{"id":10559,"date":"2016-09-16T08:23:38","date_gmt":"2016-09-16T08:23:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.kurzweilai.net\/?p=287437"},"modified":"2016-09-21T06:51:30","modified_gmt":"2016-09-21T06:51:30","slug":"darpas-plan-for-total-surveillance-of-low-flying-drones-over-cities","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hoo.central12.com\/fugic\/2016\/09\/16\/darpas-plan-for-total-surveillance-of-low-flying-drones-over-cities\/","title":{"rendered":"DARPA’s plan for total surveillance of low-flying drones over cities"},"content":{"rendered":"
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An artist\u2019s concept of Aerial Dragnet system: several UAS carrying sensors form a network that provides wide-area surveillance of all low-flying UAS in an urban setting (credit: DARPA)<\/p><\/div>\n

DARPA’s recently announced Aerial Dragnet program is seeking innovative technologies to “provide persistent, wide-area surveillance of all unmanned aerial systems (UAS), such as quadcopters, operating below 1,000 feet in a large city.<\/p>\n

UAS devices can be adapted for terrorist or military purposes, so U.S. forces will “increasingly be challenged by the need to quickly detect and identify such craft — especially in urban areas, where sight lines are limited and many objects may be moving at similar speeds,” DARPA said.<\/p>\n

While Aerial Dragnet\u2019s focus is on protecting military troops operating in urban settings overseas, the system could ultimately find civilian application to help protect U.S. metropolitan areas from UAS-enabled terrorist threats, DARPA said.<\/p>\n

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AI-controlled armed, autonomous UAVs may take over when things start to happen faster than human thought in future wars. From Call of Duty Black Ops 2. (credit: Activision Publishing)<\/p><\/div>\n

DARPA envisions a network of surveillance nodes, each providing coverage of a neighborhood-sized urban area, perhaps mounted on tethered or long-endurance UAS. Sensors could look over and between buildings, the surveillance nodes would maintain UAS tracks, even when the craft disappear from sight around corners or behind objects.<\/p>\n

The Aerial Dragnet program seeks teams with expertise in sensors, signal processing, and — interestingly — “networked autonomy.” A Broad Agency Announcement (BAA) solicitation detailing the goals and technical details of the program is available here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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ARGUS view from 20,000 feet (credit: DARPA)<\/p><\/div>\n

Aerial Dragnet could conceivably link with ARGUS-IS<\/a> — a 1.8-gigapixel video surveillance platform that can resolve details as small as six inches from an altitude of 20,000 feet (probably the highest-resolution camera in the world).<\/p>\n

It could also tie in with a system being developed at NASA Ames Research Center for drone traffic management called UAS traffic management<\/a> (UTM). Designed to enable safe low-altitude civilian UAS operations, it would provide [drone] pilots information needed to maintain separation from other aircraft by reserving areas for specific routes, with consideration of restricted airspace and adverse weather conditions.<\/p>\n

The dynamic drone scene may get even more interesting on Monday Sept. 19, when GoPro<\/a> plans to announce the much-anticipated high-maneuverability Karma camera drone and Hero 5.<\/p>\n