Shephard: MCM drone operation tested in Belgium

Published on Shephard, June 2017.

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Written by The Shephard News Team

ECA Group has successfully demonstrated its capability to deploy its AUVs, USVs, UAVs simultaneously to perform collaboratively detection to identification mine countermeasure (MCM) operations.

The demonstration was conducted within the framework of the Belgian Navy evaluation of Unmanned Maritime Systems 2017.

From the Coastal Patrol Vessel (CPV Pollux) of the Belgian Navy, ECA Group deployed its  unmanned MCM Integrated System called UMIS and composed of an A9-M and an INSPECTOR Unmanned Surface vehicle itself deploying two SEASCAN MK2 ROVs. 

Simultaneously, ECA’s long range AUV, the A27-M, was also operated from the same CPV.

Through its radio and acoustic communication links, ECA demonstrated its capability to operate in parallel with real-time cooperative actions, several unmanned vehicles while maintaining operators away in a safe zone.

The first contact snapshots automatically generated by the Automatic Target Detection software embarked in the AUV A9-M relayed by the USV were received on the CPV. Then, USV Inspector was sent to the location to deploy the SeaScan inspection vehicle. The latter’s radio link sent to the operator the final visual camera identification.

Read more: ECA Group tests multi-simultaneous MCM drone operation with the Belgian Navy

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