Blue Bear iStart Still Under Development

Mike Humphreys, Military Account Manager for the UK company Blue Bear, said at a DSTL technology day in London, UK, that although the product was launched during DSEi in September, the system is still being developed and will be ready for purchase when the company is confident in its maturity.

‘If I’m honest it will be ready when we decide it is in terms of the technology,’ Humphreys explained. ‘In terms of the actual platform it is pretty much there. I’m not saying that it’s perfect or necessarily mature, but it is making the operator’s job intuitive and easy. This is autonomy coming together.’

The system is based on the company’s Blackstart UAS, and the company works with others such as 2D3 and Roke Manor, which deigns the tracking algorithms for the platform, to develop a system that takes the best technology from each supplier. ‘Others can hook their technology on easily,’ Humphreys explained.

‘SMEs in the UK work well together. One of the joys of the SME world is that it’s really agile. SMEs deconflict and integrate so much better because there’s no overlap.’

Humphreys said that the company is concentrating on the technology specifically, and pointed out: ‘There is no point in building another UAS for a market that is saturated with small UAS. It’s not just a case of making it; it has to fit together [technologically].

‘We’re trying to get this to track in an urban environment with no operator involved,’ he said, and explained that the system calculates the distance from the line of sight to the target using 3D map data.

‘All the operator wants to do is to track the vehicle [on the ground]’, he said, noting that the operator is not interested in the intricate details of how the system tracks.

The ‘simple’ software is written so that it is certifiable for the future, and the company is also interested in the miniaturisation of the camera and the compression of algorithms.

The system contains an EO/IR and gimbal camera payload, weighs some 4.5kg with payload, has a 45-minute endurance and is one-man operated.

Source: Shephard Media

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