Micro Systems, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Kratos Defense & Security Solutions is an AS9100 Rev. C and ISO 9001:2008 certified company headquartered in Fort Walton Beach, Florida. We are a world leader in high performance Air, Land, and Sea Surface vehicle control.
Our principal business is the design, development, and manufacture of sophisticated systems used in a broad range of defense applications primarily in the unmanned systems segment of the aerospace and defense industry. Since 1976 we have served the defense industry with a wide range of solutions and products for Command and Control (C2), Vehicle System Management, Flight Telemetry, Over-The-Horizon Communication, Electronic Warfare, Flight Line Test, and Range Safety. We offer a broad range of products including Unmanned Vehicle Control Systems, Autopilots and Mission Computers, Radar Tracking and Command Data Link Transponders, Scoring Systems, Custom Test Equipment, and Flight Termination Systems.
Our 51,000+ sqft facility houses a mix of over 30 hardware, software, mechanical and systems engineers, 3D printer and full CAD department, modern “paperless” manufacturing environment, full System Integration Laboratory (SIL), and a test department that includes 2 shock/vibration tables, 9 environmental temperature/altitude/humidity chambers, and the latest commercial and custom test equipment available.
Over the years the company has expanded its technical expertise to become world leaders in Unmanned Vehicle Control Systems, Ground Vehicle Automation, Multiple Band Transponders, GPS-based Tracking Systems, Test Equipment, Flight Termination Systems, and Engineering Services. Our customer base includes all three branches of the armed services, several large industry partners, and allied military forces worldwide. All equipment is built under direct or subcontract for Department of Defense agencies. The management and engineering team possess over 500 man-years of experience in vehicle control systems. Micro Systems, Inc. provides logistics, test engineering, and depot support.
Our experienced team of management, engineering, and production personnel are goal oriented, recognized leaders in the defense industry. They follow through from design, prototype, qualification, manufacturing, test to final delivery. Micro Systems is dedicated to providing total customer satisfaction and have a team in place with the resources, commitment and quality mind-set necessary to provide high performance high reliability products to exceed our customer’s expectations.
High Performance Airborne Vehicle Control Systems
Micro Systems has developed advanced Autopilots and Mission Computers for a range of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV), high-performance aerial targets, and unmanned aerial combat systems for the U.S. Department of Defense and allied military forces worldwide. Our airborne vehicle control systems provide varying levels of integration and capability to offer full manual vehicle control from the Command and Control (C2) system on the ground or for more advanced mission requirements complete flight profiles can be preprogrammed to provide fully autonomous operation. These robust vehicle control systems are available in a variety of configurations ranging from processing-only units with external radio frequency (RF) modules (data link transponders) to fully integrated units with RF transceivers and Global Positioning Receivers.
Unmanned Vehicle Mission Computer
The Unmanned Vehicle Mission Computer (UVMC) is a modular, high performance Vehicle Management System that provides maximum flexibility for easy integration into multiple vehicle types. It was developed with high-level mission planning functionality and vehicle sensor integration as key feature capabilities.
This is a field proven system with various configurations utilized on the MQM-178 Firejet and BQM-177 currently in use by the U.S. Military and Allied Forces worldwide. The UVMC is designed with an advanced parallel processing architecture that utilizes a 760 MIPS main processor for complex autopilot control algorithms and an FPGA based processing module for Input/Output (I/O) vehicle control requirements. This unique architecture utilizes a common inter-module bus structure that allows the core autopilot software to remain separate from the I/O software which offloads I/O functions from the main processor.
The UVMC includes interfaces for external GPS and IMU modules as well as RS-232/485/422, CAN, HDLC, 10Base100 Ethernet, ITCS, and JTAG. MIL-STD-1553B is also available as an optional upgrade. It also includes a removable Compact Flash module to support high speed data recording requirements.
The UVMC has been qualified per MIL-STD-461E (EMI), MIL-STD-810G (Environmental), MIL-HDBK-781A (Reliability) making it one of the most capable devices in the industry.
Integrated Flight Controller
The Integrated Flight Controller (IFC) controls the entire flight functionality and maneuverability of the BQM-167 subsonic aerial target platform. The IFC accepts commands from a ground control system (such as GRDCS, SNTC, TTCS), inputs current vehicle operating parameters from onboard sensors, and outputs control signals to the vehicle for flight control. The IFC supports multiple high performance maneuvers such as barrel rolls, high G turns, and low altitude operation.
The IFC Message Processor contains the datalink encode/decode and autopilot functions. These two functions are performed by a single high performance PowerPC processor. The IFC provides autonomous control functions to assure safe operation of the aircraft in the event of command datalink loss. This includes recovery to stable flight conditions while performing commanded maneuvers and control for escape maneuvers of individual drones under all flight conditions.
The IFC communicates with a Command Data Link Transponder via EIA RS-485 serial interfaces. It receives uplink commands from the ground control station and outputs control signals to the UAV. The IFC also transmits downlink telemetry information (UAV performance information) to the ground control station.
The IFC Message Processor also communicates with the attitude sensor package (ASP) via EIA RS-485 at a 100 Hz rate. It gathers Heading, Pitch Angle, Roll Angle, Pitch rate, Roll rate, and Yaw rate. It also communicates to the Ground Support Equipment (GSE) via an EIA RS-422 serial umbilical interface. This interface is used to load initialization parameters and flight information into the IFC. The interface is also used to connect to the Multi-Platform Vehicle Test Set (MPVTS).