Sentient Vision and Shield to develop AI surveillance

Australia’s Sentient Vision Systems has partnered with US defence technology company Shield AI to offer AI-Enabled Wide Area Motion Imagery (WAMI) capability to international defence forces.

Sentient, which specialises in AI-enabled passive wide area search, and Shield plan to deliver their solution to the United States Department of Defense (DoD), Australian Defence Forces (ADF) Defence Australia and other international customers.

The companies will jointly develop and integrate a ViDAR-enabled, wide-area-search capability onto Shield AI’s V-BAT unmanned aircraft (pictured), which will classify, track, and read-and-react to targets in dynamic missions.

ViDAR is Sentient’s AI system, which uses an Electro-Optic or Infrared (EO/IR) sensor to detect and classify targets in the imagery stream that would be invisible to a human operator or to a conventional radar.

With these enhanced capabilities, V-BAT will offert a level of capability that significantly bolsters threat deterrence, according to the companies.

Shield AI plans to fly the capability on V-BAT next year.

Sentient’s Chief Technology Officer Mark Palmer said: “Sentient is excited and proud to be working with Shield AI on this truly breakthrough solution.

“We look forward to combining the AI expertise and operational understanding of our two great teams to deliver superior ISR capabilities for today’s rapidly changing defense and security environment.”

Shield AI’s President and Co-founder Brandon Tseng said the collaboration was a unique opportunity to fuse the innovation prowess of two companies from allied countries on opposite sides of the world.

Tseng said: “Together, we are shaping the future of defense technology.”

Picture: Shield AI