Image: Sentient
Sentient Vision Systems has completed live demonstrations of its visual detection and ranging (vidar) payload enabled by artificial intelligence (AI) on Edge Autonomy’s VXE30 unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV).
The VXE30 is the latest version of the Stalker series of small UAVs from Edgewater Autonomy. When coupled with vidar, the VXE30 offers a passive, wide-area search capability, enabling it to serve a variety of maritime operations.
Vidar, developed by Sentient, uses AI, computer vision, and machine learning integrated with electro-optic and infrared (EO/IR) sensors to passively detect objects that are difficult for the human eye to spot or to recognize on a conventional radar.
This technology has been deployed on intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance missions (ISR), maritime patrol and border protection, as well as search and rescue missions since 2015. It is proven in conditions up to Sea State 6, which is defined as very rough with waves of 4m to 6m.