The U.S. Army is developing technology to allow dismounted soldiers to look at real time nearby air and ground drone feeds on a hand held, smartphone like ruggedized device.
The project uses a small, portable device called Nett Warrior, used by soldiers in combat to view intelligence and force-tracking data. It is a smartphone based device for advanced navigation, friendly-force tracking, command and control communications and other sensor-fed information for soldiers.
Army weapons developers and scientists have now given Nett Warrior an ability to view full-motion drone video from the device itself.
The project, led by the U.S. Army Natick Soldier Research, Development and Engineering Center, or NSRDEC, has integrated technical components with Nett Warrior software to add the new features.
The technology, demonstrated in exercises at Fort Benning, Ga., is now being prepared for operational service, Army statements said.
During the demonstration, Nett Warrior also functioned as a full-motion video server that rebroadcast video streams to other soldiers in a squad, Army developers said.
Nett Warrior was able to receive video feeds from a small ground robot called Dragon Runner 20 and a small, hand-launched aerial drone called the Raven, according to the Army.
Source: Defense Systems