Michael Yeh, left, and Gary Lunt, NSWC Corona engineers, demonstrate their invention (Photo by Greg Vojtko)
Oftentimes law enforcement and military personnel need to obtain the ground-specific position of an object, the distance from a stationary or moving object, or the speed of a moving object – all from an aerial viewpoint. Existing systems that gather this data – such as heavily equipped manned aircraft – traditionally have large logistical footprints, are expensive to acquire, expensive to operate, time-consuming to deploy, and may not offer real-time results.
Navy researchers have developed an aerial platform based measurement system configured to operate in a variety of locations to measure distances, determine ground points, analyze the speed of moving objects, and perform other velocity measurements and analyses. The UAS platform is configured to establish a measurement or coordinate area in which to detect objects, the distance between objects relative to each other, and the velocity of objects moving within the area. The system includes an inertial measurement unit to determine attitude, a global navigation satellite system, a scaling unit, and a gimbal control unit. The system could be used for speed monitoring in both law enforcement and recreational or professional sports settings.
Benefits
- Easily deployed system to monitor traffic
- System can monitor vehicular velocities over a diversity of terrain, such as flat or irregular ground
- Precision is based on laser rangefinder or lidar, an altimeter, or any other device configured for distance measurement between a ground point and camera
The Opportunity
- US application 20160344981 is available for license and commercialization
- Potential for collaboration with Navy researchers