Christine Thropp
Draper has developed and demonstrated capabilities meant to enable warfighters to use small unmanned aerial vehicles to assist in identifying chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear hazards.
The company said Monday its team worked under the CBRN Sensor Integration on Robotics Platform program funded by the Joint Program Executive Office for CBRN Defense to equip sUAVs with an autonomy framework, mapping algorithm and sensors for hazard detection.
Soldiers would be able to monitor the mobile computing app-powered sUAV using the Tactical Assault Kit, a handheld device that shows map-based common operating picture via shared network.
“Anytime you can deploy technology like an sUAV to detect suspected CBRN hazards remotely and operate independently without exposing a soldier unnecessarily to harm is an advance in warfighter systems, and that’s important to us at Draper,” said Won Kim, a program manager at Draper.
Draper and JPEO-CBRND also conducted a series of tests to validate the drone’s ability to pinpoint CBRN hazards and share info with network users in addition to the TAK operator.
