Celebrating Australian Made – Stealth Technologies

Today @AuManufacturing’s editorial series – Celebrating Australian Made – looks at one of the technologies that is changing the face of security and defence thinking – autonomous systems. Here we celebrate a breakthrough in the field by Perth’s Stealth Technologies.

Autonomous systems are everywhere threatening to displace manned systems in the defence and security sphere.

Pilotless aircraft, unmanned submersibles and land-based surveillance and weapons platforms are challenging all-human operations.

Yesterday Perth’s Stealth Technologies reported a breakthrough in the security field, when its autonomous security vehicle (ASV, pictured) successfully passed site acceptance testing by its intended customer at the Eastern Goldfields Regional Prison.

According to the company: “With the ASV successfully passing site acceptance testing, further potential facilities and deployments …can now be pursued.”

Few autonomous systems have yet graduated from testing to acceptance and operation, but the ASV is now poised to do just that.

“The ASV was designed to complete fully autonomous security missions around the perimeter of the prison.

“The ASV is seamlessly integrated into the prison’s security management platform and can navigate pre-defined missions to test all aspects of the interior and exterior fence.”

During complete mission tests at the prison the ASV went through microphone, microwave beam, photo electric beam and electro-magnetic field testing.

Discussions are now underway with potential customers outside the correctional sector.

Given this is Western Australia, mining sites and facilities spring to mind.

Stealth Technologies is already developing sensor systems to boost the ASV’s capabilities, including LiDAR, radar, GPS, sonar and thermal imaging.

“Sensor fusion is an important upgrade to the design of autonomous systems and requires a complex assortment of sensors and the real-time software to enable local processing of raw sensor data.”

Stealth said the system under development would be able to not only detect humans, but interpret why they may be there and what they are doing.

“It can enable environmental information to drive robot behaviour.”

Stealth is developing its autonomous systems in association with control systems technology giant Honeywell.

The ASV reports back in real time to a Honeywell Security Manager System.

Stealth is 100 per cent owned by pooled development fund company Strategic Elements.

PDFs raise capital and make equity investments in Australian small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).

@AuManufacturing’s editorial series – Celebrating Australian Made – leading up to Australian Made Week (24 to 30 May) – is brought to you with the support of the Australian Made Campaign Ltd, licensor of the Australian Made logo.

Subscribe to our free @AuManufacturing newsletter here.

Picture: Stealth Technologies

Subscribe to our free @AuManufacturing newsletter here.