Demonstration of a multimode longwave infrared imaging system on an unmanned aerial vehicle

Abstract

The RISTA II sensor was integrated into the Altus Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) and flown over Camp Roberts and Ft. Hunter Ligget, CA in July 1998. The RISTA II demonstration system consisted of a long-wave IR imager, a digital data link, and a ground processing facility (GPF) containing an aided target recognizer, data storage devices, and operator workstations. Imagery was compressed on the UAV and sent on the GPF over a 10.71 Mbit per second digital data link. Selected image frames from the GPF were sent near real-time over a T1 link to observers in Rosslyn, VA. The sensor operated in a variety of scanning and framing modes. Both manual and automatic sensor pointing were demonstrated. Seven flights were performed at altitudes up to 7500m and range sup to 60 km from the GPF. Applicability to numerous military and civilian scenarios was demonstrated.