[Sponsor Content] Systel - Multi-Mission Embedded Systems for Counter UAS Applications

Sentinel Embedded Computer: Redefining C-UAS Rugged Computer Capability

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“CONTACT! - SMALL ENEMY ROTARY WING UAV - POSSIBLY WEAPONIZED - MOVING EAST TO WEST AT GRID………”

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Maintaining tactical superiority in a complex battle space within an asymmetrical war has never been more challenging than for today’s warfighter. The constant evolution of non-standard enemy tactics combined with commercially available communication equipment, sensors (situational awareness), and weapon systems has created a challenge in maintaining a situational superiority over one’s adversary.

To add to the complexity of the modern battlefield, the enemy has added a new capability and, in effect, ‘doubled down’ with the introduction of commercially available small Unmanned Airborne Vehicle (UAV) to their tactical arsenal. The addition of the small UAV is a force multiplier not experienced since the mass deployment of sophisticated Improvised Explosive Devices (IED(s)) to the battlefield.

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To defeat this new threat, the US and its partners are taking a very active and aggressive stance. The US’s Joint, Inter-Organizational, and Multinational (JIM) partners are creating a tactical defeat capability known as Counter-UAS (C-UAS). The intent is to create a highly mobile C-UAS vehicle capable of destroying (soft or hard kill) the adversary’s new ability. The new C-UAS platform utilizes a computing engine capable of processing high speed sensors to create a Common Operating Picture (COP) and defeat solution for the warfighter.

This paper discusses how Systel’s powerful computing capability can meet and exceed the processing demands of C-UAS vehicles in the form of a single Line Replaceable Unit (LRU) mission computer. Systel’s EB7100 “Sentinel” multi-function embedded computer meets C-UAS processing demands by being able to ingest all sensor data (analog or digital), as well as provide the CPU and GPU, Ethernet switching, and storage functionality necessary for processing, exploit, and dissemination.

INTRODUCTION Small UAVs have penetrated deep into our adversary’s combat tactics, resulting in a competence that was unseen only a few years ago. Unfortunately, this new enemy platform and its associated capabilities - is a real and growing threat for today’s modern warfighter. Small, commercially available UAVs are the Improvised Explosive Device (IED) of today’s modern soldier, sailor, or airman. The availability of low-cost, readily available commercial UAVs makes them an attractive tool for the modern adversary.

The propagation of small UAVs on the battlefield provides the enemy with a technical asset only modern militaries have employed effectively to date. Today’s adversaries now have the capacity to generate, in realtime, actionable Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance (ISR) information. The collection of ISR data, in our enemy’s hands, provides enormous potential to include friendly target locating, friendly forces formation, weapon type, troop movement and strength, and enemy route reconnaissance. In addition, small UAVs not only provide the reconnoiter means but they are also being weaponized with material that is not just explosive, but also carries the capacity to be a weapon of mass destruction.

UAV DESCRIPTION To effectively defeat the enemy small UAV threat, we must look at the UAV platform to understand the complexity of being able to Detect, Identify, and Destroy (DID) the UAV. UAVs have been grouped into five (5) distinct groups based on commonly accepted parameters such as overall size, max altitude, air speed, and payload capability (measured in pounds or ounces).

Groups one (1) through three (3) are commonly referred to as “small” UAVs and vary in size from a small commercially available quad-copter to a larger fixed wing aircraft such as AAI’s Shadow™. Groups four (4) and five (5) make up the largest platform of the UAV platforms and include aircraft like the General Atomics Predator™ and Reaper™, and are not easily acquired or commercially available.

Groups one (1) to three (3) are by far the most common and the most easily available to purchase, launch and maintain, and in most cases, can be commercially purchased. They can vary in performance from manflown/in-situ operated (operator is flying based on

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his/her flight path visibility from the ground) to advanced commercial UAVs with integrated HD EO/IR sensors, GPS, IP communications for data transmissions and control, extended range, extended payload, and complete autonomy if flight control is lost or not employed. In combination with the technical advancements, modern small UAVs are fast, fly low, and are so small that current Air-Defense capability is rendered useless.

COUNTERING THE THREAT In response to the enemy ISR threat the domestic military and security industry have created a UAV defeat capability known as a Counter-Unmanned Aerial Systems or C-UAS. The new tactical solution is not based on the current AirDefense construct, but on a combination of small and very powerful systems that provide a proficiency of detecting the UAV, identifying the UAV as friend-or-foe, and either destroying (hard kill) or affecting (soft kill) its ability to communicate with its operator.

This new C-UAS defensive weapon-system is based on a relatively small mobile vehicle (I.E. HMMWV or JLTV) made up of a multitude of sensors that include radar, EO/IR sensors, acoustic detectors, flash detectors, and electromagnetic sensors. The aggregate sensor payload when combined with the defeat system, and the computer hardware necessary to process the combined sensor data has pushed the typical vehicle’s Size, Weight, and Power (SWaP) envelope to a point of near failure. Therefore, a single embedded computing capability is required to integrate all the sensor data into a central point, while at the same time providing the ability to process, exploit, and disseminate the data in a timely fashion to defeat the threat.

SENTINEL – BEST OF BREED MISSION COMPUTER The multiple sensors on the C-UAS vehicle generate an enormous amount of raw data, in both analog and digital formats, and as such require a hardware solution that can meet the processing demands. High resolution sensors provide the C-UAS operator with a real-time view of their surroundings; however, they place an enormous demand on both sensor pre-processing and on the computer required to carry out the complicated target-identification computing tasks. High speed processing includes processing of analog-to-digital conversion, EO/IR video compression/encoding and/or capture (frame grabbing), FMV streaming, metadata conversion and packetizing, motion target identification, mission software processing, storage, and distribution over Ethernet.

Systel’s answer to the C-UAS vehicle processing requirement is the Sentinel multi-mission computer.

SUBSYSTEM INTEGRATION Sentinel is uniquely designed for the C-UAS mission by providing a single LRU mission computer, eliminating the requirement and program risk of integrating multiple single LRU computer components.

In addition, the single LRU format provides a significant reduction in cabling and power demands.

Sentinel, as a single LRU mission processing backbone, provides the user with a multi-capability embedded computer supplying: • • • • • •

Single point for all sensor ingest Real-time sensor pre-processing Motion target processing Mission software management Storage of all sensor and post processing data Network distribution

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CONSTRAINED SIZE, WEIGHT, POWER C-UAS vehicles share several common limitations; primary among them are the restrictions in available interior volume to mount multiple computers to support the sensor data processing, mission/target processing, and Ethernet distribution. The Sentinel solution accounts for these limitations, and provides a single processing and network hub, reducing the space envelope required as well as the power burden on the vehicles alternator and batteries during silent-watch.

RUGGED DESIGN Sentinel is built on an extreme-rugged enclosure necessary for today’s environmental demands and ground vehicle ruggedness requirements. Sentinel includes common build standards such as: • • • •

MIL-STDs 810G, 1275D, 461 IP 67 NATO STANAG 4609 VICTORY and Generic Vehicle Architecture (GVA)

Its -40°C to +70°C operating temperature range allows for the system to be deployed in some of the harshest environments on the globe, and its -40°C to +80°C storage parameters provide significant storage capability.

SCALABILITY AND EXPANSION The Sentinel design encompasses the significant I/O expansion capacity necessary for the ingest of varying sensor output formats (mechanical and electronic), and provides for multiple hardware board-level options within the rugged enclosure. Options would include variants of video capture, Serial, CPU and GPU selection, Ethernet requirements, and removable or nonremovable storage options.

Sentinel architecture is established on a single rugged carrier-board utilizing common architecture standards such as PCI Express and the stackable capability that the PCIe/104 form factor affords. In addition, the use of a board-to-board connection architecture has removed cable bundling within the enclosure, reducing points of failure and EMI concerns typical with internal cabling.

Other capabilities include the addition of GPS as an expansion option or other standard architectures required for a specific platform to include options such as GigE Vison, and CAN bus.

Sentinel fully supports common FMV and KLV standards such as: • • • •

VICTORY Def Stan 0082 NATO STANAG 4609 MISB/MISP

STORAGE AND ETHERNET Storage, and Ethernet bandwidth are at a premium on any sensored platform. As such, Sentinel provides video and other mission data storage in the form of four (4) x removable 1TB SSDs mounted in a custom carrier, incorporating extended temperature capability as well AES 256 encryption.

Ethernet distribution is managed through multiple Ethernet ports consisting of eight (8) x 10/100/1000 Ethernet and two (2) x 10GbE ports. The 10GbE ports provides for extreme bandwidth accessibility allowing data to be transmitted over copper and optical cabling.

PROCESSING POWER The Sentinel CPU and GPU combination is designed to meet the colossal computing demands placed on the processors by C-UAS sensors and mission and interrogation software. The combination of dual processing provides for multiple parallel processing channels with the Intel® Xeon-D 12-core CPU and NVIDIA® GTX 1050Ti GPGPU. The NVIDIA® GPGPU is a general-purpose parallel computing architecture that takes advantage of the parallel compute engine necessary to solve many computational problems in a fraction of the time required on most general-purpose CPUs.

SENSOR CAPTURE AND PROCESSING There are numerous legacy and emerging video and radar standards, and in most cases a mix of the two will be fielded in any given design. There may be legacy radar hardware combined with High Definition (HD) EO/IR sensors that need to be managed by the same capture method. Dual XMC module Frame Grabbers and quad (4) channel Video Encoder provide for the efficient capture and low latency of sensor information.

The input scalability of Sentinel also provides for varying I/O and capture requirements ensuring an agnostic approach to sensor-capture board selection.

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• • • • • • • • • • • •

Small Form Factor Embedded System Intel® Xeon-D 12 Core CPU NVIDIA® GTX970M GPGPU 1280 CUDA Cores (4) x Removable 1TB SSDs in Custom Carrier – Extended Temp with AES 256 Encryption (2) x XMC Slot Frame Grabbers H.264 Video Encoder (4) x 3G-SDI In, (4) x 3G-SDI Out, (2) x DVI (2) x 10GbE 8 Port Managed 10/100/1000 Switch Optional Rugged GPS Module Cable-Free Board to Board Connections MIL-STD-810G, 461G, 704F, 1275D, 167A

C-UAS WORKFLOW The lower workflow demonstrates the data flow from sensor creation to Sentinel ingest, processing, and video and/or Ethernet output. This model merely demonstrates an example layout; however, the Sentinel agnostic board infrastructure allows for more customer models based on the end-user requirements.

CONCLUSION Sentinel offers the range of features necessary to meet the demands of the C-UAS subsystems and sensors, including ultra-efficient sensor capture and encode, input and board scalability, parallel CPU and GPU performance, high bandwidth Ethernet, and 4TB of removable storage in a single LRU. Sentinel offers a multitude of capabilities, reduction of procurement and O&M costs, reduction in LRUs, optimized SWaP, and flexibility that meets the needs of the C-UAS platform. It is extremely versatile and can be deployed in any number of platforms including other ground and airborne missions.

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About Systel, Inc. Systel, Inc is a leading manufacturer of embedded and rack computer products and solutions. Systel is headquartered in Sugar Land, Texas, with 30 years of experience in providing complex and advanced computer technologies to military, oil and gas, and manufacturing enterprises worldwide. Systel’s pedigree of capabilities spans numerous platforms and includes some of the most advanced military vehicles such as the US Navy’s P-8 Poseidon and P-3 Orion ASW aircraft, as well as General Atomics Predator and Reaper UAV fleets.

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