Navy unmanned aircraft will be able to distinguish small pirate
boats from other vessels when an Office of Naval Research (ONR)-funded sensor
starts airborne tests this summer, officials said April 5.
Called the Multi-Mode Sensor Seeker (MMSS), the sensor is a mix
of high-definition cameras, mid-wave infrared sensors, and laser-radar (LADAR)
technology. It will be placed on a robotic helicopter called Fire Scout.
Carrying advanced automatic target recognition software, the sensor prototype
will allow Fire Scout to autonomously identify small boats on the water,
reducing the workload of Sailors operating it from control stations aboard Navy
ships.
“Sailors who control robotic systems can become overloaded with
data, often sifting through hours of streaming video searching for a single
ship,” said Ken Heeke, program officer in ONR’s Naval Air Warfare and Weapons
Department. “The automatic target recognition software gives Fire Scout the
ability to distinguish target boats in congested coastal waters using LADAR,
and it sends that information to human operators, who can then analyze those
vessels in a 3D picture.”
Navy-developed target recognition algorithms aboard Fire Scout
will exploit the 3D data collected by the LADAR, using a long-range, high-resolution,
eye-safe laser. The software compares the 3D imagery to vessel templates or
schematics stored in the system’s memory.
“The 3D data gives you a leg up on target identification,” said
Dean Cook, principal investigator for the MMSS program at Naval Air Warfare
Center Weapons Division (NAWCWD). “Infrared and visible cameras produce 2D
pictures, and objects in them can be difficult to automatically identify. With
LADAR data, each pixel corresponds to a 3D point in space, so the automatic
target recognition algorithm can calculate the dimensions of an object and compare
them to those in a database.”
The algorithms have been successfully tested in
shore-based systems against vessels at sea. The software is being integrated
into a BRITE Star II turret by a team from NAWCWD, Raytheon, FLIR Systems, BAE
Systems, and Utah
State University
for airborne testing aboard a manned test helicopter. The flight assessment
will be conducted against groups of approximately seven small boats in a
military sea range off the California
coast later this summer.