When it comes to modern military operations, robotic technology provides a tremendous tactical advantage. Drones, ground robots and autonomous vehicles are routinely used for missions such as intelligence-gathering, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR), allowing military personnel to conduct operations from a safe distance. And yet, despite these technological advances, the vast majority of vehicles in use by the military — whether in the air or on land — still require a human operator.

Emerging mission requirements from global defense forces are driving new programs and applications for Unmanned Underwater Vehicle (UUV) platforms. Like their airborne counterparts, UUVs are ideal for deploying Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance (ISR) mission payloads. To speed the development of these autonomous vehicles, system designers are turning to small form factor (SFF) Commercial off the Shelf (COTS) technologies previously proven in Unmanned Aerial System (UAS) deployments. These low-power SFF subsystems, including miniature network switches and mission computers, are ideal for use in UUVs for which any additional weight or power consumption can have significant detrimental effects on mission distance and duration. By selecting proven rugged COTS solutions, already tested and qualified to the extreme demands of MIL-STD-810G, MIL-STD-461, MIL-STD-704 and/ or RTCA/DO-160G standards for environmental, power, and EMI compliance, UUV system developers have found that they can greatly accelerate their program integration and reduce overall risk.

Advancements in the field of artificial intelligence (AI) are accelerating as the technology matures from being research-orientated to being deployed in a wide range of products and services, such as autonomous vehicles. While Convolutional Neural Networks (CNNs) were first described in the 1950s, the technology remained an academic concept until the availability of large training data sets and powerful Graphics Processor Units (GPUs), a processor architecture ideal for the heavy math computational demands associated with neural network processing. Once scientists had low-cost and high-performance platforms, the technology exploded for many commercial uses. Military use is more challenging due to the lack of large data sets, but that is changing too as areas including thermal imagery are starting to be used.

Rapid Deployment SIGINT Sensor

VStar Systems (San Diego, CA) announced the addition of a pod version of its MA-C SIGINT Sensor, the MA-C MiniPod™. Two active high frequency (HF) antennas allow for intercept and copy of land mobile radios from both direct Line of Sight (LOS) as well as Near Vertical Incidence Skywave (NVIS) signals for Beyond Line of Sight (BLOS) communication methods. The MA-C MiniPOD can be installed on most standard airborne racks/missile launchers for integration on a wide variety of platforms.

Silicon Sensing Systems Ltd.
Plymouth, UK
+44 0 1752 723330
www.siliconsensing.com

Silicon Sensing Systems Ltd's latest DMU30 inertial measurement unit (IMU) has been chosen to provide highly accurate ship's attitude data to the autopilot that will navigate the ground-breaking Mayflower Autonomous Ship (MAS 400) as it travels the world.

Compressive sensing (CS) is a relatively new field that has caused a lot of excitement in the signal processing community. It has superseded Shannon's time-honored sampling theorem, which states that the sampling rate of a signal must be at least twice its highest frequency. In CS, the necessary sampling rate depends on the sparsity of signal, not its highest frequency, reducing sampling requirements for many signals that exhibit natural sparsity. This compression happens on the hardware level, allowing systems to be designed with benefits ranging from increased resolution and frame rates to decreased power consumption and memory usage. Despite this enthusiasm for CS and the large quantity of research being performed, the number of commercial systems that use CS is relatively few. The problem of designing a CS strategy that increases functionality while actually reducing overall system cost has not been solved in many areas. This is a developing field where not only are new applications for CS still being developed, but also fundamental aspects of CS theory are still evolving.

When firing artillery, there is typically a maximum angle that the platform cannot exceed relative to the Earth plane. This is due to the large recoil forces involved and the risk of destabilizing the platform the weapon is mounted to. Mobile systems are particularly sensitive to this as the attitude of the platform relative to Earth is constantly changing. A simple solution is to add pitch and roll sensors directly to the platform. However, many mobile systems already have an assortment of sensors that can be used to calculate the platform attitude.

Hemorrhagic shock occurs frequently in natural and man-made disaster scenarios. To control bleeding and to provide necessary resuscitation, swift and accurate diagnosis and decision-making are required. Early recognition of bleeding and the need for targeted interventions could improve both survival and resource management, allowing the receiving hospital to prepare required blood, surgeons, or other resources in advance of patient arrival and to conserve valuable resources in those patients who are not bleeding. Resources can be saved through avoidance of over-triage, thereby reducing unnecessary air transport, unnecessary blood transfusions, and unnecessary evaluation with labs, X-rays, and computed tomography scans, which is important in all resource-constrained and austere environments.

General Micro Systems
Rancho Cucamonga, CA
(800) 307-4863
www.gms4sbc.com

General Micro Systems Inc. (GMS) recently announced that the U.S. Army will exclusively deploy powerful rugged server and display systems from GMS to run the multifunction video display (MVD) software within Type II medium mine protection vehicles (MMPV). The GMS system comprises four components – two chassis and two displays. It also includes an enterprise-class, ultra-rugged, secure server with an intelligent 12-port 1/10 Gigabit Ethernet switch, a router, mass-media storage, CITV/DVR, video-over-IP, and two ultra-thin, rugged smart-panel PCs. When coupled with a video encoder, the system is a complete full motion video and control system with storage.

Whether engaged in an asymmetric fight with an insurgent or a conventional battle with a “near-peer” adversary, today's battlefield presents combatants with significant challenges. Rapidly advancing technology and increased lethality of weapon systems have forced the military to develop and deliver more effective technologies to protect our air and vehicle crews. One such critical technology – laser detecting systems – is designed to detect and alert crews to laser-aided threats.