Electronics

Our test campaigns require high quality instrumentation to acquire engineering data and control electronics to during tests. Vorticity has an in-house electronic laboratory to design and develop electronics and embedded software for our internal requirements and to support customer testing.

Many of our tests involve sub-scale test vehicles with outer dimensions of less than 20 cm and operate in harsh environments such as near vacuum conditions at high altitude on Earth. The space for instrumentation in these vehicles is too restricted for conventional data acquisition systems. Vorticity has designed a miniature data acquisition / control system with a diameter of less than 7 cm which comprises a GPS receiver, 3axis accelerometers (2 ranges), 3-axis rate gyro and magnetometer, barometer and logging to solid state memory. Daughterboards are available for pyrotechnic firing, radio communication, peripheral power, and other mission specific requirements. This system has flown successfully on a number of high altitude balloon flights and the SUPERMAX vehicle, reaching a maximum altitude of 690 km and experiencing a full Earth re-entry including deceleration of up to 34g.

The Vorticity 3G DAS

Electronics Case Studies

Cirrus Aircraft – Whole Aircraft Recovery Systems
ESA – Alternative Descent and Landing Systems
ESA – Earth Return Capsule Campaign