Infrared sensors are highly valuable in defense technology, as they allow military personnel to operate in low-light or complete darkness, for a variety of applications ranging from missile guidance to Intelligence Surveillance Reconnaissance (ISR), Target Acquisition, or even search and rescue.
Within the Flexnet UGS system, infrared detection plays a crucial role, and is at the core of two main components of the system that interact with each other to drastically enhance situational awareness and provide a complete Detection – Classification – Identification chain for threats and targets.
PIR sensors detect the temperature difference between a background (e.g a wall) and an object (e.g a person) moving across the sensor’s field of view. The resulting change in infrared radiation received by the sensor is converted into a change in the output voltage, which triggers the detection. The electronics components of the PIR allow to interpret the signals from the sensor.
Flexnet Passive Infrared Sensor acts as a thermal barrier within the system to sense movement and direction of travel, while featuring embedded information processing to eliminate false alarms. A thermal imaging solution can then be triggered for the operator to obtain visual confirmation of the threat/target.
The Scout Mk3 is an intelligent camera with motion detection capability that can provide pictures or videos using a variety of camera heads or lenses (both thermal and visible). Once an object is identified, the Scout MK3 transmits live snapshots over the secure mesh network, while automatically highlighting the target to reduce the operator’s cognitive load.
The Scout Mk3 features the CamSight LP thermal module, designed by Bertin Technologies. This LWIR uncooled imaging module is very low power (less than 1 W) and ultra-compact (46 x 46 x 29mm), and consequently allows the Scout Mk3 to offer high-definition thermal imaging (< 50mK @ F#1/1.0) in a small form factor, with extended operational endurance.
The data provided by infrared sensing is critical on the modern battlefield to remain one step ahead of the threats.
