A roadmap to truly disposable unattended ground sensor (UGS) systems

摘要

In the last two decades, research by McQ Inc. and others has led to substantial advances in the performance of unattended ground sensor (UGS) systems. These advancements include: extremely long battery life; small, robust packaging; high performance detection and classification algorithms; multimodal, multispectral sensors; long range communications; air droppable delivery; fully integrated sensor management; multi-sensor situational awareness and data fusion; advanced video detection and optical sensor development; and others. This research has demonstrated that there is a great deal that existing technology can do to solve users' intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) requirements using UGS sensors. However, in spite of these advances, UGS systems have not enjoyed widespread use in either DoD, DHS or with law enforcement agencies (LEA). Although requirements differ from agency to agency and application to application, the primary factor that limits more widespread use of UGS systems is cost. Cost determines how many sensors an agency can buy and how they are used operationally. Only when sensors cost