Insitu ScanEagle

The Insitu ScanEagle, built by Insitu, and now in partnership with Boeing Corporation, is a simplistic Unmanned Aerial System (UAS) with a basic approach to design.  The 10 foot wingspan, 4 foot length, and 44 pound max gross weight places this UAS in the Group 2 (Medium) category.  With a speed of 75 knots and a maximum endurance of 19,500 feet the Scan Eagle is a competent aircraft that has logged over 22,000 operational hours in support of OIF.

 

The exteroceptive sensor chosen for the ScanEagle is a Sensor Turret System housing an advanced Electro-Optical (EO) Camera and Infrared (IR) camera.  The EO camera is capable of streaming color video at a 25:1 optical zoom with image stabilization.  The uncooled IR camera utilizes long-wavelength technology with an 18 degree field of view that captures images at 30 frames per second.  The IR camera is also image stabilized. The video feed (which is in NTSC format) can be displayed on a monitor and/or recorded onto the hard disk onboard the Ground Control System (GCS) (Lim, 2007).  Additional sensors include chemical/biological sensors, magnetometer, and a laser designating system.

ScanEagle has completed additional testing with another crucial exteroceptive sensor to increase its capability.  The fitting of Signature Aperture Radar (SAR) to the Boeing ScanEagle was done in partnership with ImSAR and Insitu and was no mean feat - the NanoSAR is a 2-pound system approximately the size of a shoebox (Hanlon, 2008). Beyond its military role, SAR significantly extends the capabilities of a UAV, enabling it to be more effectively used for such diverse applications as search and rescue in adverse conditions, fire line location and tracking through smoke, iceberg detection, ice pack analysis and the detection of debris or oils spills on the ocean or other bodies of water (Hanlon, 2008).  This initial test with this additional sensor capability greatly increases the usefulness of ScanEagle.   The testing to date has seen the ScanEagle collect data on an onboard 32 GB solid state drive with the imagery later created on the ground (Hanlon, 2008). 

  

The ScanEagle uses a flight computer for its most crucial “brain power”.  This proprioceptive sensor is crucial to maintaining stabilized flight parameters.  The design of the ScanEagle is based on flight path control, not operator flight control (Wilke, 2007). In the Scan Eagle, it uses a Technologic Systems, TS 5700 PC 104 Embedded Single Board Computer with a 133 MHz AMD 586 Processor (Lim, 2007).  Other proprioceptive sensors, such as a Navtech GPS receiver system, deliver vital information to the flight computer in order for the Scan Eagle to fly to various waypoints, orbits, or complete object tracking.  These sensors also allow for automatic and manual control modes for the Sensor Turret System.   The unit, which contains solid-state gyros and accelerometers, magnetometer, GPS receiver and air data pressure transducers, provides attitude and heading measurement to high accuracy (ScanEagle, n.d.).      

Data dissemination is available through various standard formats and can include video with synched metadata, snapshots, or cursor-on-target information (Wilke, 2007).  The partnership between Boeing and Insitu has allowed more capability in systems configuration tracking.  Data exploitation is enhanced by utilizing Sarnoff’s TerraSight system (Wilke, 2007).  ScanEagle has a 900MHz UHF datalink and a 2.4GHz S-band downlink for video transmission (ScanEagle, n.d.).  Data collection is contained within the GCS and can also be removed as needed. 

Hanlon, M. (208, March 18).  ScanEagle UAV gets Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR); New Atlas.  Retrieved from http://newatlas.com/scaneagle-uav-gets-synthetic-aperture-radar-sar/9007/

Lim, H. (2007, December).  Network Payload Integration for the Scan-Eagle UAV; Naval Post Graduate School.  Retrieved from http://www.dtic.mil/dtic/tr/fulltext/u2/a475874.pdf

ScanEagle (n.d.).  ScanEagle, United States of America; Naval-Technology of America.  Retrieved from http://www.naval-technology.com/projects/scaneagle-uav/

Wilke, C. (2007, March 2).  Scan Eagle Overview; SAE Aerospace Control and Guidance Systems Committee.  Retrieved from http://www.csdy.umn.edu/acgsc/Meeting_99/SubcommitteeE/SEpubrlsSAE.PDF