BML Business Development
Meeting with staff from MBDA
On the 5th of September, several Teams participating in the MoD Grand Challenge, including the Barnard Microsystems Team, were invited by Mohan Ahad of MBDA to visit the impressive MBDA site at Filton, Bristol, to discuss ways in which MBDA and the Teams could work together to use the NEMESIS software developed at MBDA.
"MBDA and Barnard Microsystems have agreed in principle to collaborate on participating in the MoD Grand Challenge, where MBDA has offered to develop NEMESIS (Network Enabled Multi-Environment System Integration Solution) which is essentially an information handling system to support a semi-autonomous vehicle in an urban environment.
The intention is to build the architecture based on software modules and middleware provided by MBDA, which would then allow Barnard to add and test their own algorithms, vehicles and sensors. NEMESIS should permit these components to operate as a system..."
Meeting with some members of the Dragon Air Systems Team
Dr Joe Barnard of the Barnard Microsystems Team with Jon Exton and Roy King, both of the Dragon Air Systems Team, at a meeting on Friday 24th August at the BML HQ in North London, discussing areas of mutual interest, especially the potential use of the Dragonfly Air Systems platform.
Lt Col Philip Poole, Defence Academy of the United Kingdom
Lt Col Philip Poole of the Defence Academy of the UK discusses with Dr Joseph Barnard of Barnard Microsystems the nature of the contributions BML could make to the UK Defence Capability Centre by way of communicating the capabilities of emerging technologies, such as those that will be used in the MoD Grand Challenge:
- material for a poster board, where the boards are 1.8 m wide and 1.5 m tall
- presentation material for use in lectures, in Power Point format
- hardware demonstrators
- video footage of system demonstrators, emphasising system capabilities from a defence perspective
At the meeting on Monday, 20th August, 2007, Dr Barnard offered to supply the Defence Capability Centre with contributions in all of the above categories, with particular emphasis on the technology to be used in the MoD Grand Challenge, including versions of the Unmanned Aircraft to be used by the BM Team in the MoD Grand Challenge.
Roger Archer, MD of Alliance
Roger Xuereb Archer, Managing Director of Alliance based in Malta discusses the development of a business relationship with Dr Joseph Barnard, Managing Director of Barnard Microsystems based in the U.K. at a meeting in London on Monday, 6th August 2007. Malta is well placed as a centre of oil and gas exploration activities in North Africa, and especially in the untapped regions of Libya.
Meeting with Paul Kimber of Selex S+AS
Paul Kimber of Selex S+AS (left) and Dr Joe Barnard of Barnard Microsystems Limited (right) discuss issues of interest in general to the SEAS Defence Technology Centre, and where BML could make a contribution, at a meeting at BML offices in North London on Wednesday 26th March 2008.
Break during EuroCAE Working Group 73 Sub-Group 3 meeting in Prague
Afternoon break during a two day EuroCAE meeting on Tuesday 27th and Wednesday 28th November, 2007 at the very smart Honeywell facilities in Prague. Dewar Donnithorne-Tait (UAVSI) explaining the subtleties of a UAV test flight to Christian Pelmoine (EUROCONTROL) with Dr Uwe Hingst (Diehl-BGT-Defence) immediatley behind them. Also standing, from left to right, are Ondrej Koukol (Honeywell, Czech Republic), Axel Klaeyle (Thales) and Eric Allaix (DGAC DSNA). Sub Group 3 is generating a set of recommendations for the Command and Control of Unmanned Aircraft Systems.
Inaugural meeting of the AUVSI London Chapter
The inaugural meeting of the AUVSI London Chapter on the evening of Tuesday 20th November at the Micromill Waterlooville site. Present were, from left to right: Dewar Donnithorne-Tait, Tim Young, Richard Searle, Joe Barnard, Sandy Allsop and John Hartas.
Meeting in Rome of EuroCAE Working Group 73 on Unmanned Aircraft Systems
Third meeting at MBDA
Photograph kindly supplied by Mohan Ahad of MBDA (front row, fourth from left, holding folder).
On 23rd October, some members of four Teams (for some reason Raglan Tribe appears not to be in this photograph) participating in the MoD Grand Challenge met at the MBDA Stevenage Site to work on the definition of the interfaces to the MBDA NEMESIS software, and on the definition of the flight plan syntax. The development of the NEMESIS software is progressing to schedule.
Meeting Dr Rashid Ali at the University of Hertfordshire
On Monday 22nd October Joseph Barnard visited Dr Rashid Ali, Senior Lecturer in the School of Aerospace, Automotive and Design Engineering at the University of Hertfordshire, to discuss the design of Flight Control Units and see the impressive facilities at the University. Rashid and his students have the ability to design both the Unmanned Aircraft airframe and the guidance and control electronics, and can make the airframe on site.
Meeting with members of Middlesex University I-SPY Team
On Thursday 27th September, members of the Middlesex University I-SPY Team and Joe Barnard, leader of the Barnard Microsystems Team, met at Middlesex University Trent Campus to discuss aspects of multi-rotor hover vehicle technology. In the above photograph, courtesy of Mehmet Erbil, are from left to right: Mehmet Erbil (I-Spy), Tom Foran (I-Spy), Sid Odedra (I-Spy), Dr Joe Barnard (BM) and Dr Stephen Prior (I-Spy). The quadrotor shown above was simply used to illustrate some points in the discussion, and does not represent the actual technology either Team is pursuing.