Extender drone
Sg is very strong in turning off-the -shelf commercial
products
to military use with very high value added.
'Everyone can build a drone, but what matters is the sensors you
fit on them
and one's ability to use them in a network where the information
they gather
makes sense,' he said.
The task of integrating sensors and communications devices on UAVs
is what occupies Mr Lim Kok Yong, 35, a programme manager
with DSO National Laboratories, which runs Singapore's
largest battle labs.
DSO's Extender drone is adapted from a commercially
available remote-controlled plane that costs about $1,000,
a fraction of the price of specialised UAVs.
DSO
added cameras to the Extender so soldiers can use it to survey
unknown territory.
Mr Lim found that making different electronic components
work together is a key challenge when adapting the small,
hand-held UAV for military use. 'The components worked
fine individually, but when we put them together, they didn't
work because the signals interfered with one another,' he
said.
After some calculations and some trial and error, the sensors
on the 1.6kg plane worked well enough for DSO to
demonstrate it at a Singapore Armed Forces
urban warfare experiment last February.
During the demonstration, the battery-powered Extender
proved so silent when it orbited troops at an altitude
of
100m that few soldiers noticed its presence.
As
tests on the Extender continue, Mr Lim believes the drone's low
cost
makes it a cost-effective surveillance tool. 'It's so cheap that if
one is shot
down, the user will have no problem replacing it with another,' he
said.
--22/02/2006 STimes Page: H6
Headline: Eye in the sky' military drones soaring high at air
show
A expendable S$1,000 (body only)UAV
Single seat All Terrain
Aerial Effect Gun
