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Payloads & Missions
Use of Unmanned Surface and Aerial Vehicles to Inspect Damage After Hurricane Wilma
Dr. Robin Murphy, Eric Steimle, Charlie Cullins, Mike Hall, Kevin Pratt, Chandler Griffin, iSENSYS
On Oct. 27, 2005, a prototype man-portable unmanned surface vehicle with a Didson sonar and a Like90 T-Rex miniature helicopter were used to inspect damage on Marco Island, Florida, 11 miles from Hurricane Wilma s landfall three days prior as a Category 3 storm. This is the first known use of a USV or a USV-UAV team for disaster assistance. The use of these vehicles accomplished three research objectives. One, it established the suitability of USVs for disaster management by detecting damage to seawalls and piers, located submerged debris (moorings and handrails), and determined safe lanes for sea navigation. Two, it identified cooperative UAV-USV strategies. The UAV provided a much-needed external view for situation awareness and to spot areas to be inspected (e.g., a portion of a dock that had collapsed) and is expected to be invaluable in serving as a communications repeater for beyond line-of-sight operations. Third, a UAV deployment pattern for structural damage inspection emerged, where short, localized flights made to take advantage of lines of sight, landing zones are preferable to a single continuous fly over. New research issues in semi-autonomous control in urban settings were also identified. Extensive video documentation was collected and is available.
MQ-8B Fire Scout: An Update on Weaponization Accomplishments and Plans, an Overview of Shipboard Operations, and the Status of MQ-8B Development
Michael Fuqua, Northrop Grumman
This presentation will provide an overview of the MQ-8B Fire Scout system, address weaponization testing and future plans, and discuss shipboard testing including autonomous landings and takeoffs from a U.S. Navy ship. It will also address a short history of the program, system description, present flight-testing and spiral development growth potential.
The principal points to be addressed include current and future weaponization alternatives, autonomous flight from air capable ships and unprepared sites ashore, autonomous mission execution, and rapid retasking. Several operational scenarios will be developed to characterize Fire Scout utility in both the littorals and ashore. Fire Scout s proven success record with emphasis on completed flight operations as well as contributions to both the Navy and Army forces of the future will be stressed. Spiral development of the RQ-8B will be assessed to conclude the presentation.
Recent Developments in Army UAS Payload Programs
LTC Reed Young, PM Robotic and Unmanned Sensors
Recent successes in Operations Enduring Freedom and Iraqi Freedom (OEF/OIF) have placed tremendous emphasis on the value of unmanned aerial systems (UAS) and the variety of payload capabilities they provide. The Army s PM for Robotic and Unmanned Sensors, chartered to develop intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance payloads, directly supports OIF with its Lynx I synthetic-aperture radar ground moving-target indicator (SAR/GMTI) payload with demonstrated success for improvised-explosive-device detection and broad-area domestic-utility and weapons-cache surveillance. PM RUS has also made great strides with its Lynx II SAR/GMTI and electro-optic, infra-red, laser designator/rangefinder (EO/IR/LD/LRF) developmental payloads for the Warrior UAS. Finally, several other technologies are in transition from the science and technology base including mini-SAR/GMTI and tactical LIDAR. PM RUS has also made its foray into sensor fusion with the quick-reaction fielding of its Persistent Surveillance and Dissemination System of Systems in Baghdad. PSDS2 includes the UAS Exploitation application that can display the real-time streaming location and collected imagery of multiple UASs on a single three-dimensional map overlay providing outstanding situational awareness and asset coordination.
Remote Sensing Technologies Applied to Unmanned Air Vehicles
John Thompson, FLIR Systems, Inc.
Airborne Remote Sensing technologies have been in place for decades. With the advent of advancing technologies in unmanned air vehicles as well as the miniaturization of payloads the world will soon be viewed by smaller, less expensive, however highly effective imaging systems. Utilizing high resolution, multi-spectral bands from UV, Visible, Near IR, MWIR, LWIR, and SAR systems will be challenged to identify multiple features on a fast moving playing field.
The imaging sensors for the most part will be customized for the application. Such application critical assignments will include:
- Military
- Homeland Security
- Resource Management
The mission critical area at FLIR Systems, Inc. that we are addressing is the Military programs that require Mine / and Mine Field Detection from an unmanned air vehicle.
The current designs will be discussed as well as salient system features which are required to provide accurate mine mapping and detection. Stand-off identification of mines and mine fields is a world wide problem effecting both civilian and military personnel. FLIR Systems, Inc. is taking fundamental ideas in Remote Sensing Systems, advancing and applying them to current and global applications.
SAR Sensors for Small Tactical UAVs: Update on MISAR
Dr. Michael Edrich, Dr. Alexander Wergin, EADS Deutschland GmbH
MISAR is a highly miniaturized Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) sensor. The sensor is revolutionary with respect to its extremely low size, weight and prime power characteristics. It produces high-resolution images in near-photographic quality by day and night. With its weight of <9lbs and its ability to penetrate clouds, rain, fog, smoke and battlefield effects, MISAR for the first time facilitates a true all-weather capability for small tactical UAVs.
Successful demonstration flights were conducted at the US Army CERDEC at Lakehurst, NJ. In Germany, MISAR was successfully tested in the mini-UAV LUNA which is currently in operation in Kosovo and in Afghanistan. Based on the lessons learned, MISAR has been further improved by adding the following features:
- MTI mode for detection and tracking of moving objects.
- Innovative SAR processing algorithms to allow for arbitrary flight paths and to preserve moving objects within the SAR image.
- Miniaturised, highly precise INS system.
The presentation gives an overview of the MISAR technical design, describes the recent system improvements and shows the flight test results of the improved sensor system. The presentation will be a follow-up to the MISAR presentation at the AUVSI Unmanned Systems 2005 in Baltimore.
Autonomous Detection and Geo-Positioning of Unexploded Ordnance
Donald MacArthur, Dr. Carl D. Crane, University of Florida
This paper presents the results of research related to the automatic detection and geo-positioning of unexploded ordnance using VTOL UAVs. Personnel at the University of Florida in conjunction with those at the Air Force Research Laboratory at Tyndall Air Force Base, Florida, have developed a sensor payload capable of gathering image, attitude, and position information during flight. A suite of software has also been developed that processes the image data in order to identify UXO. These images are then geo-referenced so that the absolute positions of the UXO can be determined in terms of the ground reference frame. This sensor payload was outfitted on a Yamaha RMAX aircraft and several experiments were conducted in simulated and live bomb testing ranges. This paper discusses the object recognition and classification techniques used to extract the UXOs from the images, and presents the results from the simulated and live bombing range experiments.
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