Marine Mammal Detection and Mitigation

"In the phase I STTR program, Advanced Ceramics Research designed and fabricated a fully operational prototype SWARM vehicle. A complete video surveillance "payload pod" has been assembled with flight-tested camera and transmission equipment. Nextgeneration hardware and design concepts have been identified. Detailed drawings were developed. The SWARM prototype is now ready for its initial series of flight test and has been delivered. Phase I demonstrated functionality of key systems, developed aworking prototype vehicle with sensor package, and verified initial cost predictions. In the phase II, ACR will integrate computer programmable autonomous flight control of the SWARM vehicle. Phase II will also perform flight tests of various Navy sensorpackages.BENEFITS: Commercial markets include the coast guard, National Parks for fire fighting, animal researchers for tracking in remote locations, aircraft based traffic congestion reporting services, commercial shipping, and organizations with needs todo monitoring of remote sites such as oil and gas pipe lines."