ViDAR passive wide area search capability showcased by Shield AI at Sea-Air-Space
NewsApril 07, 2025
NATIONAL HARBOR, Maryland. Shield AI is showcasing its ViDAR (Visual Detection and Ranging) technology at the Navy League's Sea-Air-Space symposium this week, highlighting advanced passive wide area search capabilities for maritime and land surveillance applications.
The company says the system combines edge processing with artificial intelligence analytics to autonomously detect, track, and classify targets at extended ranges with minimal pixel information. The technology can maintain surveillance capabilities up to Sea State 6 conditions, potentially expanding existing coverage areas by more than 200 times compared to traditional methods, according to the company.
The showcased system features a multi-spectral pod equipped with ultra-high-definition electro-optical sensors for daytime operations and long-wave infrared sensors for nighttime surveillance. The integrated AI algorithms can identify small targets such as people in water, vessels with low radar cross-sections, and ships operating without AIS (Automatic Identification System) signals while filtering out environmental interference like whitecaps and ice floes, the company says. For land operations, the system performs similar detection and tracking functions across diverse terrains.
The company adds that the ViDAR system is designed with size, weight, and power (SWaP) considerations to enable integration with various aerial platforms, and it incorporates the capability to share intelligence via TAK (Tactical Assault Kit) networks, providing autonomous target imagery and metadata to enhance real-time decision-making.
