Pleora Technologies provides real-time sensor networking solutions for mission-critical applications in the defence industry.
The company’s products are deployed in thousands of imaging applications, from automated quality inspection to image-guided surgery.
Pleora’s networking expertise has been implemented into C4ISR, remote-controlled weapon stations (RCWS), panoramic surveillance, and local situational awareness (LSA) applications, among others.
Real-time sensor networking for defence applications
While military imaging systems typically use costly and complex point-to-point interfaces to connect sensors, processors, and displays, Pleora’s solutions convert sensor data from multiple sources into a standardised feed that is transmitted to endpoints over a low latency, multicast Gigabit Ethernet (GigE) network.
By switching to a unified sensor and display network, manufacturers can significantly reduce hardware and peripheral equipment and instead deploy simpler and more cost-effective cabling.
Connecting all devices to a common infrastructure means that sensor data can be transmitted to any combination of mission computers and displays. Information can be viewed on a single display, enabling vehicle crews to view any changes to their environment without having to configure software or replace cabling.
Networked video processing for harsh military environments
Pleora’s RuggedCONNECT Smart Video Switcher can play a critical role in the development of real-time sensor networks operating in harsh military environments. Plug-in AI solutions for tank identification and driver awareness further enhance battlefield awareness and decision support.
Standard-compliant, mission configurable vehicle platforms can be designed for quick deployment, while also providing full scalability and optimising mission effectiveness with minimum integration efforts.
Pleora’s RuggedCONNECT is a scalable and modular platform that enables the design of easy-to-use sensor-to-display systems. The solution offers cost-effective evolution of fully networked architectures, integrating different sensor and display types, as well as switching, processing, and recording units.
The RuggedCONNECT Smart Video Switcher includes eight analogue composite inputs supporting RS-170/NTSC/PAL, and two independent DVI-D single link displays for vehicle-based local situational awareness (LSA) and driver vision enhancer (DVE) applications.
Scalable open networking platforms for various sensor interfaces
Pleora’s RuggedCONNECT platform has been specially designed for scalability, with a flexible approach for interfacing sensors, displays, networks, and general communications I/O.
The highly configurable carrier card architecture of the solution enables the modular internal assembly to address various sensor interfaces, such as HD-SDI, CameraLink, DVI, RGB, STANAG, and display interfaces that include VGA, HD-SDI, HDMI, DisplayPort, and analogue composite.
Designers can use the platform’s flexible input, output, network, and communications capabilities, including basic sensor, display, or network-only processing units, to address video sensor and display standards and tailor solutions to specific system and SWaP-C needs.
The RuggedCONNECT platform meets the video performance requirements outlined in Defence Standard 00-082 (VIVOE), STANAG 4697 (PLEVID), and MISB ST 1608 to enable the design of vehicle electronics platforms that comply with STANAG 4754 (NGVA), Defence Standard 23-009 (GVA), and VICTORY guidelines.
Powerful processing capabilities for challenging defence requirements
With RuggedCONNECT’s high-performance video networking capabilities and the powerful GPU resources of the NVIDIA Jetson TX2i, designers are able to add application-specific image processing and graphics overlay decision-support capabilities without difficulty, helping to reduce cognitive burden and increase mission effectiveness.
Available options include image fusion, 360° stitching, map / terrain overlay, and image enhancement, as well as more challenging capabilities such as convolutional-neural-network based threat detection and classification.
Solutions to manage and connect multi-vendor systems
Pleora’s eBUS-ISR software development kit (SDK) is a feature-rich solution that simplifies the design of standards-compliant software applications that receive both Defence Standard 00-082 Vetronics Infrastructure for Video Over Ethernet (VIVOE) and GigE Vision video streams in GVA (Defence Standard 23-009) and NGVA (STANAG 4754), LSA, and C4ISR platforms.
eBUS-ISR networks ruggedised GigE Vision and VIVOE cameras, sensors, and video equipment from multiple vendors through a comprehensive API that is compatible with Linux and Windows operating systems. Building image processing applications on top of eBUS-ISR, users are no longer tied to manufacturer-specific SDKs and can develop systems using any GigE Vision and VIVOE compliant camera or image sensor.
By using a shared SDK for all transport functions, designers can preserve existing software investments while adding advanced systems capabilities to help increase mission effectiveness.
