EO/IR Architecture Study for Highly Mobile TeUAS

The basic components of the requested TeUAS—the ground and air platforms—are technically mature. Thus, the primary challenges of this connected and agile tethered system relate to algorithms for sensing real world hazards relevant to battlefield operations: the detection of obstacles such as power lines and wires at sufficient distances in the visual and IR spectra; the efficient, information-rich mapping to inform path planning; and the shared localization and control for ‘loosely coupled’ platforms such as TeUAS. In Ph. 1, KEF will investigate the feasibility of achieving the TeUAS objectives using EO/IR (electro-optical/Infra-red) systems on both the aircraft and ground vehicle, with computing distributed across both platforms.  The key questions we seek to address are the accuracy and certainty that vision-only systems can provide towards the SBIR’s TeUAS objectives of maximizing UAS height and speed of traverse, under varied lighting conditions in complex environments. By exploiting EO/IR information between both vehicles, we seek to provide a solution that will detect challenging hazards from hundreds of meters away—a capability that LiDAR-based sensors/methods have not yet achieved.  KEF will leverage our experience in developing open, attachable, visual-inertial autonomy systems for UAS. Our company is currently developing such systems for sUAS for DTRA, Air Force and SOCOM customers, and enter this SBIR well prepared to evolve their solution for a TeUAS system, extending the hazard data range and path planning using the additional computation, power and sensors available to the paired platform.