Situated near a lonely fence at a naval base, an unattended ground sensor detects vibrations in a restricted area. Is it a person, or just a fox looking for dinner?

An unmanned ground vehicle is automatically sent to the area to investigate. Its video camera picks up tracks and what might be damage to the fence.

An unmanned plane is automatically dispatched to track the potential target. When the suspected infiltrator is spotted, security officials are notified.

That kind of persistent, automated surveillance is a major goal for the U.S. military. Commanders say there are not enough runways to launch all the vehicles they would like to use at one time or enough manpower to monitor all the sensors available in places such as Iraq and Afghanistan.

Technologies that can help achieve the goal of creating a decentralized, intelligent network of multiple sensors, cameras and vehicles represent a fertile business opportunity for information technology companies.

Earlier this year, Augusta Systems Inc., of Morgantown, W.Va., won a three-year, $10 million contract from the Naval Air Systems Command to implement technology for a distributed, intelligent network of battlefield sensors and unmanned vehicles. Instead of relying on centralized processing and communication, or data integration, this next-generation network quickly and efficiently sends critical information wherever it needs to go.

Augusta works with TechTeam Government Solutions Inc. of Chantilly, Va., on the project. “Our role is to provide Augusta Systems with the swarming-control software that manages the actions, the movement of all the unmanned systems and the behavior they take,” said John Sauter, TechTeam’s business unit leader for emerging markets.

Smart vehicles
Any unmanned vehicle needs some kind of control to tell it where to go and what to do. When several vehicles must cooperate and coordinate their activities, human control or technology is needed.

TechTeam’s software makes sure each vehicle knows what to do, where to go and what it needs to deal with. It lets all the sensors and vehicles operate together toward an overall mission objective.

“In our case, that’s usually some kind of surveillance application,” Sauter said. “So we need to make sure that an area they’re responsible for is adequately covered and that we get the right sensor at the right time to the right people.”

In a situation where a pipeline needs to be protected, unattended sensors that monitor motion might be installed. If motion is detected, a robot with a video camera might be installed. And finally, the system also can get more input from an infrared camera mounted on a tethered balloon.

All the vehicles and sensors in the Navy project are networked using Augusta software. Augusta’s SensorBridge uses Microsoft Visual Studio software components for building and managing intelligent networks, systems and applications, said Patrick Esposito, president and chief operating officer of the company.

The system also uses Augusta’s EdgeFrontier middleware for building and managing intelligent networks, systems and applications.

A ruggedized appliance called SensorPort running a modified version of EdgeFrontier delivers the integration and processing required at the sensors.

Augusta’s SensorPort is a reconfigurable network appliance that enables distributed, intelligent processing at the edge of the network. It provides enterprise network access to data from sensors, actuators, wireless sensor networks, radio frequency identification systems, imagery devices and other edge assets.

“It is useful when you’re looking to monitor remote locations,” Esposito said. “You can take one of our appliances, put it out in the field quickly and allow it to be configured for integration of data from sensors and other devices.”

So if the U.S. Geological Survey, for example, deploys unattended seismic sensors in an array, the system could be set up to trigger video distribution when a seismic event occurs. That would keep the video from streaming when nothing is happening.

An even more advanced system is possible using video analytics algorithms that, for example, are triggered when a seismic event occurs to help determine exactly what happened.

Extended reach
The technology has applications beyond the military, including border security and even logistics management.

Oracle Corp.’s Sensor Edge Server, for example, extends the reach of enterprise software infrastructure to include information from sensor technologies. The technology enables augmenting enterprise software with RFID and sensor technology for greater visibility.

“A lot of integrators are confronted with issues where they need to integrate data from RFID systems, sensors and video devices,” Esposito said. “This bridges the devices, whether they’re running IP or not.”

A network built on these technologies has already been developed and demonstrated for the Naval Air Systems Command. During tests and demonstrations, Augusta’s technologies were used with other technologies to demonstrate the networkcentric system.

Among the other technologies included were mesh networking from Motorola Inc. and ITT Corp., four unmanned ground vehicles, two unmanned aerial vehicles and the collaborative control algorithms from TechTeam.

Staff writer Doug Beizer can be reached at dbeizer@1105govinfo.com.