Dispatches from Ukraine. Day 338.

As Russia’s attack on Ukraine continues and the war rages on, reliable sources of information are critical. Forbes gathers information and provides updates on the situation.

Six ‘Shahed drone hunter’ systems are now in Ukraine, shielding the country’s energy facilities from Russian attacks, says Mykhailo Fedorov, Ukraine’s Minister of Digital Transformation. They are cutting-edge defense technologies used to protect strategic American facilities. “A complex of radars and jammers helps detect and block enemy UAVs and launches its own drones. The Fortem DroneHunter F700 is an autonomous drone with radar control and artificial intelligence. It flies at a speed of more than 100 km/h, intercepts, and lands enemy drones.” A purchase of these was made possible thanks to fundraising organized by monobank co-founder Oleh Horohovskyy, activist Ihor Lachenkov and the UNITED24 initiative.

Read more at https://www.forbes.com/sites/katyasoldak/2023/01/27/friday-january-27-russias-war-on-ukraine-daily-news-and-information-from-ukraine/?sh=19361ce122b4

The Danish Defence has an important and increasing challenge in relation to surveillance and intelligence gathering in the Arctic area. A major task for Danish Defence is detection of different types of land, maritime and aerial activity in the area. The monitoring of activity in the three domains from space can assist the Danish Defence in the task of enforcing sovereignty, and contribute to other operational tasks e.g. Search and Rescue as well as provide input for the day-to-day operational planning.

The BIFROST project will be initiated as a joint mission with several national as well as international partners. Space Inventor, Terma, GateHouse SatCom and DTU are undertaking a small satellite mission to the Danish Defence with the main purpose of demonstrating AI based surveillance from space. This will form a broad national foundation for the space technology needed to support Danish Defence in the future and will be a stepping stone towards a future international cooperation regarding space-based surveillance activities of common interest.

BIFROST is a satellite-based system for advanced on-orbit image and signal analysis with the aim of establishing a platform in space to gain further experience in AI-based surveillance and sensor fusion using multiple on-board sensors.  The satellite will also test means of communication directly between different satellites in order to achieve real-time access to the intelligence data, thereby demonstrating the feasibility of Tactical Earth Observation. This will demonstrate that the presence of a specific activity can be detected and reported to the operational ground controller in real-time.

 Claus Sølvsteen from Danish Defence Acquisitions and Logistics Organisation says:“We are looking forward to examining the solutions that nanosatellites offer within Danish Defence. These years there is an escalating development in the areas of platforms, sensors and data processing. Therefore, it is important to stay aware of current advancements to investigate options for surveillance by utilising space technologies.” 

The satellite mission includes evaluating the capability of changing AI models during the mission lifespan, which makes it possible for the artificial intelligence core to learn the characteristics of new subjects of interest thereby constantly adding to the capabilities of the surveillance system.

This mission will provide DALO (Danish Defence Acquisition and Logistics Organization) with information on applied AI in space for Earth observation missions as well as detecting ships, oil spills and much more due to the versatile payloads on-board. 

Read More https://news.satnews.com/2022/08/24/danish-project-bifrost-collaborates-with-national-and-international-partners-to-explore-ai-based-surveillance-applications-from-space/

Man-to-man marking will be paired with drone v drone security at this winter’s Fifa World Cup in Qatar.

Unmanned aerial vehicles that shoot nets to bring down small “rogue” drones will help defend venues.

Fortem Technologies will provide the interceptor drones, following an agreement with Qatar’s interior ministry.

It says the agreement reflects growing fears about the threat potential drone attacks pose in general.

Fortem says its system is a safe way to bring down drones in built-up locations, reducing the risks of injury that might be caused if weapons were used..

The autonomous, radar-guided interceptor drones – dubbed DroneHunters by the firm – tackle small consumer drones by firing nets to snare the target drone which may then be carried to another location.

For larger drones, a net is launched at the target which is connected to a parachute, slowing the entangled target and forcing it to the ground.

Targets are identified using a “series of very small radars that are distributed throughout the venue, creating a complete picture of the airspace straight up into the air”, Fortem chief executive and co-founder Timothy Bean told the BBC.

The company claims the drones have had “live kills” at various security sites around the world.

But the roar of fans will not be accompanied by the buzz of drones because the machines do their work “a mile or so away from the venue”, Mr Bean added.

Alternative systems for stopping drones can rely on interfering with the drone’s control signals, but Fortem argues terrorists may launch drones on pre-programmed flight paths.

“The reason our business is skyrocketing is because terrorists don’t use joysticks. Terrorists don’t show up in your parking lot with a joystick. These drones are programmed … so they can’t be jammed,” Mr Bean says.

The company says it has deployed anti-drone systems at other sporting events and at the World Economic Forum meeting at Davos. It has donated portable versions of its system to Ukraine, and said it was also working on anti-drone measures for UK airports.

The Utah-based firm, which has received backing from Toshiba and Boeing, will work for the Qatari Ministry of Interior and Safety and Security Operations Committee at the World Cup in November and December.

Arms race

Prof David Dunn, of University of Birmingham, says that the threat from terrorist use of drones has increased, because the technology has become more accessible.

He cites the unsuccessful attempt by suicide bombers, during the terrorist attacks on Paris in 2015, to gain access to the Stade de France, where France were playing Germany in a football friendly.

A drone might have been able to enter the stadium, he suggests, where ground-based terrorists could not.

Dr Steve Wright, from University of the West of England, also thinks concerns have been heightened partially because commercial drones have been modified into weapons in conflicts in Yemen and Ukraine.

He believes that systems like Fortem’s can be effective against a threat from smaller drones.

Dr Wright, who is working on a similar system for a European company, believes that they expand the line of defence outwards from a venue, giving defenders more time to respond.

But he warns these are one step in an arms race and says that as attacking drones increase in speed, they will be harder to stop.

“We’re looking at technologies of how we can push that out 200mph (322km/h), maybe even 300mph one day, as we squeeze the sponge of the electric technology we’ve got,” he said.

And attackers may make drones more manoeuvrable. Dr Wright said his team had built a drone that could accelerate so fast it was like going from zero to 60mph (97km/h) in under a second.

So-called “swarms” of multiple attacking drones would also present a challenge. Dr Wright said in the conflict with Yemen, “the Saudis are already seeing that problem starting to crop up as groups of these things are sent over the border simultaneously”.

But by requiring attackers to employ countermeasures, all drone defence systems make attacks harder, and so reduce the likelihood of one taking place.

“If your countermeasure is defeated, it doesn’t necessarily mean that the countermeasure is pointless. Because you still impose a cost on your enemy”, Dr Wright said.

Read More https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-62243427

168 Lucky Trade ตัวแทน Space Inventor เดนมาร์ก ผู้ผลิตดาวเทียมชั้นนำจากยุโรป ผนึกพันธมิตร NBSPACE ปักหมุดสร้างฐานอุตสาหกรรมดาวเทียมไทยสู้ตลาดโลก เสนอ End-To-End Solution ตั้งแต่วิจัยพัฒนา ออกแบบ ผลิต และพัฒนาซอฟท์แวร์ เพื่อเพิ่มศักยภาพการบริหารจัดการโครงการอุตสาหกรรมอวกาศและร่วมพัฒนาขีดความสามารถวิศวกรไทยแบบเบ็ดเสร็จ

​นายจุติวัฒน์  เสงี่ยมศักดิกร รองกรรมการผู้จัดการสายพัฒนาธุรกิจ บริษัท 168 ลักกี้ เทรดจำกัด เปิดเผยว่า บริษัทฯ ในฐานะตัวแทนของบริษัท Space Inventor ผู้ผลิตดาวเทียมจากประเทศเดนมาร์ก ที่มีผลงานการผลิตดาวเทียมให้กับองค์การอวกาศ European Space Agency (ESA) และกระทรวงกลาโหมประเทศเดนมาร์ก รวมทั้งร่วมมือในการค้นคว้า วิจัยและผลิตดาวเทียมกับ Aalborg University ประเทศเดนมาร์ก โดยบริษัท 168 ลักกี้ เทรด จำกัด (168 Lucky Trade) ได้ดำเนินการร่วมกับ บริษัท เอ็นบีสเปซ จำกัด (NBSPACE) จากประเทศไทย เพื่อให้เกิดการถ่ายทอดเทคโนโลยีและองค์ความรู้ด้านดาวเทียมทั้งระบบรวมถึงความร่วมมือทุกๆด้านตั้งแต่ต้นถึงปลายน้ำ โดยร่วมดำเนินโครงการวิจัยเพื่อให้เกิดการพัฒนาอุตสาหกรรมดาวเทียมในประเทศไทยอย่างยั่งยืน

​“การพัฒนาประสิทธิภาพของดาวเทียมในปัจจุบันเป็นไปอย่างรวดเร็วและมีขนาดที่เล็กลงกว่าแต่ก่อนมาก จะต้องอาศัยศักยภาพทางเทคโนโลยีที่สูงกว่าการวิจัยและพัฒนาซึ่งมีความจำเป็นอย่างยิ่ง เริ่มตั้งแต่การออกแบบ เพื่อให้สอดคล้องต่อความต้องการของผู้ใช้ การผลิตที่ต้องใช้เทคโนโลยีขั้นสูง วัสดุที่คงทนต่อสภาวะขั้นวิกฤตในอวกาศ อายุการใช้งานที่เหมาะสม ระบบการสื่อสารดาวเทียม ระบบอัพลิงค์และดาวน์ลิงค์ สื่อสารทั้งสองทาง ระบบแสง Optical Datalink ระบบกล้องถ่ายภาพดาวเทียม ระบบ AI Onboard Processing ระบบ Signal Intelligence รวมถึงระบบการควบคุมจากภาคพื้นดิน ซึ่งจะต้องพัฒนาขีดความสามารถกันอย่างต่อเนื่อง

​ดังนั้น ความร่วมมือในการดำเนินงานของทั้งสามองค์กรในครั้งนี้ จึงนับเป็นการนำจุดแข็งมารวมกัน โดยทางบริษัท 168 Lucky Trade คือ ผู้แทนอย่างเป็นทางการของบริษัทเทคโนโลยีอุตสาหกรรมป้องกันประเทศและยุทธภัณฑ์จากกลุ่มประเทศนาโต้ ทีมผู้บริหารมีความเชี่ยวชาญด้านการบริหารจัดการโครงการด้านโทรคมนาคมและระบบสื่อสารสารสนเทศ ส่วนกลุ่ม Space Inventor จากเดนมาร์กนั้น เป็นผู้เชี่ยวชาญด้านการออกแบบและผลิตดาวเทียมให้กับประเทศแถบยุโรป และ NBSPACE ซึ่งกลุ่มผู้ก่อตั้งเป็นวิศวกรไทยที่มีประสบการณ์ออกแบบ ผลิตดาวเทียมแบบครบวงจรมาแล้วจำนวนมาก โดยได้รับการสนับสนุนจากมหาวิทยาลัยเทคโนโลยีพระจอมเกล้าพระนครเหนือ ซึ่งมีความพร้อมในการรับถ่ายทอดเทคโนโลยีสู่ระบบการศึกษาเพื่อการสร้างบุคคลากรไทยสู่อุตสาหกรรมดาวเทียมในอนาคต”

นายอภิวัฒน์  จิรวัฒนผล ประธานเจ้าหน้าที่บริหาร บริษัท เอ็นบีสเปซ จำกัด เปิดเผยว่า ปัจจุบันทั่วโลกมีความต้องการใช้ระบบดาวเทียม Nanosat และ Microsat เพิ่มสูงขึ้นเป็นลำดับ โดยเฉพาระบบอินเตอร์เน็ตผ่านดาวเทียมและดาวเทียมถ่ายภาพความคมชัดสูง ถือเป็นเทคโนโลยีล่าสุดที่ทาง NBSPACE  สามารถผลิตได้ ซึ่งการร่วมโครงการพัฒนาในครั้งนี้ถือเป็นการเพิ่มขีดความสามารถในอุตสาหกรรมของประเทศไทยและการสร้างวิศวกรไทยด้านดาวเทียมให้แข็งแรงด้วย

Source: CNA/sk(cy)

Read more at https://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/singapore/drones-flying-near-changi-airport-threat-counter-measures-11120262

Flying drones are mostly known as an amateur or professional devices for gaming, videography, racing and military missions count some of their applications. But what if one drone could do all the above? This drone as a platform idea was the starting point for the foundation team of AiRFLOW. The drone they designed is a common base for commercial, military and tailor-made solutions. This comes from a combination of software implies artificial intelligence technologies and a state of the art hardware that provides the necessary power for fail-safe operation and all the sensors required to complete its mission.

Even if the flying mechanism is common, almost everything else is changeable. Cameras with night vision, smoke monitoring, or even face recognition, weather and chemical compound sensors are easily adapted in the flying mechanism with some ‘clicks’ in the programming application. ALiSA is the Lightweight Integrated Services Assistant that AiRFLOW has designed and manufactured, giving the drone AI capability. The drone is fully autonomous to complete any mission, even if its owner is in another continent. A transporter can move the drone everywhere in the world, put it out of its box, press the ‘start’ button and wait until ends its mission and come back. During the flight, there is the option of remote control and flight monitoring. In case the mission needs more than one flights, the drone can return in its base, recharge and take off again. In the case of fleet missions, AiRFLOW offers the PERCEPTRON device that connects any drone with the AiRFLOW platform and enables full fleet management and features of the core drones. The full digital and encrypted control, plus the data transmission encryption make the drone compatible with military missions where security is an issue of high priority.

According to analysts’ estimations, such as PWC, commercial use has a lot of potentials. In several business activities, drones can substitute traditional methods of operation. The decision of Federal Aviation Administration to expand permissions for commercial use of drones offers new opportunities and the market size is expected to surpass $100 billion globally by 2020, which according to Gartner, reached $2.8 billion in 2016.

Two companies are the most known competitors of AiRFLOW, which operates in Greece. Airobotics and Aptonomy operate in the U.S. and Israel respectively. All three companies are in the embryonic stage of development. AiRFLOW has a promising business plan, that includes leasing drones, selling over the drone solutions to end customers, providing solutions that are being sold for resellers or integrators, utilizing third party drone hardware and extending its capacity of operations worldwide. To make the dream reality the company seeks out a seed capital of at least €2 million. According to George Delaportas, Co-founder & CEO of AiRFLOW, ‘With the seed capital, the company will stay alive for 2 to 4 years, expand its activities worldwide and improve the platform technologies. Already there are some contacts with VCs in Europe, the U.S.  and Asia.’

https://www.forbes.com/sites/yiannismouratidis/2019/01/16/ai-transforms-a-drone-to-a-multi-mission-platform/

Drones have a wide range of applications in a number of fields, ranging from precision agriculture to aerial mapping. Drones are expected to play a bigger role in logistics and e-commerce sectors.

The drone industry is going to witness a rapid expansion this year as drone use would increase in sectors like agriculture, mining, construction, exploration of resources and surveying. In 2018 drone companies began expanding their area of operations and determining the viability of a drone program by revamping their workflows and managing data. This year companies are expected to buckle up on their company strategies and avail the benefits of beyond visual line of sight operation. Let’s look at some of the expected drone industry trends for 2019.

Consistent Growth

Drones require ground station drone operators and the requirements for becoming an operator are quite stringent in most parts of the world. Most countries have enacted drone laws that stipulate minimum one pilot per drone operation. So the number of certified remote drone operators is an indicator of where the industry in heading and whether or not people find it promising. In the last one year, the number of FAA registered and certified drone operators increased around twofold, reaching more than 100,000.

The increase was mainly as a result of operators who organizations with their drone programs and not with amateur drone providers. This is indicative of the wider mainstreaming of the commercial drone industry and it is the main engine of growth in the drone sector. Though it is speculated that the growth in the number of pilots is slow and if more companies do not make profits, it wouldn’t rise fast. But there would be a consistency in growth patterns. And slow and steady wins the race, isn’t it? Big drone companies would continue exploring new sources of revenue generation and this would naturally boost growth.

Also Read: Drones to boost agricultural production and help maintain food security

Regulations

Drone regulations are a contentious debate, with many industry stakeholders and big companies offer differing. But they all agree on one thing: that drone regulations would ensure quality and boost competitiveness, provided the regulatory mechanism is not stifling. The increasing use of drones’ world over for civilian purposes has posed a challenge for regulations. The regulations are important so as to ensure public safety and standardizing the emerging industry. It is widely anticipated that in 2019 FAA will make remote identification of all drones flying in the USA mandatory. A new rule for small drones could also be implemented. Though whether the proposal takes the shape of legislation or not still remains to be seen.

Debates over the specifics of Drone ID are raging within the FAA. Though, whatever the outcome of the official deliberations, Drone ID would be crucial for Unmanned Traffic Management (UTM) to see the light of the day. UTM would help dispel some of the skepticism about drone, make people feel more secure and confident about drones and act as an enabler for futuristic drone-based projects like drone taxis and a network of drone package delivery.

Power of AI and sensors

AI, Virtual Reality and LiDAR sensors are some of the technologies that are will radically transform the drone industry. AI assists in analyzing the huge amount of data captured by drones. Convergence of drone technology with Machine learning and AI helps infrastructure managers identify quality defects, malfunctions, or inventory shortages much faster than any other method This would require AI-based analysis. GIS data integration is also an interesting area to look for in 2019. Workflow integration of drone data and devising new enterprise asset management system is also something that we are expecting.

Preeminence of DJI to continue

The Chinese drone manufacturer DJI has emerged as the leading drone maker and has the lion’s share of the drone market. DJI has a vast portfolio of drones of every category and functionality. In Drone aircraft purchases DJI is ahead of its competitors by a huge margin – staggering 75% market share. DJI owes its spectacular success to its focus on technological advancement, innovation, and assertive product development. This year DJI would emphasize on research and development of enterprise products and its dominance in the drone market would remain unrivaled and unchallenged in 2019 as well.

Also Read: Drones to propel new innovations in the construction industry

Top drone industry trends for 2019