SBIR-STTR Award

The USAF currently utilizes the Smart Air Force Monitoring System (SAFMS) which operates autonomous small drones that are deployed from a mobile or stationary launchpad and housing ground-station called the Easy Guard (EG). EG is a military-grade plastic enclosure which is modular, stackable, and supports precise autonomous landing and fast direct charging. Easy Aerial’s Remote Management Software (ERMS) controls the operation of the EG, which also houses, protects, allows for inspection of, and recharges the drone. The Falcon (quadcopter) or Osprey (hexacopter) drone, which is housed within the EG, has the ability to fly autonomously and precisely land inside any EG upon completion of its autonomous and/or remotely triggered mission by an alarm. The drones can land in both their original EG or any other EG that is part of the system, and can land in EG’s that have changed their location during their flight, including landing in a moving vehicle up to 25 mph. The typical payload is a gimbaled zoom camera with a thermal imager. Runway lightning system is a safety critical element which must be inspected several times every day. The runway lightning system is spread out over several hundred feet and sometimes has limited accessibility, resulting in routine manual inspection. After reviewing the drone-in-a-box for perimeter security technology, Dover Air Force Base (AFB) has requested to examine the possibility of using the already-available commercially-sold technology to rapid, all-weather, reliable method for inspection of runway lighting syste

Following the successful completion of the Phase I, Easy Aerial would like to extend the effort, providing Dover AFB 436 Operations Support Squadron (OSS) an Initial Operational Capability (IOC) of performing Runway Lighting System (RLS) inspection. This activity shall include a deployment of a Real Time and robust drones-based RLS inspection system that will perform an efficient, reliable and all-weather RLS inspection capability. In addition to the RLS inspection capability, and based on the experience that was gathered by Easy Aerial as part of its on-going inspection programs, Easy Aerial wishes to deploy an additional operational capability of runway obstacles and Foreign Objects Debris (FOD) detection. Runway obstacles and FOD are one of the biggest safety threats in aviation. As a result, airfields must perform numerous inspections of the runways, which require multiple assets as well as significant shutdowns of the runway, due to the time it takes to perform such inspections. Using EA's AI/ML analytics, EA's inspection SAFMS that are used for the runway lights system inspection could also serve for an efficient and timely obstacle and FOD detection purposes. Please refer to the signed MOU in volume 5 for a full operational reasoning.