Sonardyne International Ltd., along with its maritime security subsidiary Marine and Remote Sensing Solutions (MARSS) Ltd., has successfully demonstrated its NiDAR security system as part of an integrated surveillance system for a critical infrastructure facility in the United States. Over the course of three days in late November, the system detected, classified and alerted on multiple waterborne threats ranging from unauthorised swimmers in the water to slow and fast surface vessels.

For the demonstrations, NiDAR security sensors were deployed from an expeditionary trailer equipped with a solid state phased array and thermal imaging camera, all powered by a self-contained solar panel recharging system. A robust directional Wi-Fi connection linked the waterside trailer to a remote monitoring centre which provided operators with a panoramic situation awareness picture for identifying and responding to the simulated threats.

Developed with the support of the European Commission and NATO, NiDAR integrates radar, camera, underwater sonar, AIS, satellite imagery and other sensor data into a single command display enabling early warning and protection against approaching threats. Using sophisticated behavioural algorithms, the system automatically detects and classifies potential threats to a protected asset providing alerts and subsequent control to the operator or remote stations, including mobile devices. The system enables automatic operation of deterrents and manual intervention if required by the operator.

[blockquote author=” Richard Dentzman, US Business Development Manager – Maritime Security at Sonardyne “]“This is one of the largest test sites where NiDAR has been deployed but thanks to its open system architecture and autonomous operation, we’ve once again been able to demonstrate NiDAR’s capacity to provide users with complete waterside detection capabilities.”[/blockquote]