ZeroEyes demonstrates threat-detection system at AF Base
By DRONELIFE Features Editor Jim Magill
A summer concert at a U.S. Air Force base in South Carolina recently served as the testing ground for a drone-based real-time threat detection and early warning system, developed by a subsidiary of gun-detection company ZeroEyes.
ZE Government Solutions (ZEGS) deployed its technology package aboard a tethered drone to enhance security at Joint Base Charleston’s August 16 Summer Fest Concert. The deployment demonstrated the security capabilities of the ZeroEyes Awareness Kit (ZAK), a product that ZEGS hopes to market to the U.S. Department of Defense and to civilian law enforcement agencies, the company’s Executive Vice President Dustin Kisling said in an interview.
“Developing this technology really augments a lot of the drone programs that agencies are already looking at implementing,” Kisling said. “It’s really enabled them to turn current or future drone programs into a proactive solution for security detection. So, it’s a force multiplier.”
It took ZEGS less than 30 minutes to set up its overwatch system, which deployed its computer-vision software onboard an Easy Aerial tethered drone to assist base security forces. This concert marked the first deployment of ZAK for real-time security in a real-world environment since it was first developed as part of the Air Force Research Laboratory’s Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Program.
Kisling said the system was on the lookout for the presence of firearms or of unauthorized personnel on the active flight line.
“We’re looking for guns, we’re looking for people, we’re looking for the vehicles that shouldn’t be in that area,” he said. The system can be configured to react to all those potential threats or be set to focus on just one specific type of threat.
“If you’re in a crowded area and you just want to know if there’s a gun in hand or in view of the camera, we can just run the gun detection off of that,” Kisling said.
During the concert, ZEGS coordinated with base security personnel, to ensure that they could respond to any anomalies in the crowd detected by the drone-borne system.
“We’re pulling the feed off the drone and we’re running our analytics on that drone feed. Once we detect that object of interest, we have a localized operations center set up with their command post, and then they’re getting those alerts based upon the detections that we pull off.”
During its first live mission, ZAK provided overwatch for six continuous hours of flight time, protecting more than 1,000 base personnel and their families. While the operational test was conducted for an on-base recreational event, the system is designed to provide roll on/roll off security for C17 crews operating out of the base.
ZAK’s capabilities can also be used in downrange operations to provide an extra layer of aircrew security in emergency situations and austere environments, according to a company press release.
Kisling said the concert deployment resulted from a close working collaboration between the company and its military hosts and from the company’s point of view represented an initial phase of marketing the ZAK system to the DOD for future deployments.
“Developing this as part of the AFRLS [Air Force Research Laboratory] program was step one,” he said. Palmetto Spark, the innovation lab for Joint Base Charleston, helped facilitate the use of ZAK during the live event.
The deployment of the ZeroEyes’ technology is part of a larger push by the top military brass to rapidly expand the development and use of small unmanned aerial systems across all branches of the U.S. Armed Forces. In a July memo, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth announced that small drone systems “are such critical force enablers that they must be prioritized at the same level as major weapons systems.”
Kisling said the military’s initiative for the rapid adoption of drone-based systems goes beyond merely acquiring drones and using them as tools.
“I think as you apply analytics to drones, you’re magnifying the ability of these programs to be proactive in threat detection,” he said. “And I think that’s where ZeroEyes really falls into the big scope of not only the DOD, but of these civilian law enforcement drone programs. It’s helping them turn their program into a proactive solution with early alerting through AI.”
He said the company’s threat-detection and -evaluation systems have garnered a great deal of interest from civilian law enforcement agencies, particularly as police forces across the country are seeking to establish or upgrade existing drones as first responders (DFR) programs.
Read more:
Jim Magill is a Houston-based writer with almost a quarter-century of experience covering technical and economic developments in the oil and gas industry. After retiring in December 2019 as a senior editor with S&P Global Platts, Jim began writing about emerging technologies, such as artificial intelligence, robots and drones, and the ways in which they’re contributing to our society. In addition to DroneLife, Jim is a contributor to Forbes.com and his work has appeared in the Houston Chronicle, U.S. News & World Report, and Unmanned Systems, a publication of the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International.
