ARGUS-IS

BAE Systems' ARGUS-IS shown aboard a U.S. Army Black Hawk helicopter during testing. Photo: BAE Systems via Business Wire

Last week DARPA awarded two contracts funding high-resolution, wide area infra-red persistent surveillance system. The U.S. Air Force awarded BAE Systems about US$50 million to deliver a high resolution sensor for persistent surveillance over a wide area. BAE has been developing such a system under two other programs – DARPA Autonomous Real-time Ground Ubiquitous Surveillance-Imaging System (ARGUS-IS) and Army Airborne Wide Area Persistent Surveillance Sensor (AWAPSS) programs. The current system will be designed to enable a joint forces command in theater to constantly monitor critical areas of interest, using infra-red and video imagers, offering high degree of target location accuracy.

kitware image data analysis

Part of the capabilities of WAMI sensors are to automatically track moving targets over a wide area. These images present two methods of presenting moving targets over surveillance images, showing multiple individual tracks and functional areas determined based on densities of movements. Photos: Kitware Inc.

DARPA is also seeking to improve the processing of the vast volumes of imagery data produced by WAMI sensor systems. Last week the agency has awarded Kitware Inc. a US$13.8 million contract for the development of image analysis support for wide area motion imagery systems. Kitware is developing these new workstations as part of the Persistent Motion Imagery Analysis Tool for Exploitation (PerMIATE) program, assisting analysts in discovering and analyzing high-value intelligence content embedded in massive amount of WAMI data, both online and forensically. Leveraging advanced computer vision, machine learning, artificial intelligence, and data visualization in an integrated workstation PerMIATE will reveal and highlight the most critical information in a clear and intuitive presentation, enabling video analyst to quickly validate or refute intelligence leads through deep exploration of the underlying evidence, resulting in substantial reductions in analyst workload as well as increasing the quality and accuracy of intelligence yield. DARPA is developing such analytic tools as part of the Persistent Stare Exploitation and Analysis System (PerSEAS) currently underway.

Related posts:

  1. Army is eying more missions for the C-12 The U.S. Army is embarking on an acquisition program of...
  2. CONTROP Precision Technologies Ltd. CONTROP specializes in the development and production of Electro-Optical and...
  3. Global Hawk Prepares for an Aerial Refueling Demonstration NASA, DARPA and Northrop Grumman are planning to conduct a...
  4. Euro-Hawk Takes Off! The Euro Hawk unmanned aircraft system (UAS), built by Northrop...