Unmanned vehicles are primarily used for remote sensing applications as a means of supporting real-time Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance (ISR) operations. VCS-4586 supports this with the Video Screener, a Core UAV Control System (CUCS) integrated application that provides the streaming and control of live full motion video through an Electric-Optic/Infrared (EO/IR) sensor to ensure maximum operational effectiveness.
Display
The video display is where the configurable metadata overlays are displayed including:
- Air Vehicle (AV) location, heading, and slant range
- Sensor type, bearing, and elevation
- Height above target
- Target details, such as location and width
- Date and time
- Laser to target vector indicating the direction of the laser
- Customizable compass rose with an arrow indicating the vehicle’s direction of travel
- Geographical location underneath the mouse cursor
- Digital Terrain Elevation Data (DTED) value underneath the mouse cursor
- Sensor’s field of view or pointing angle
Capabilities
The video display is interactive and operators can use the video and sensor built-in features to access numerous options. By clicking on the various menus, operators can:
- Customize which types of embedded metadata overlays to display on the video display
- Pause video and associated metadata in real-time
- Record live video streams with key-length-value (KLV) metadata
- Access video playback during live recordings
- Archive videos
- Capture images during video recording and playback or during the live or paused video frame displayed on the screen as JPEG, TIFF, or lossless NTIF2.1 with metadata image formats
- Freeze the video input, metadata, and its overlays in real-time
- Measure the range and bearing of the any two points on the video display
- Mark the fall of an artillery shot and compute north and east correction offsets
- Select new or adjust stare-points in small increments over an area of interest
- Enlarge the video display for a more detailed view of the captured video
- Export video and metadata to external C41 nodes (e.g. remote video terminal (RVT) applications)
- Toggle between EO, IR, and EO/IR fused modes
- Dynamically control sensor zoom and use continuous zoom instead of staggered zoom
- Operate sensor using a joystick and LCD keypad
- Use hotkeys to access common functions
- Adjust video brightness, contrast, hue, and saturation
- Command the sensors into the following modes:
- Inertial slewing: stare-point remains at a fixed coordinate and can be manually slewed)
- Heading hold: stare-point remains at a fixed heading and can be manually slewed)
- Point-at-Coordinates: stare-point remains fixed at a designated coordinate)
- Autotrack: stare-point tracks the image at the center of sensor field of view)
- Acquire: camera searches for a new target)
- Rectangular- and strip-based wide area search patterns
- Stare: sensor enters stare mode relative to the vehicle, using the currently reported azimuth and elevation angles of the sensor
- Use the laser spot tracker to identify an object’s location and laser designator to measure the range to a target
- Use the sensor to track up to five targets within the field of view
- Aim the sensor stare-point and command two sensor point nodes
- Move the sensor in a north, east, south, or west direction
- Use point searches to select a stare-point and from that point forth, a specific algorithm commands the payload to spiral the sensor in a clockwise expanding square pattern
- Use route searches to adjust search widths to one, three, or five stare-points and change the direction of the search
- Use area search to select the starting leg and the direction of the search
- Control the command stare-point step size, distance between the commanded stare-points for the point, route, and area searches
- Control how many seconds the sensor stare-point must be situated on a specific area before it is considered searched (ranges from 6-20 seconds)
- Set coverage parameters to ensure that an area is searched to defined specifications
- Define elevation and azimuth adjustments to calibrate the laser boresight
