DronesInfrared thermal imaging system spots menacing drones at a distance
With the start of the UEFA Euro 2016 soccer tournament kicking off on10 June, expecting to draw a large international crowd at ten different stadiums in cities across France, security measures have been carefully considered by the organizers in light of a turbulent past couple of years in Europe and abroad. The growing popularity of the use of drones has necessitated consideration of counter-UAV technologies to thwart a terrorist attack using this method.
With the start of the UEFA Euro 2016 soccer tournament kicking off on10 June, expecting to draw a large international crowd at ten different stadiums in cities across France, security measures have been carefully considered by the organizers in light of a turbulent past couple of years in Europe and abroad. The growing popularity of the use of drones has necessitated consideration of counter-UAV technologies to thwart a terrorist attack using this method.
HGH-Infrared Systems says that technology to prevent drones from causing damage at large public events must be innovative and unconventional.
The small size of UAVs and the fact that they made mostly with non-metallic materials, thus providing a small EM signature to be picked up, have proven challenging for traditional security systems when used to counter UAVs.
Acoustic sensors are limited in their capacity to offer an effective protection from UAVs, for a number of reasons: They are susceptible to ambient noise, making them unsuitable for use in noisy areas such as soccer stadiums. They also require exact replicas of acoustic signatures in their database, but updating the data base to include the most current signatures of newer models UAVs is difficult and time consuming.
HGH-Infrared Systems says that for counter-UAV applications it is essential to have an autonomous system in place, a system which can accurately detect these small flying objects well in advance of them reaching a heavily populated area or event. Such early detection is a vital step in the process of disabling a potentially deadly flying weapon.
The company says that its Spynel systems is a panoramic infrared thermal imaging system with its own advanced software which detects and tracks any number of targets which comes within its wide field of view. The company notes that the Spynel is a passive system, safe to use in a populated area.
Spynel has a 20-degree vertical field of view, allowing it to track the targets even as they change direction quickly, hover, or drop payloads.
The company says that using the Spynel system to confirm the flying object and the direction its headed, alongside another system that could be used to dismantle it, “ would be an effective, safe, and innovative solution for this new and very real emerging threat.”
