TEKEVER has developed new vessel detection capabilities for its unmanned aircraft system (UAS) product lines. Available for TEKEVER’s AR3 and AR4 lines, the new capabilities allow for an increased effectiveness of the systems in multiple types of maritime missions.
Automatically detecting vessels from visual images at sea presents multiple technical and operational challenges, such as highly dynamic background, sun reflections, and even dealing with the sky/sea contrast. Although the presence of a small vessel can usually be seen in an image, clearly differentiating it from other patterns, like foam or reflections, can be challenging, especially in rough sea and wind conditions, and require higher computational resources than the ones usually available in small UAVs.
Following an intensive R&D effort on the development of maritime domain capabilities, such as automatic vessel detection, classification and tracking, TEKEVER is now making these capabilities available in its AR3 and AR4 UAS product lines. These shipborne UAS can now play an even more effective role as range extenders for maritime patrol vessels.
Pedro Sinogas, TEKEVER CEO, commented: “Vessel tracking is a very demanding operation, that we can now offer even in our most compact and flexible systems, such as the AR4 Light Ray.”
