CAMCOPTER® S-100 – DEMONSTRATING ITS MARITIME CAPABILITY IN THE NETHERLANDS

Vienna, 30 April 2014 – The CAMCOPTER® S-100 Unmanned Air System (UAS) successfully demonstrated its capability across several different maritime scenarios to Dutch Authorities in Den Helder, The Netherlands, on 29 April 2014.

Consolidating its unmatched maritime position, the S-100 demonstrated its ability to support maritime commanders and decision makers in the North Sea, west of Den Helder. The North Sea is already one of the busiest maritime areas in the world and the  Coast Guard expects this to increase over the coming years.

The demonstrations were executed from a Dutch Navy vessel, using the L3 Wescam MX-10 electro-optic sensor as a payload. The demonstration programme was based around a sequence of scenarios commencing with the CAMCOPTER® S-100 introduction to the audience.

In one of those scenarios a fire onboard a ship loaded with dangerous substances resulted in the crew abandoning the vessel, two crew members are missing and no further information is available. Before the rescue mission begins it is deemed essential by the decision makers that they have “eyes” on the target to assess risks and determine the possible location of the missing crew members. The S-100 is deployed to provide this information as well as giving other useful information to help combat the fire. The CAMCOPTER® demonstrates how it can gather this time critical information quickly and efficiently.

The fight against drug smuggling formed the theme of another scenario. The S-100 is deployed to discretely follow a suspect vessel. Suddenly a rigid-hulled inflatable boat, (RHIB) appears, moving alongside the vessel. The unmanned helicopter observes and records the transfer of drugs and supplies time critical information to the allied ships to intercept and detain the RHIB.

During all scenarios the CAMCOPTER® S-100 ably demonstrated its flexibility, versatility and persistence, all of which are the key to successful operation in maritime environment.

Hans Georg Schiebel, Chairman of the Schiebel Group of companies commented:”This series of trials once again showed how the S-100 can provide a cost effective capability to Maritime Commanders and decision makers whether ashore or afloat.”

Marines happily recycle Army bots

The Corps’ new R2C, based on an old Army robot, offers a suite of upgrades, including tracked flippers for better mobility, improved comm equipment and an upgraded, stronger arm. (Lance Cpl. Joey Mendez/Marine Corps)

The Marine Corps is now fielding its next-generation counter-IED robot for route clearance.

Called the RC2, it is based on the Army’s battle-proven 510 Fast Tac Packbot used in Iraq and Afghanistan for several years. With combat operations winding down, the Army identified a surplus of the robots and the Marine Corps seized the opportunity to use the Army’s robot chassis to cheaply develop a new platform.

Marine developers at the Robotic Systems Joint Project Office at the Army’s Detroit Arsenal began tacking on new components to the old chassis to improve maneuverability, dexterity and strength, sensor capabilities and communications systems. The new bots, already in the hands of several units, will be fully fielded by the end of the year.

Changes to the Army’s platform were based on lessons learned from combat.

“The Marine Corps wanted to tie it all together to give us all those capabilities we desired after having used robots for several years in Iraq and Afghanistan,” said Marine Col. Ben. Stinson, who heads RS JPO.

Main upgrades include an arm with three links rather than two. The arm is also longer allowing it to hoist a camera up to 90 inches in the air — nearly twice the old height — and reach more than four feet away compared to less than three.

“Ninety inches gets us to most first-story windows and even the ability to look over some high walls,” Stinson said.

The arm is also stronger. It can now lift between 10 and 30 pounds depending on how far it is extended which is twice its old capability.

Additionally, the robot was outfitted with four cameras compared to two giving additional angles of view to evaluate potential threats.

The robot’s communications suite was upgraded to allow it to operate on multiple radio frequencies that accommodate restrictions both in the U.S. and abroad. It can be controlled from 300 meters away, or 800 meters when operators use a more powerful long-range antenna. When radios are undesirable or won’t work, in a tunnel for example, a wire spool can be used to control RC2 from up to 220 meters away. That provides engineers stand-off distance in any situation.

Finally, to help the robot traverse rough obstacles without getting stuck, its forward flippers, which Stinson described as “dumb flippers,” were upgraded to have their own tracked propulsion. The old flippers could be used to elevate the robot’s body, but offered no additional traction.

Several units, including 1st Combat Engineer Battalion at Camp Pendleton, Calif., and 2nd CEB at Camp Lejeune, N.C., have received the robots. Next they are on their way to the Exercise Support Division at Marine Corps Air ground Combat Center Twentynine Palms, Calif. In all, the Corps plans to produce 46 RC2s, including 18 for the operational fleet, 6 for spares and 22 for schoolhouses and training.

Stinson stressed the importance of counter-IED robots saying that 822 have been destroyed in Iraq and Afghanistan since October 2005 when the service began tracking those statistics. Each one of those he considered a saved life or limb. And with 8,000 robots in all deployed during the Global War on Terrorism, countless more likely saved American servicemen without themselves being destroyed.

Source: ArmyTimes

 

Scan Eagle UAS to compete for Brazilian maritime ISR programme

ScanEagle is designed to provide a persistent ISR capability for maritime security operations. Source: Boeing

The Boeing/Insitu ScanEagle unmanned aerial system (UAS) is to soon compete for a place within Brazil’s maritime situational awareness system, officials announced at FIDAE 2014.

In February ship-launched ScanEagle UASs completed a three-day maritime deployment demonstration with the Brazilian Navy, and the systems are to be submitted to compete for Brazil’s SisGAAz (Sistema de Gerenciamento da Amazônia Azul) maritime ISR system, Juan Gomez, director of international business development for Insitu, told reporters on 26 March.

Brazil is expected to release a request for proposals (RfP) for SisGAAz in the fourth quarter of fiscal year 2014 (FY 2014) or first quarter of FY 2015. SisGAAz is intended to monitor and control Brazil’s huge ‘Blue Amazon’ maritime domain with an observation satellite, aircraft, thermal cameras, an automatic identification system, vessel traffic system, coastal radars, radio goniometry, submarine acoustic devices, long-range identification and tracking systems, and a command-and-control capability.

Gomez said the ScanEagle demonstration went smoothly and included about 20 hours of electro-optic (EO) and mid-wave infrared (IR) operations in rough sea states.

In 2012 the company also demonstrated ScanEagle on a Chilean frigate for 10 days, but Gomez noted that this did not lead to a sale as Chile’s navy does not have a requirement.

Still, 15 states operate the ScanEagle, including Canada, Colombia, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, Lithuania, Romania, Tunisia, Singapore, Malaysia, the United Kingdom, the United States, and others. Some of the systems are employed via a services model and some customers cannot be mentioned, he said.

Gomez said the company is now mainly focused on adding features to the platform and continuing to book international sales.

The UASs are deployed with the Combined Task Force 151 (CTF-151) counter-piracy group, and have conducted CTF-151 operations with the US Navy (USN), Canadian Navy, and Dutch Navy. Gomez projected that in next year or so the Spanish Navy would buy and employ ScanEagle with CTF-151 and the Italian Navy would complete a certification process to make its fleet operational for use with the task force.

ScanEagle is mainly used as an ISR platform with EO and IR sensor and communications payloads, but Gomez noted that adding a synthetic aperture radar (SAR) or foliage penetrating (FOPEN) capability would be particularly useful in Latin America, where dense jungles present unique challenges.

The Colombia Air Force, for example, is a ScanEagle user that could use such capabilities for patrolling its vast spaces covered by canopy jungle. “It’s all a matter of size, power, and weight; and FOPEN [foliage penetration] sensors tend to be quite heavy,” Gomez noted.

Source: Janes

More: UNMANNED AIRCRAFT SYSTEMS. BOEING. INSITU. SCANEAGLE

3DRobotics introduced Iris UAV Quadcopter

The new Iris from 3D Robotics is a compact, ready-to-fly, fully autonomous aerial vehicle designed specifically for the consumer market. Iris provides point-and-click mission planning with 127 configurable waypoints that can guide it from take-off to landing, all from your mobile device or computer. Sporting a stylish and sleek body that resists crash damage, Iris is designed with a wide angle between the front arms to provide a clear view for its on-board camera — an optional GoPro Hero 3 ® can be included with the package to capture your favorite moments from the most unique angles.

Configure

TRANSMITTER

•  No Transmitter
•  FlySky FS-TH9x RC – $70.00
•  Spektrum DX8 8CH Transmitter with AR8000/TM1000 – $429.99 

IRIS TELEMETRY OPTIONS

•  Telemetry 915 Mhz (US) – $0.00
•  Telemetry 433 Mhz (EU) – $0.00

EXTRA BATTERY PACK

•  No Extra battery pack
•  Extra battery pack (3s 3500mAh) – $35.00

GOPRO

•  No GoPro
•  GoPro Hero 3 Black Edition – $399.99

IRIS EXTRA PROPELLERS

•  No Iris extra propellers
•  APC Propellers 10X47 Push-Pull Set (4 props total) – $16.00 

IRIS EXTRA ARMS

•  No Iris extra arms
•  Black replacement arms (2x) – $48.00
•  Blue replacement arms (2x) – $48.00

IRIS EXTRA LEGS

•  No Iris extra legs
•  Blue replacement legs (2x) – $20.00
•  Red replacement legs (2x) – $20.00
•  Black replacement legs (2x) – $20.00

More

Flight Test Results of a Conflict Detection Method using ADS-B with Raw GNSS Measurements

Future Aircraft Surveillance Applications (ASA) systems such as conflict detection, final approach and runway occupancy, and airport surface situational awareness methods will benefit from the introduction of Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast (ADS-B).

An alternative ADS-B implementation, which transmits raw measurements from the Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) instead of aircraft state vectors and performance parameters in the current implementation, was proposed previously to improve surveillance performance.

This paper summarizes the proposed methodology, discusses the threat models and integrity aspects of this method, and presents the initial flight test results of this alternative ADS-B implementation, along with a performance analysis of this method.

More Here

Author(s):	Pengfei Duan, Maarten Uijt de Haag, James L. Farrell
Published in:	Proceedings of the 25th International Technical Meeting of The Satellite Division of the Institute of Navigation (ION GNSS 2012) September 17 – 21, 2012 Nashville Convention Center, Nashville, Tennessee Nashville, TN
Pages:	174 – 187

For background: Surveillance with GPS/GNSS and DEAD RECKONING by GPS CARRIER PHASE

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Source: aeromao2007

 

Gasbot Project. Mobile-robot platform equipped with methane gas sensors

The Gasbot project is based on a pre-study, which proposed the use of a mobile-robot platform equipped with methane gas sensors in order to realise 24/7 inspection of deponier including leak detection, and gas distribution mapping.

The aim of the project is two-fold: (1) to show the feasibility of a mobile robot equipped with gas sensors to detect gas leaks, to map gas distributions, and to localize gas sources in outdoor environments; (2) to explore the possibility to commercialize the mobile platform or particular subsystems of this platform.

The project is carried out in cooperation with end-users, for example Atleverket who run landfill sites. Two different types of environments will be considered: landfill sites (methane gas) and road accidents during which there may be gas leaks due to the nature of the goods being transported.

The technological challenges are related to the primary goals of the Gasbot project: (1) discrimination of the target gas in the presence of typical interferents; (2) optimization of the temperature-modulation in a parallel temperature modulated e-nose (PTM e-nose) for gas discrimination; (3) calibration of the PTM e-nose in open sampling systems; and (4) demonstration of a Gasbot prototype (proof of concept), which explores the environment, samples the gas distribution, identifies the analyte, models the gas distribution and localizes gas sources.

Project Status
In progress 2011 – 2013

Project Leader
Dimiter Driankov

Research Subject

• Automatic Control Systems
• Computer Science

Research Environment

• Centre for Applied Autonomous Sensor Systems (AASS)

Financiers

• Robotdalen

Source: Orebro University