aircraft Guidance and Remotely Piloted Vehicle Systems.

Business Editors/High-Tech Writers

SAN JOSE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Oct. 11, 2001

Crossbow Technology, Inc., the leading supplier of low-cost, intelligent digital sensing solutions, today introduced a trio of new inertial systems designed for unmanned aircraft guidance and remotely piloted vehicles. Crossbow's VG400CB, AHRS400CB, and the AHRS500CB are the latest members of the company's solid-state attitude and heading reference systems that combine the functionality of a high-performance IMU (inertial measurement unit) with vertical and directional gyro capabilities.

The new VG400CB and AHRS400CB are the lower cost units, while the AHRS500CB provides the full feature set required of an FAA-approved system.

All of the new products are based upon Crossbow's extensive history in airborne navigation products. Both the AHRS400CB and AHRS500CB were flown on a number of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles prior to introduction and numerous missions were conducted incorporating a $125,000 military-performance ring laser gyro inertial reference system as a truth (control) system. These tests proved the capability of the AHRS400CB and AHRS500CB to maintain its accuracy in highly dynamic flight maneuvers.

Crossbow Leverages Recent Improvements In MEMS Technology for

Navigation and Control

The AHRS400CB and AHRS500CB combine the latest silicon bulk micromachined accelerometers and angular rate sensors, with sophisticated, proprietary compensation and angle calculation algorithms executing on a dual-DSP processor.

Crossbow's improvements and accuracy has produced new levels of performance across the most demanding airborne environments. Crossbow's new Kalman filter-based algorithmic approach leverages this technology to achieve static attitude accuracy of better than 0.5 degrees. The systems can track high-speed flight maneuvers of up to 10G and 200 Deg/s, while achieving better than 2.0 degree accuracy in most typical cases. Up until the introduction of the Crossbow systems, this level of in flight performance could only be achieved using sophisticated, and expensive, Fiber Optic or Ring Laser systems. "A good AHRS typically costs $25,000 or more. Crossbow is now providing similar performance at significantly less," said John Crawford, Crossbow's vice president of business development. "Building upon experience from our previous generation of product development, we have improved the technology on all fronts, from the raw sensors, through the digital sensor calibration and compensation, through the unique Kalman-filter-based algorithms." New design features also reduce sensitivity to vibration and EMI. Crossbow's new products are plug-and-play compatible with previous generations.

The VG400CB and AHRS400CB have analog and digital output modes for easy integration, while the AHRS500CB has a high-speed digital interface. The AHRS500CB incorporates continuous self-testing like expensive commercial and military inertial systems with the Built-In Test (BIT) status provided to the user. Digital data can be requested via serial command or transferred continuously. Crossbow's Gyro-View software is shipped with all three products for use on PCs running Microsoft Windows 95, 98 or 2000. Gyro-View provides a convenient way to start system development, evaluate performance, and perform data acquisition.

"There are many different unmanned and remotely piloted vehicle platforms in operation today with different platforms have different requirements for size, performance and functionality requirements," said Dean Johnson, Crossbow's Vice President of Inertial Systems. "We have developed three unique products to cover as many of the potential requirements as possible."

VG400CB

The VG400CB is Crossbow's smallest unit. It weighs in at 3.00" x 3.75" x 3.20" and 600 grams. The VG400CB provides roll and pitch information that can be used to drive the attitude control of an unmanned system. The information is accurate to within a two-degree tolerance during standard maneuvers flight maneuvers and 0.5 degrees in cruise. The outputs are available in both digital and analog signal formats. The unit also functions as an IMU by outputting the rate and acceleration signals.

AHRS400CB

The AHRS400CB combines the VG400CB functionality with a built in flux gate magnetometer, also known as flux-valve. The incorporation of a flux-valve allows the AHRS400CB to directly measure heading and replace the directional gyro functionality found in older avionics systems.

AHRS500CB

The AHRS500CB is the highest performance and highest capability of Crossbow's inertial systems designed around airborne requirement. The AHRS500CB was designed to meet FAA requirements including TSO c4c, TSO c6d, DO-160D, and DO-178B. The AHRS500CB has Built-In Test, allowing it to continuously monitor all of the sensor channels and electronics for proper performance. In addition the AHRS500CB has a self-contained vibration isolation system that allows unparalleled performance from its MEMS sensor elements while exposed to vibration and shock forces.

Pricing and Availability

All three units are available now, with prices starting at $5,500.

About Crossbow

Crossbow Technology, Inc. is the leading supplier of low-cost, intelligent digital sensor solutions. Crossbow's sensors integrate silicon micromachining (MEMS) technology with digital signal processing. The sensors incorporate the company's proprietary SoftSensor(R) embedded firmware, which includes algorithms for stabilization and navigation applications coupled with internal compensation and communication functions. Crossbow is located at 41 E. Daggett Drive, San Jose, CA 95134. Telephone: [phone]. Fax: [phone]. Email: [e-mail]. Visit Crossbow at www.xbow.com.