Melbourne Artificial Intelligence (AI) company Sentient Vision Systems has won a $2.1 million Australian government grant to establish a sovereign in-house manufacturing facility for its ViDAR (Visual Detection And Ranging) search and surveillance pods.
The grant was awarded under the Department of Industry Science Energy and Resources’ (DISER) Modern Manufacturing Initiative (MMI) Translation Stream. It will enable volume manufacture in Australia of the company’s ViDAR pods for Australian and export customers.
“Winning this grant is an important step for Sentient Vision Systems,” Managing Director and founder, Dr Paul Boxer, said. “We’ve been developing software-based AI surveillance systems for nearly two decades. We’ll soon be able to manufacture our own hardware in larger quantities as well whilst maintaining control over their quality and supply for critical surveillance and safety missions.”
ViDAR, the world’s first passive optical radar, is mounted in crewed and uncrewed fixed and rotary winged aircraft and uses AI to scan every pixel in every frame of an optical sensor’s imagery feed to detect objects invisible to a human operator, at sea or over land. When it detects an object the ViDAR software places a thumbnail on the Mission Management System (MMS) screen so the operator can examine it in detail.
ViDAR is used for Search and Rescue (SAR), wide area surveillance, border security, and law enforcement by customers worldwide, including the US Coast Guard, Royal Australian Navy and Australian Maritime Safety Authority (AMSA).
The ViDAR VMS pods were launched in 2021 to provide complete integrated pod systems for rapid fitment to a wide range of crewed and uncrewed fixed and rotary winged aircraft, and for easy integration with the aircraft’s MMS. At present, the company hand-builds pods in Australia and with partners in Canada and Europe.
Sentient Vision Systems expects that the new facility will enable them to quickly meet the growing global demand for VIDAR pod systems to suit surveillance aircraft, ships and drones employed in different missions.