Unmanned Systems Today

2.4 - Research Assignment: Unmanned Systems Maritime Search and Rescue (PLG1 ) Unmanned maritime systems offer flexibility and greater capability for search and rescue operations. While there are several maritime surface systems that are developed for this task, such as the ROAZ II, or the U Ranger, one exciting new airborne system is employing new technology for wide area ocean scanning. The Scan eagle has been used by the Navy for over a decade in combat zones for Intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) purposes. Sentient, an Australian company specializing in artificial intelligence (AI) and computer sensing, has developed a new type of sensor they call ViDAR which they believe will greatly enhance the maritime search and rescue front as well as increase the surveillance capabilities of the aircraft. ViDAR stands for Visual Detection and ranging, similar to RADAR, radio detection and ranging, ViDAR uses the visual bands of the electromagnetic spectrum to send out pul

Consumer drones have rapidly evolved in the last few years. While cameras are almost expected on nearly every drone purchased these days, the capabilities of those cameras are increasing significantly. Though many on-baord cameras offered with high end drones boast the ability to capture ultra high definition (UHD) 4k resolution full motion video, they still only collect the what the human eye can see, color and light. These colors fall within the visual range of the electromagnetic spectrum, and represent what we perceive with the naked eye.  The colors fall between the wavelengths of about 400-700 nanometers. Camera sensors can be tuned to image only certain wavelengths/colors, and there are many applications for looking at various individual bands of this spectrum. There are several reasons one would want to isolate specific bands, or capture wavelengths outside of the visual spectrum.  but one example would be to monitor the health of the vegetation in a farmers field. Multi Spe