Swedish and Israeli Companies Test New UAV Software
This post is also available in: 
עברית (Hebrew)
The Swedish software company Imint and the Israeli Unmanned Aerial System (UAS) provider Elbit Systems have field-tested new first response software in live flights north of Uppsala. The flights, which used the Elbit Skylark I-LE mini-UAS together with Imint’s Vidview software, took place on October 7th-9th, 2013.
The Uppsala County Fire Brigade also played an important part in the project, representing a likely future civilian end user of a mini UAS. The Fire Brigade were hosting the field trials on October 9th, where the use of mini UAS was evaluated in forest fighting and search-and-rescue scenarios.
According to UAS Vision tests were carried out for real emergency first response and fire fighting scenarios. The Uppsala Fire Brigade was on hand to support the field trials, to fire fight and to search for missing people. The field trials marked the completion of a joint research and development project between Imint and Elbit Systems, which aims to improve UAS usability in civilian applications. Imint’s software improves visibility and decision-making capabilities and the trials demonstrated ease of use.
Elbit Systems UAS division (Elbit UAS) and Imint – Image Intelligence AB (Imint) have worked together during recent years, which has culminated in the development of a robust interface between Elbit’s Ground Control Station (GCS) for the Skylark mini UAS and Imint’s Vidview and Vidhance software.
IHLS – Israel Homeland Security
The companies started a joint project under bilateral Israeli and Swedish research grants in the EUREKA! program, with Vinnova as the Swedish aiding authority. The completed field trials marked the conclusion of the project. The main purpose of the project has been to bring the benefits of Imint’s Vidhance software into the established user interface of the GCS as used by Skylark mini UAS operators.
One important goal has been to provide a smooth user experience and added visibility capabilities for novice operators, while ensuring no impact to the flight’s critical sections of the Elbit GCS software.
Director of Close-Range UAS at Elbit UAS, David Rosenzweig, commented on the trials: “We believe UAS can play a more important role in civil applications in the future in addition to the wide military use. We see a growing interest from the market, and this project with Imint is a response – we want to make the systems easier to use also for those with less training available.”
Vidhance features enhanced visibility and interpretability capabilities to the Skylark system, increasing the likelihood to accurately understand time critical events. As the use of UAS is expected to show a large growth in non-military scenarios, such as disaster control, search-and-rescue missions and fire fighting, the ease of use aspects will likely come more into focus, as UAS operators cannot be provided the same amount of dedicated training.
