VOL. 10 NUM. 3 YEAR 2017 ISSN 1985-6571 Design Optimisation of Solar Powered Near-Space Vehicle for Defence, Security and 169 - 186 Disaster Management Applications Azam Che Idris, Noor Azman Dollah, Muhamad Faiz Baharun, Mohd Rashdan Saad, Suriyadi Sojipto & Mohd Rosdzimin Abdul Rahman Development of Lightweight and Low-Cost Fully Autonomous Hexacopter UAV 187 - 198 Yaakob Mansor, Shattri Mansor, Helmi Zulhaidi, Abdul Rahman Ramli & Ajibola I. Isola Performance Comparison of Emitter Locating System for Low Level Airborne Targets 199 - 217 Ahmad Zuri Sha’ameri, Abdulmalik Shehu Yaro, Freeha Majeed Amjad & Muhammad Noor Muhammad Hamdi Prediction of Scintillation and Signal Quality on GPS L2 Band 218 - 228 Ho Yih Hwa & Emad Fathi Mohamed Aon Evaluation of Global Positioning System (GPS) Adjacent Band Compatibility via GPS 229 - 235 Simulation Dinesh Sathyamoorthy, Zainal Fitry M Amin & Shahrudin Abu Hassan Estimation of Upper Limb Real Dynamic Force Using Surface Electromyogram (sEMG) 236 - 245 Shaiful Bahri Zainal Abidin, Wan Nor Izzati Wan Jusoh, Hasyatun Che-Nan, Wan Fadilah Wan Abdullah & Gan Kok Beng Review on Rapid Portable Bridge System: State-of-the-Art and Technology Developments 246 - 257 Azrul Affandhi Musthaffa, Norazman Mohamad Nor & Muhamad Azani Yahya Quasi-Static Indentation Behaviour of Kenaf Bast Fibre Reinforced Metal Laminate System 258 – 271 Sivakumar Dhar Malingam, Nisallini Pilvamangalam, Omar Bapokutty, Sivarao Subramonian & Mohd Zulkefli Selamat Vibration Monitoring on Ball Bearing Operated Under Hexagonal Boron Nitride (hBN) 272 - 289 Nanoparticles Mixed With Diesel Engine Oil Noor Shakinah Rudzlan Apandi & Rainah Ismail Noise Exposure Inside a Passenger Car Cabin in Tropical Environmental Condition 290 - 296 Shamsul Akmar Ab Aziz, Adam Gani, Aizul Fazli Suhaimi, Aznida Yusuf@Md Yusuf, Shamsiah Kalil & Mohd Zaki Nuawi Recognition of Most Common Diesel Engine Condition Monitoring Methods 297 - 310 Yogeswaran Sinnasamy, Mohd Razali Mat Yassin, Noor Aishah Sa’at, Hasril Nain, Faiz Azmi Sutarji, Azmahani Sulaiman, Ibrahim Tahir, Rosdi Yaakob, Ahmad Subardi Mohd Wazir, Kamil Azwan Salehuddin, Mohd Ridzuan Mohd Rashid, Abbas Zubir, Hanizah Kasmoni, Elizabeth Louisnaden & Khairul Anuar Ahmad SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY RESEARCH INSTITUTE FOR DEFENCE (STRIDE) Ministry of Defence Malaysia EDITORIAL BOARD Chief Editor Gs. Dr. Dinesh Sathyamoorthy Deputy Chief Editor Dr. Mahdi bin Che Isa Associate Editors Dr. Ridwan bin Yahaya Dr. Norliza bt Hussein Dr. Rafidah bt Abd Malik Ir. Dr. Shamsul Akmar bin Ab Aziz Nor Hafizah bt Mohamed Masliza bt Mustafar Kathryn Tham Bee Lin Siti Rozanna bt Yusuf Copyright of the Science & Technology Research Institute for Defence (STRIDE), 2017 AIMS AND SCOPE The Defence S&T Technical Bulletin is the official technical bulletin of the Science & Technology Research Institute for Defence (STRIDE). The bulletin, which is indexed in, among others, Scopus, Index Corpenicus, ProQuest and EBSCO, contains manuscripts on research findings in various fields of defence science & technology. The primary purpose of this bulletin is to act as a channel for the publication of defence-based research work undertaken by researchers both within and outside the country. WRITING FOR THE DEFENCE S&T TECHNICAL BULLETIN Contributions to the bulletin should be based on original research in areas related to defence science & technology. All contributions should be in English. PUBLICATION The editors’ decision with regard to publication of any item is final. A manuscript is accepted on the understanding that it is an original piece of work that has not been accepted for publication elsewhere. PRESENTATION OF MANUSCRIPTS The format of the manuscript is as follows: a) Page size A4 b) MS Word format c) Single space d) Justified e) In Times New Roman ,11-point font f) Should not exceed 20 pages, including references g) Texts in charts and tables should be in 10-point font. Please e-mail the manuscript to: 1) Gs. Dr. Dinesh Sathyamoorthy ([email protected]) 2) Dr. Mahdi bin Che Isa ([email protected]) The next edition of the bulletin (Vol. 11, Num. 1) is expected to be published in April 2018. The due date for submissions is 7 February 2018. It is strongly iterated that authors are solely responsible for taking the necessary steps to ensure that the submitted manuscripts do not contain confidential or sensitive material. The template of the manuscript is as follows: i TITLE OF MANUSCRIPT Name(s) of author(s) Affiliation(s) Email: ABSTRACT Contents of abstract. Keywords: Keyword 1; keyword 2; keyword 3; keyword 4; keyword 5. 1. TOPIC 1 Paragraph 1. Paragraph 2. 1.1 Sub Topic 1 Paragraph 1. Paragraph 2. 2. TOPIC 2 Paragraph 1. Paragraph 2. Figure 1: Title of figure. Table 1: Title of table. Content Content Content Content Content Content Content Content Content Content Content Content Equation 1 (1) Equation 2 (2) ii REFERENCES Long lists of notes of bibliographical references are generally not required. The method of citing references in the text is ‘name date’ style, e.g. ‘Hanis (1993) claimed that...’, or ‘…including the lack of interoperability (Bohara et al., 2003)’. End references should be in alphabetical order. The following reference style is to be adhered to: Books Serra, J. (1982). Image Analysis and Mathematical Morphology. Academic Press, London. Book Chapters Goodchild, M.F. & Quattrochi, D.A. (1997). Scale, multiscaling, remote sensing and GIS. In Quattrochi, D.A. & Goodchild, M.F. (Eds.), Scale in Remote Sensing and GIS. Lewis Publishers, Boca Raton, Florida, pp. 1-11. Journals / Serials Jang, B.K. & Chin, R.T. (1990). Analysis of thinning algorithms using mathematical morphology. IEEE T. Pattern Anal., 12: 541-550. Online Sources GTOPO30 (1996). GTOPO30: Global 30 Arc Second Elevation Data Set. Available online at: http://edcwww.cr.usgs.gov/landdaac/gtopo30/gtopo30.html (Last access date: 1 June 2009). Unpublished Materials (e.g. theses, reports and documents) Wood, J. (1996). The Geomorphological Characterization of Digital Elevation Models. PhD Thesis, Department of Geography, University of Leicester, Leicester. iii DESIGN OPTIMISATION OF SOLAR POWERED NEAR-SPACE VEHICLE FOR DEFENCE, SECURITY AND DISASTER MANAGEMENT APPLICATIONS Azam Che Idris, Noor Azman Dollah, Muhamad Faiz Baharun, Mohd Rashdan Saad, Suriyadi Sojipto & Mohd Rosdzimin Abdul Rahman Faculty of Engineering, National Defence University of Malaysia (UPNM), Malaysia *Email: [email protected] ABSTRACT The near-space region, which is the region between 12 to 62 mi above sea level, is the last frontier to be conquered by aviators. Radars, remote sensing devices and telecommunication satellites can perform better than satellites in orbit if they are flown in the near-space region. They are also cheaper to launch since space launch vehicle systems are exorbitantly expensive. This paper examines the necessary engineering factors that must be considered to design and optimise a perpetually flying near-space flight vehicle. The optimised design is then virtually simulated against real world operating conditions and engineering uncertainties using Simulink and the Monte Carlo method. Keywords: Solar; aircraft design; high-altitude, high altitude long endurance (HALE); pseudo- satellite. 1. INTRODUCTION The near-space region has been the focus of many military research institutions due to its huge potential and strategic importance. The term near-space is defined as the air space between 12 to 62 mi (approximately 19 to 100 km) of altitude. The area above 62 mi is widely considered as a sub-orbital outer space region. The characteristic of the near-space region is that its atmosphere is too rarefied to the extent that conventional winged flight is very difficult (but not impossible) while at the same time gravity is too strong for a satellite to orbit. If, for example, a pseudo- satellite could be placed on a station between these heights, the reduction of total life-cycle cost and an increase in responsiveness can be achieved (Stephens, 2005). Aircrafts that can carry satellite-capable systems in the near space region are called high-altitude platforms (HAP) (Jamison et al., 2005). The image capturing capabilities of a HAP carrying intelligence-surveillance-reconnaissance (ISR) equipment is much superior to those of a satellite due to closer distance to the earth surface. This is the reason why the United States Air Force (USAF) employed Lockheed’s U2 high altitude long endurance (HALE) spy-planes, which flew at 70,000 ft (21 km) altitude for reconnaissance purposes. This aircraft is still in service, surviving the budget cuts that ended the life of another high-altitude ISR platform, the SR71 Blackbird. However, the USAF is also actively looking to design a successor to U2 as the current system requires two pilots to fly for 8 h before landing for refuelling (Navarro, 2007). In comparison, a perpetual HAP without the need to land and refuel would be a much better ISR system. 169 A HAP can be inserted into its intended altitude ad-hoc in a battlefield to connect all disparate elements and assets being deployed by the field commander. The HAP could simply act as the node to relay between a broadcast to the receivers, or it could become the hub to connect all incoming and outgoing data streams, such as depicted in Figure 1 (Pinkney et al., 1996). Current communication standards, such as the BOWMAN and JTIDS/Link16, can be adopted easily by a HAP system. As a replacement for military satellite communications (MILSATCOM), a pseudo- satellite on board of a HAP can operate at extremely high frequency (EHF) (at either 20 or 45 GHz), which is still uncluttereed, has largee spectral availability and has low probability of intercept (LPI) (Tozer et al., 2000). The range of communications is between 120 to 270 mi depending on the elevation angle of the broadcast and receiver beam (Pinkney et al., 1996). The platform itself is stealthy with low radar signature that shields it from enemy detection during active battle. Although possible, there is very limited number of surface to air missiles that can reach the near spacce altitude (Tozer et al., 2000).