Using Drones in Situational Awareness Applications

Eurolink Systems provide an overview of how the Beluga™ drone system suits situational awareness operations Feature Article by Andrea Lapiana
Using Drones in Situational Awareness Applications
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Andrea Lapiana, Engineering Lead for EuroLink Systems, discusses the advantages of using the company’s Beluga™ UAV family of mini-drones to support situational awareness applications.

Abstract

Situational awareness has been a key initiative and directive, particularly for defense and military target applications, although it’s priority-level and the range of technologies supporting this area have been amplified over the last few years.

Some of this is reflective of the lessons learned from the Ukraine war (and other conflicts) and the evolving role that drones have played. This, to some degree, has redefined the rules for situational awareness with the critical need to cope effectively with and combat weaponized drones on the battlefield and deal with other threats, within contested areas.

This is not exclusive to the defense/military, as situational awareness is extended to and becoming more prevalent within the commercial market surfacing in target applications like aviation safety management, fire/disaster recovery, emergency and rescue operations, in law enforcement for identifying criminal behavior and other dangerous acts, etc.

Situational awareness can also fuel and be a catalyst for other applications – those that focus on detecting/locating people and recognizing their actions in near real-time. This plays a critical role in preparing an effective response. To reinforce this point, SKYbrary was created by the European Organisation for the Safety of Air Navigation, International Civil Aviation, and the Flight Safety Foundation to create a comprehensive source of aviation safety information with emphasis on Situational Awareness.

According to M.R. Endsley’s definition – situational awareness includes three key processes:

  • The perception of what is happening (Level 1)
  • The understanding of what has been perceived (Level 2)
  • The use of what is understood to think ahead – Prediction (Level 3)

The situational awareness segment is a growing and thriving area. According to Knowledge Sourcing Intelligence, a prominent Market Research source.

The situational awareness system market is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 7.17% over the planning period to reach a market size of $39.724 billion in 2029 up from $24.469 billion in 2022.

To reinforce this, the priority-level and annualized budget/funding allocation within the Military Doctrine for situational awareness has increased by 3x-5x over the last few years, as compared to the baseline period.

Today’s market is heavily dominated by large players, although there are many areas of specialization that are leaderless and in need of qualified sources to meet target application demands.

This target segment has experienced an influx of breakthrough technologies over the last 8-10 years that have been pivotal in changing the rules for modern military warfare. Some of these technologies have been transitioned from manned to unmanned vehicles/platforms. Others have been specifically designed to support situational awareness and drone utilization.

The objective is to enhance, improve and optimize insight and decision-making resulting in outpointing enemy threats. The predictive nature of situational awareness systems also allows battlefield commanders and leaders to plan and anticipate enemy movements. This is being accomplished by onboard AI, machine learning and advanced network/communication system capabilities – that are also well-suited to tackling new threats, like cyber-attacks.

Drones have become an integral element of military strategy and tactics – with an ever-increasing role in supporting situational awareness to provide a real-time, multi-domain perspective in the fast-paced battlefield environment. This segment is not without challenge – like its counterparts in other drone target segments – regulatory and legal challenges prevail – slowing down the integration of drones into the fabric and mainstream. This also presents challenges in areas, like data privacy, cybersecurity, AI/ML and other areas that are stumping the industry.

Anatomy of a Drone Situational Awareness Application

Drones play a critical role in scoping-out the battlefield environment in advance of troop movement. From a DoD perspective, reconnaissance and situational awareness are essential to protecting the warfighter, particularly in hostile territories and contested environments. This includes Urban Warfare and other difficult to assess areas. Drones equipped with advanced sensor and camera technology fuel key applications providing insight that results in minimizing troop exposure to a range of dangers and threats. This not only includes daytime operations – it also factors-in hard-to-detect nighttime and other adverse conditions due to weather, climate and environmental challenges.

On-board drone technologies are not restricted to baseline capabilities – there are other critical technologies that are finding their way into drone utilization. RF Catcher sensor technology is designed to counter rogue or unauthorized drone activity by tapping passive monitoring of various radio frequencies that correspond to the operating environment that support drone communication with their controllers. This can be further supported by a range of C-UAS techniques that can identify, neutralize or destroy an enemy drone threat. Remote CBRN (Chemical, Biological, Radiological, Nuclear) detection systems are hosted on drone platforms – some with enhanced sniffers (vapor detection) – that are providing high-level, sensing and reconnaissance capabilities that are also working in cooperation with ground-based, systems and platforms.

Both autonomous and operator-controlled drones can be equipped with AI algorithms, machine learning and robotics capabilities to support reconnaissance and situational awareness target applications delivering efficiencies, capturing/assessing data on enemy movements, scoping-out battlefield landscape/damage assessment and other real-world, threats that provide commanders and leaders with insights that were not previously available.

Today’s drones must also be environmentally-rugged and certified to meet the range of demanding challenges – from ground, air and sea target applications. This lends itself to aerodynamic designs that are sleek and fast, advanced propulsion systems and packaging technologies that can handle the rigors of different target environments – including wind resistance and other environmental/climatic factors. Particularly for the defense/military domain – stealth-like capabilities to minimize detection is necessary and advances have been seen in rotor/propeller technologies. There is no doubt to the level of sophistication that one will see, when looking “under the hood” at today’s drone platforms.

Technical Overview

The Beluga family of mini-drones (sUAS) and EuroLink’s UGV product family have been designed from the user-perspective first and have a range of on-board capabilities that fit situational awareness target applications. Further, EuroLink has been working with the Italian MoD (cross-military lines) and has achieved TRL 7 and 8 certification/approval, which is a testament of the viability of its platforms that have been put through arduous and stringent requirements.

EuroLink’s platforms have the potential to operate in Marine CONOPS supporting a wide variety of use cases. The platforms can be equipped with an IP67 operational engine that has already been tested and certified, which can be configured to handle various IP66/IP67 EO/IR capabilities that fit a range of ISR and situational awareness target applications. Beluga supports various payload options and hosts on-board AI with powerful algorithms providing critical pre-processing and data analysis. The unique Beluga water take-off/landing capability provides flexibility to adequately handle dedicated maritime applications or provide mixed land and sea support – in one platform.

This platform hosts a “silent drone” capability, which is derived from a breakthrough aerodynamic design of its rotors/propellers.

Beluga is primed for quick deployment, which can be achieved in less than four minutes. Its high-degree of configurability allows the platform to adjust and adapt to a wide-range of target applications/use cases. The auto mode provides GNSS precision and accuracy, which allows the pilot to set switches to support different satellite constellation alternatives. A unique floating bar is designed to provide radio transparency with a low electromagnetic signature – essential to sensitive applications.

The platform hosts an on-board, spectrum analyzer and RF EMI catcher, which can handle different CONOPS requirements. The Beluga is highly configurable, which means the user can swap-out technical componentry to integrate their preferred solutions.

To support ISR and situational awareness target applications, the drone is equipped with a powerful and flexible EO/IR camera that can provide the operating pilot with real-time information about the surrounding environment (or include a camera and an ‘IMSI catcher combination).

Terrain mapping is done with an orthophoto, meaning that when performing an automatic flight plan, the drone takes high-resolution photos that are viewed later (post-processing phase) and not in real-time.

Conclusion and Perspectives

Consistent with the standard approach, EuroLink is ready to customize the system for the target application, which will result in jointly defined, requirements definition/SOW. Drone utilization for situational awareness applications is faced with multiple challenges arising from environmental/climatic factors and other considerations. The domain is not suited for benign drones or low-end, hobbyist platforms. Wind, salt, sand, cresting waves, other conditions and coordination with various platforms, within an unstable environment, makes this uniquely challenging.

The demands of situational awareness applications limit the range of qualified drones that can effectively operate, deliver and survive. The Beluga family of mini-drones from its inception has been designed to function in this class of environment – with an eye on diverse use cases. Furthermore, EuroLink is eager to collaborate on overall mission goals, project plan, flight path to target destinations, etc. – to configure the right Beluga solution to fit the target need.

That includes a demonstration program with actual payload items – common to the application. EuroLink can translate these efforts into proposals for consideration.

Find out more on the Eurolink website.

Posted by Joe Macey Connect & Contact