Sentinel demonstrates ViDAR on ScanEagle

Australian company Sentient Vision said in February that it had demonstrated the ability of its Kestrel Maritime ViDAR optical detection system aboard a Royal Australian Navy (RAN) ScanEagle UAV to provide a broad area surveillance capability that covered up to 80 times the previous maritime patrol area in a single sortie.

Flying from HMAS Albatross, in athree day trial in November, the Kestrel ViDAR-equipped Insitu ScanEagle flew a total of 10.5 hours along the coast. The demonstration showed how the ScanEagle could cover an area greater than 13,000nm2 of ocean over a 12-hour mission.

On its first flight it successfully detected two RAN vessels positioned for the trial, before going on to also autonomously find smaller targets such as small boats and yachts, a submerged whale, and an airborne helicopter.

The ViDAR system is a self-contained unit comprising high-resolution digital video cameras and software that analyses the resulting image feed to detect objects against an ocean background.

The system can autonomously detect, track and photograph each contact, transmitting the image in real time to a laptop ground station where operators can then cross-cue the aerial platform’s primary electro-optical sensor to the contact by simply clicking on the image.

According to the company, ViDAR’s cameras pan through 180 degrees, dramatically increasing the detection area or 'swathe' ahead and abeam of the UAV, allowing it to cover an area up to 80 times greater in a single sortie than an identical UAV without the ViDAR system. It can be incorporated in to the ScanEagle as two fuselage slices, ahead of and behind the wing, without affecting the aircraft’s structure, systems or performance.

ViDAR has been tested by the US Coast Guard and selected for the Australian Maritime Safety Authority’s new Challenger 604 search and rescue aircraft, due to enter service in 2016.

Simon Olsen, Sentients’ director of business development, strategy and partnerships, said this first operational test of the ViDAR system aboard a working tactical UAV proved the system can effectively turn an aerial platform previously used only for surveillance in to a search asset.

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ScanEagle / ScanEagle 2