July 12, 2022
The skimmers, which are operated remotely using an AR reflector, will accompany commando forces on missions such as evacuating cargo and infiltrating buildings. VP of Business for Techtime: “Any fighter can operate the glider after a few hours of training”
Tel Aviv skimmer manufacturer Xtend Will supply more than 100 Wolverine tactical skimmers to the US Department of Defense (DoD) during the year. The procurement contract was signed after about a year and a half of a joint pilot of the Division of Combating Terrorism in the US Department of Defense (CTTSO) and Mapat in the Israeli Ministry of Defense. The skimmers are designed to accompany commando units in the United States Army and perform tasks such as clearing cargo, securing convoys, observing and also raiding buildings.
Xtend will provide the United States Army with the second generation of Wolverine skimmers, equipped with a robotic arm capable of lifting and removing suspicious charges quickly without disturbing the skimmer’s balance. The skimmers Remotely operated by augmented reality (AR) goggles, which provide the operator with a three-dimensional perspective on the arena and allow him to operate the glider in a simple manner, using hand gestures, even in complex contours and after only brief training.
The skimmer intercepted thousands of incendiary balloons
In a conversation with Techtime, Gadi Bar-Ner, Xtend’s VP of Business Development (CBO), explained that one of the key aspects that led the DoD to equip a large number of skimmers is ease of operation. “Today, training skimmer operators is demanding and can take many months, certainly when it comes to complex tasks like maneuvering inside buildings. It is unrealistic to train in this way enough skimmer operators for the needs of the military. This is a barrier that makes it difficult to expand the deployment of skimmers in military units. Our operating system, which is also based on technologies from the gaming world, allows any fighter to easily operate the glider, after training for a few hours or days. ”
The interface gives the operator a feeling that he is in the glider itself and watching what is happening through the “glider’s eyes”. The glider is commanded through intuitive hand gestures. For example, in order to command the glider to enter the building through a certain window or to clear an explosive charge from the road, the operator only needs to point to a window in the structure or mark towards the charge and order the operation. The system is used by the IDF and was responsible, for example, for intercepting thousands of balloons and incendiary kites in the Gaza Strip. Bar-Ner: “Before using our glider, the army had to be assisted by professional glider pilots, and there are not many who are able to perform this type of mission. Our glider, thanks to the operating interface, allows any fighter deployed at the border to perform the task. ”
Bar-Ner points to another failure that is delaying the use of skimmers. “There is a striving for full autonomy in the industry. But technology is still far from that goal, and as a result skimmers defined as ‘autonomous’ are often limited in their capabilities and the tasks they are capable of performing. An autonomous skimmer cannot penetrate and maneuver in a structure that is not pre-mapped. Environmental conditions, such as weather and lighting, also greatly affect glider performance, or when there is no GPS reception. Autonomy requires a very high level of machine vision, and it does not exist yet. When you combine a person and a machine correctly, as we did, it solves these problems. “
A skimmer that is a “Swiss Army knife”
The Xtend skimmer is equipped with high edge processing capabilities, which allow it to run neural network applications. “Our platform is modular. You can develop dedicated apps and install them in a glider, just like downloading an app from an app store. ”
The Wolverine is a small, lightweight skimmer. It is about 50 cm by 57 cm and 12.7 cm high, including its three blades. It weighs about 1.3 kg, and is capable of flying at a maximum speed of 70 km / h and dealing with winds of 25 knots. The glider is equipped with a robotic arm, but can be easily replaced with other types of payloads. “Nowadays, for each type of task you need a different type of skimmer.
Our perception sees the glider as a kind of ‘Swiss Army knife’, capable of performing a variety of operations by replacing the payload, whether the payload is a robotic arm, a camera, a screwdriver or a taser gun. The operating system also adapts itself to the functionality of the payload.
Extend, whose offices are in Ramat Hachayal, was established in 2018 by the brothers Aviv and Matthew Shapira, Ruby Liani, Guy Tzuri and Adir Tovi. The company’s vision is to produce an intuitive machine human interface, which gives the user an experience similar to telekinesis – he experiences reality through the eyes of the machine.
The Shapira brothers are one of the founders of Replay Technologies, which developed the FreeD sporting event photography system that captures the event from multiple cameras, and produces a 3D scene that can display replays from every possible shooting angle. In 2016, it was sold to Intel and became the basis on which Intel established the Intel Sports Group, which Aviv Shapira managed.
Posted in categories: News, Machine Vision, Skimmers, Aviation and Security
Posted in tags: DoD, Xtend, Gadi Bar-Ner, Mapat
