Military
research has resulted in an increased use of unmanned drones amidst
conflicts in recent years. From mine sweeping to aerial surveillance,
some of the most advanced robotics of the age see implementation in
military projects.
Step forward one of the latest pieces of hardware to grace the US
military, Boeing’s A160 Hummingbird, a UAV helicopter drone endowed
with a mammoth 1.8 gigapixel color video camera.
In truth the Hummingbird is not the last word in helicopter drones
for the US military, but rather just Boeing’s submission. Other
companies will be able to bid on future manufacturing contracts
involving their own heli-drone designs down the line, but in the
meantime Boeing have produced the latest and greatest.
The army say the technology promises “an unprecedented capability to track and monitor activity on the ground”.
From altitudes as high as 20,000 feet (6.1km) in the air and across a
distance of almost 65 square miles (168 sq km), the 1.8 gigapixel video
sensor is the largest to be used on tactical missions.
The surveillance capability on board, dubbed Argus-IS (or Autonomous
Real-time Ground Ubiquitous Surveillance-Imaging System for short
long), is a reference to the 100-eyed giant of Greek mythology, Argus
Panoptes. Not quite hitting the 100 eye mark, the video sensor gives
the operator on the ground the option of 65 different, steerable
‘windows’ with which to pick and track targets from. The advantage
being that one drone can track multiple targets simultaneously, even if
they travel in different directions, neat.
Following the drone’s test flights in Arizona, scheduled for the
first part of this year, they will then see active service in
Afghanistan by May or June. Lieutenant Colonel Matthew Munster, product
manager for the US Army’s Unmanned Aerial System Modernization unit
explains, “These aircraft will deploy for up to one full year as a
way to harness lessons learned and funnel them into a program of record”.
Beyond the obvious benefits of the advance imaging and sensory
technologies at work here, the practical benefits of a helicopter drone
over a typical winged drone are much the same as with fully-fledged
helicopters and planes, the ability to take off vertically and by
association the lack of need for a runway. The A160 will be able to
take off and land in more challenging terrain and be able to reach more
difficult environments as a result.
The techno-wizardry doesn’t stop there however, as DARPA (The US
Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency) and UK-based contractors BAE
Systems are already working on improving the Argus-IS with night vision
technology and upping the aforementioned ‘window’ number to 130, with
tests of this newer system taking place in June.
Now take note and watch the skies, because they might start watching you soon.
