Sentient ViDAR demonstrates real time search and detect.
The Australian Navy has conducted flight trials at Nowra, Australia, of Sentient’s ViDAR EO/IR wide area detection payload from a modified ScanEagle UAS. In tough conditions of up to 30 knot winds and haze, Navy trials demonstrated real time autonomous detection of a number of targets over two days including a fast boat at 6.5 nautical miles (nm) from the aircraft, an incoming Frigate at 12.6nm, an airborne helicopter at 3.5nm, a submarine at 7.5nm and even a submerged whale at 1.5nm!
“ViDAR provides over 80 times the area coverage compared with existing EO/IR systems”
• Automatically detects, highlights and tracks sea surface contacts including fast boats, small wooden or rubber vessels and people in the water
• Provides thumbnail images and locations of detected objects for sensor operators
• Enables cross-cueing of other sensors for interrogation and classification
• Allows passive search and track for covert environments such as drug interdiction and submarine periscope detection
Kestrel Maritime ViDAR consists of single or multiple 9 megapixel secondary sensor(s) and onboard automation software designed to automatically detect objects on the ocean in real time. The 9 megapixel sensors operate akin to an airborne radar, but in the visual domain, by sending objects detected to the operator for further analysis by the aircrafts primary sensor.
Equally effective in manned and unmanned aircraft, ViDAR enables:
• Effective search and surveillance with smaller airframes
• Life extension of superseded legacy sensors through ability to cross cue from high-sensitivity ViDAR
• Most efficient use of limited airframe payload
