20 novembre 2017 | Local, Aérospatial, C4ISR

Remote GeoSystems and North Shore Rescue Announce Successful Deployment of geoDVR and FLIR gimbal for SAR Missions with Talon Helicopters, LineVision Software Donation

FORT COLLINS, Colorado/VANCOUVER, British Columbia – Remote GeoSystems, North Shore Rescue and Talon Helicopters are pleased to announce the successful deployment of a geoDVR™ Gen2 with a FLIR daylight EO/IR gyro-stabilized video camera on an Airbus TwinStar (AS355) for Search and Rescue (SAR) missions.

The geoDVR Gen2 is an advanced mil-spec DVR for recording multiple channels of HD & Standard-Definition geospatial full motion video in airborne and rugged vehicle environments. The geoDVR's ability to reliably record HD color and IR, along with continuous GPS data and Live Moving Maps, makes it ideally suited for professional airborne search & rescue, law enforcement and infrastructure inspection applications that utilize multi-sensor gimbal video cameras.

“Remote Geo has a reputation for building one of the industry's most dependable and user-friendly airborne geospatial video recorders, complete with flexible post-flight mapping tools. So the geoDVR Gen2 was an obvious choice when we were asked to fly the FLIR on the TwinStar for mountain search and rescue,” says Peter Murray, Founder/Operations Manager at Talon Helicopters.

North Shore Rescue training on geoDVR and FLIR

North Shore Rescue and Talon Helicopters team operate the geoDVR and FLIR during ground training in October 2017

“Adding the FLIR camera to North Shore Rescue's toolbox has been a great enhancement to NSR's capabilities. Having the ability to record and geo-track the location of the video seemed essential to maximizing the full potential of the FLIR camera. The geoDVR allows searchers to review recorded video for clues that may or may not have been observed during the flight,” says Jim Loree, North Shore Rescue SAR Manager and Air Operations Coordinator. According to Loree, “This feature could also be highly valuable in a large-scale disaster such as an earthquake where widespread areas are surveyed for damage. Emergency Operation Centers would be able to use the data to help them make decisions on where and how to deploy resources based on the exact location and extent of damages provided by the video recording.”

North Shore Rescue and Talon Helicopters will use the geoDVR with a FLIR generously donated by Port of Vancouver to perform helicopter-based SAR operations with color and infrared. Then, using LineVision™ software post-flight, North Shore Rescue will review the geoDVR videos and flight tracks overlaid on Google Earth and Esri maps for training mission planning and recovery operations.

Since North Shore Rescue is an all volunteer organization, Remote GeoSystems donated 18 LineVision Esri Maps and LineVision Google Earth licenses as part of the implementation.

###

About North Shore Rescue

North Shore Rescue (North Shore Search and Rescue) is a volunteer community-based Mountain Search and Rescue Team based in Vancouver, BC and performs approximately 130 rescue calls a year.

The team consists of approximately 45 volunteers skilled in search and rescue operations in mountain, canyon and urban settings.

The team has existed for 50 years, making it one of the oldest SAR teams in Canada. During this time the number of calls each year has gradually increased. Over the past 50 years the team has been involved in more than 2500 search and rescue operations volunteering over 200,000 hours of effort. These calls have involved over 2000 subjects, and approximately 25% of the calls have involved subject injuries or death.

Learn more by visiting http://www.northshorerescue.com/

About Talon Helicopters

Talon is Vancouver's number one supplier of helicopter services, and the region's largest supplier of intermediate helicopters. Talon is locally owned and operated, and provides exceptional customer service with 20 years of incident and accident free operations. Specialized mission services include search & rescue, broadcast and film, wildfire suppression and utility patrols/operations.

Learn more by visiting http://www.taloncopters.com/

https://www.remotegeo.com/north-shore-rescue-talon-helicopters-geodvr-flir-sar/

Sur le même sujet

  • Sentient Vision aims to expand Cormorant search radar

    14 décembre 2018 | Local, Aérospatial

    Sentient Vision aims to expand Cormorant search radar

    by Chris Thatcher When the Department of National Defence (DND) finalizes the statement of work for the CH-149 Cormorant Mid-Life Upgrade (CMLU), Sentient Vision is hoping a visual detection and ranging (ViDAR) optical radar will be among the requirements. The Australian company has partnered with Heli-One, a Vancouver-based subsidiary of CHC Helicopter, to offer a Canadian manufactured version of what it says is a transformational search and rescue technology. “We've coined a phrase: lost at sea, found in seconds. The system we have developed is able to autonomously find people lost at sea in seconds,” Simon Olsen, director of business development, strategy and partnerships, told Skies. “It is truly transformational. It has the unique ability to detect very small things that virtually no other system in the world has.” Where traditional radar struggles to differentiate small objects such as a person or a rubber raft from the waves in most sea states, ViDAR has successfully demonstrated the ability to find almost all objects or persons. “A radar works on being able to have a response back from the object, so the object needs to stand out from the ocean environment,” explained Olsen. “If the object is very small, and especially if it doesn't have a radar cross-section, it can't get a response back. Hence, in most search and rescue environments, when you are looking for people at sea, a rubber raft or even a small canoe . . . we currently use beacons or transponders to get a rough location, and then rely on the Mark 1 eyeball.” That often involves a spotter in an aircraft monitoring about 0.1 nautical miles at a time. “With ViDAR, we can look out two to 2.5 nautical miles from that aircraft and have an almost 100 per cent certainty of finding every person lost at sea immediately,” he said. The Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) has been analyzing options for a life-extension program that would see the CH-149 fleet of 14 search and rescue helicopters remain in service until around 2040. The project secured long-term funding with the release of the Liberal government defence policy in June 2017. And a year later, in April 2018, Public Services and Procurement Canada posted a letter of notification (LoN) outlining its intent to conduct a sole-source negotiation with Leonardo, formerly AgustaWestland, to replace, modify or upgrade current and projected obsolete systems based on the Norwegian AW101-612 All-Weather Search and Rescue Helicopter (NAWSARH) model, which began entering service in December 2017. The LoN also indicated that the government would proceed with a plan to “augment” the current fleet by upgrading as many as seven of nine VH-71 aircraft, variants of the AW101, acquired from the U.S. government in 2011 ostensibly for spare parts. Olsen said the Canadian program presents an opportunity to not only work with a highly regarded Canadian partner, but also to develop and prove a solution that could then be exported to other military and civilian search and rescue programs. “If we have the opportunity to partner with [Team Cormorant] to supply this technology to the Canadian government, we see tremendous export appeal to other markets in which these helicopters operate,” he said of the team led by manufacturer Leonardo Helicopters and in-service support provider, IMP Aerospace & Defence. “We are configuring this to be able to retrofit it to existing aircraft of a similar kind.” The ViDAR hardware consists of a small, lightweight pod that can be mounted to multiple points on an aircraft and is then integrated with the onboard mission system. “We don't want to add any risk or complex technical integration, so we've focused on making it easy to integrate and use,” said Olsen. “Operationally, there is no new mission system, there's no new mapping system. All we do is send a location on a map and a thumbnail image of the object we find in the water. The operator can click that image and it slews the existing sensors they have on the aircraft to investigate that object.” It was still being developed when the Canadian government released the statement of requirements for the fixed-wing search and rescue project, but Olsen said ViDAR could be readily added to the Airbus CC295 when it enters service with the RCAF. Air Force members have seen the system in action and are well aware of the capability, he added. The U.S. Coast Guard conducted a “fairly exhaustive” trial in 2016 at which, of the various radars evaluated, “we were the only one that found 100 per cent search and rescue targets in a range of sea states,” he said. The Coast Guard subsequently incorporated it into its Insitu ScanEagle unmanned aerial platforms for counter-narcotics operations in the Caribbean and off the southern coast. ViDAR is also being employed by the Australian Maritime Safety Authority's Bombardier Challenger 604 jets in a search and rescue capacity. By partnering with Heli-One and CHC Helicopter, which operates an extensive global search and rescue network, Olsen said there is an opportunity to develop a solution with a Canadian stamp on it that the government can take ownership of and help to export. “With the unique relationship between Heli-One and CHC, we clearly see an opportunity to extend this, not just along the path of where the Cormorant goes with Leonardo, but to work with CHC on a range of search and rescue operations they have all around the world.” https://www.skiesmag.com/news/sentient-vision-aims-to-expand-cormorant-search-radar

  • Heron and MQ-9 drones approved for Canadian military program

    29 octobre 2019 | Local, Aérospatial

    Heron and MQ-9 drones approved for Canadian military program

    DAVID PUGLIESE, OTTAWA CITIZEN The Department of National Defence's Remotely Piloted Aircraft System (RPAS) Project has entered into a new phase with discussions ongoing with two drone manufacturers. The RPAS project entered the definition phase on April 5 and shortly after the federal government determined two qualified suppliers were eligible for the program, Esprit de Corps military magazine reports. Public Services and Procurement Canada determined that both L3 Technologies MAS Inc. and General Atomics Aeronautical Systems, Inc., along with the U.S. government, were qualified suppliers. Under the government's Invitation to Qualify process, L3 Technologies MAS Inc. proposed the Heron TP aircraft from Israeli Aircraft Industries while the U.S. government and General Atomics Aeronautical Systems, Inc. qualified with the MQ-9 aircraft. “The project team officially initiated engagement with qualified suppliers in July 2019 as part of the Refine & Review Requirements phase,” Defence department spokeswoman Jessica Lamirande explained to Esprit de Corps. “As part of the RRR phase, the project team will continue to engage qualified suppliers and develop a Request For Proposal.” Canada's quest for an uninhabited aerial vehicle system has been under way for years. In 2006 the military laid down plans to have such a drone fleet operational by 2009. That was pushed back to 2012. Over the years the Canadian Armed Forces tried other means to buy a fleet of longer-range UAVs. In 2007 the military tried to push a sole source purchase of Predators but the Conservative government decided against that proposal. During the Libyan war in 2011, senior Canadian defence leaders pitched to the government the idea of spending up to $600 million for armed drones to take part in that conflict. That proposal was also declined. For the Afghan war, the Canadian military purchased the Sperwer, and later leased a Heron drone fleet from MDA of Richmond, BC for missions in Kandahar. Timelines have continually been revised for the drone acquisition program, originally called the Joint Unmanned Surveillance, Target Acquisition System or JUSTAS. The contract had been expected in 2018. But Lamirande said the contract for the RPAS project is now to be awarded in the Fiscal Year 2022-2023. She noted that the RPAS project will procure a new fleet of armed, medium altitude, long endurance drones capable of intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance and precision strike in support of Canadian Armed Forces operations. The RPAS project will complement existing capabilities, such as the CP-140 patrol aircraft. “This capability will be integrated into a network of systems to enable near real-time flow of information essential to CAF operations, and to support domestic law enforcement and civilian authorities,” Lamirande said. “Additionally, it will significantly expand Canada's ability to contribute to joint intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance operations with its allies.” The Defence Capabilities Blueprint puts funding for the project at between $1 billion and $4.99 billion but no further details have been provided Lamirande said the release of that RFP is expected in Fiscal Year 2020-2021. https://ottawacitizen.com/news/national/defence-watch/heron-and-mq-9-drones-approved-for-canadian-military-program

  • National Defence to spend more than $1 billion on new operational HQ at Carling Campus site

    1 août 2023 | Local, Sécurité, Autre défense

    National Defence to spend more than $1 billion on new operational HQ at Carling Campus site

    A design contract for the new building at the Carling Campus site should be awarded in late 2025, National Defence confirmed.

Toutes les nouvelles