Desert Hawk III UAS: Data Protocol and Format

Desert Hawk III UAS: Data Protocol and Format

Mark C. Hardy

Unmanned Systems Sensing, Perception, and Processing 605

Embry Riddle Aeronautical University

The Lockheed Martin Desert Hawk III is an electrically powered fixed-wing unmanned aircraft system (UAS) capable of performing low altitude, short endurance intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) missions. The six pound Desert Hawk III’s airframe largely consists of carbon and foam reinforced with a Kevlar coated outer shell (Lockheed Martin, 2013). The Desert Hawk III is capable of carrying a two pound ISR sensor payload and has a maximum endurance of approximately two hours (Hemmerdinger, 2014). Lockheed Martin’s portable Ground Control Station (GCS) maintains two-way connectivity with the air vehicle via digital internet protocol (IP) data link. This allows the operator to make real-time changes to the Desert Hawk’s pre-programmed flight plan while also facilitating payload control (Lockheed Martin, 2013).

Sensor payloads available for the Desert Hawk III are easily interchangeable and offer users the ability to swiftly adapt the UAS to meet changing mission requirements. Payload technologies currently available for the Desert Hawk III include an electro-optical (EO) imager, long wave infrared (IR) imager, and a 300 milliwatt (mW) laser illuminator (LI) (Lockheed Martin, 2013).

The EO/IR/LI sensors are all housed in Lockheed Martin’s Perceptor Dual Sensor Gimbal. The Perceptor gimbal is a gyro stabilized turret design capable of 360 degree continuous rotation, allowing persistent surveillance of targets with limited aircraft maneuvering (Lockheed Martin, 2012).

The EO camera is able to produce high definition 720p quality video and 10 megapixel high resolution still imagery. The EO camera is also capable of electronic pan, tilt, zoom (PTZ) and image stabilization. Additionally, Desert Hawk’s EO camera utilizes the Lockheed Martin Onpoint onboard vision processing unit (VPU) to conduct advanced image processing enabling the Desert Hawk to perform ground target tracking. The Onpoint VPU consists of a 1.75 watt, dual core OMAP ARM/DSP (1 gigahertz ARM core, 800 megahertz DSP core) processor utilizing 512 Megabytes (MB) of flash memory and a 256 MB double data rate. The Onpoint system also feeds metadata overlay information to the GCS via data link (Lockheed Martin, 2012).    

The Desert Hawk III’s long wave IR thermal core imager, developed by FLIR, is an uncooled camera capable of producing 640x480 resolution imagery. The system features high shock and vibration tolerance and a power dissipation of approximately 1.2 watts with required input voltage of 3.3 volts direct current (VDC) (FLIR, 2012).        

Desert Hawk III relies on the Microhard Nano Digital Data Link Radio and the Lockheed Martin Procerus video digitizer to provide a high bandwidth, low latency datalink with the GCS. The system supports SD and HD video inputs and offers a two-way data link with data transfer speeds of up to 12 megabytes per second. The system is IP based but is also equipped with serial bridging for ease of integration. High quality h.264 compression is utilized to enhance bandwidth utilization and AES-256 encryption provides data security (Lockheed Martin, 2012). Digital video streaming also allows Desert Hawk III to leverage data transfer via 3G and 4G cellular networks (Hemmerdinger, 2014).

Data retrieved by Desert Hawk III’s onboard sensors can be viewed live at the GCS and digitally stored on the GCS’s digital video recorder (DVR). Synced video and other data can also be stored onboard the aircraft via a removable 32 gigabyte microSD card (Lockheed Martin, 2012).  

Desert Hawk III is equipped with the Kestrel auto-pilot which provides the UAS with high-bandwidth stability and control throughout semi-autonomous flight. The Kestrel auto-pilot integrated with onboard GPS and INS technology provides the Desert Hawk III with accurate navigation, payload control, and targeting. The Kestrel system is also capable of onboard data logging. Lockheed Martin’s Virtual Cockpit 3.0 software provides Desert Hawk III operators with a user friendly interface to monitor aircraft operations and manage sensor systems (Lockheed Martin, 2012).

        

The Desert Hawk III has a maximum operational range of approximately 9 statute miles. The operational range could possibly be extended if the system were deployed as part of an ad-hoc UAS network in which multiple Desert Hawks would be deployed simultaneously with each UAS acting as a data relay node for other aircraft in the network. Deploying the Desert Hawk III in this manner would expand the platforms ISR footprint and would economize long range data transfer but would require the aircraft to be capable of bi-directional communications between sister aircraft as well as the Desert Hawk III GCS.

References

FLIR (2012). Quark: Longwave Infrared Thermal Core Camera. Retrieved from http://www.unmannedsystemstechnology.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/FLIR-Quark-Brochure.pdf

Hemmerdinger, J. (2014, May 13). AUVSI: Desert Hawk gains endurance, updated software systems. Retrieved from http://www.flightglobal.com/news/articles/auvsi-desert-hawk-gains-endurance-updated-software-and-398761/

Lockheed Martin (2013a). Desert Hawk III. Retrieved from http://www.lockheedmartin.com/content/dam/lockheed/data/ms2/documents/Desert_Hawk_III_brochure.pdf

Lockheed Martin (2013b). Digital IP Video/Data Link. Retrieved from http://www.lockheedmartin.com/content/dam/lockheed/data/ms2/documents/procerus/Digital_Data_Link_Datasheet_080513.pdf

Lockheed Martin (2013c). Kestrel Flight System. Retrieved from http://www.lockheedmartin.com/content/dam/lockheed/data/ms2/documents/procerus/Kestral_Flight_Systems_Datasheet_080513.pdf

Lockheed Martin (2013d). Onpoint Onboard. Retrieved from http://www.lockheedmartin.com/content/dam/lockheed/data/ms2/documents/procerus/OnPoint_Vision_Systems_Datasheet_080513.pdf