Recon Photos Taken By Aeryon Scout Credited With Finding Key
Entry Point
A small, man-portable UAS is being credited with giving law
enforcement officers the break they needed in a recent drug bust in
Central America. The reconnaissance photos taken by an Aeryon Scout
allowed for a successful raid, and subsequent conviction.
The Scout is a small, lightweight mini-helicopter that is
remote-controlled from the ground by computer. It was able to
provide visual surveillance of a suspected narcotic
trafficker’s compound deep in the jungle. “This might
sound like a plot from a TV show like CSI or 24, but it’s a
real-life application of our robotic technology,” said Dave
Kroetsch, President of Aeryon Labs. “This is what the Scout
was designed for: providing aerial intelligence in settings too
challenging or dangerous for humans to venture into.”
Kroetsch said the law enforcement officers took the Aeryon Scout
into the jungle under the cover of darkness. At first light they
cleared a small launch area, took the Scout out of its
suitcase-sized case, and snapped it together. They then set the
robot’s target by selecting the location of the drug compound
using a touch-screen satellite-map interface on a portable computer
tablet. The target location was approximately .6 miles from the
operator. For security reasons the actual date and location of the
operation cannot be publicized.
Recon Photo Captured By Aeryon Scout
The Scout, can quietly travel nearly two miles from the
operator’s location and up to 1,500 feet off the ground. Once
at the target location, the Scout’s motion-compensated camera
took digital still images and streamed encrypted digital video in
real-time to the operator’s computer, with no risk to the
investigating officers.
The images enabled the enforcement team to determine the
interior layout of the compound, establish what vehicles were
inside, identify possible escape routes, and assess what security
measures were in place. Most importantly they were able to see a
gap in the wire surrounding the compound that was then used as the
entry point for the raid. The successful bust resulted in the
arrest of the drug gang members. Before the use of the Aeryon
Scout, law enforcement officers would typically drive an armored
vehicle through the wall of the compound and face unknown
circumstances on the other side.
Aeryon says the drug bust is just one of the scenarios where the
Scout is useful to police and similar agencies. It can also
documenting accident scenes, following fleeing suspects, and aiding
in search and rescue operations in day or night, especially beyond
line-of-sight of the operator. Military units can use it to scope
out areas with dangerous or rugged terrain. There are also
industrial applications such as inspecting the exterior of
buildings or gathering air samples from exhausts and smokestacks,
the company says.
“The Scout’s low noise, radar, visual and heat
signatures make it an ideal platform for covert tactical imagery
collection. You can set it up in a couple of minutes out of its
case, fly the mission, and be gone without ever alerting the
target. And if you can play a simple video game, you can fly the
Scout,” said Charles Barlow, President Zariba Security
Corporation and former Canadian intelligence officer.
Aeryon Labs designed the Scout system to be easy enough for even
non-technical people to use with minimal training. Its on-board
computer system supervises all aspects of the mission, allowing the
operator to focus on completing a task.