Smith Myers is debuting new products for its Artemis search-and-rescue product line—the T-A, T-U, and Artemis-Simulator—at the Farnborough Airshow. The product introductions coincide with the company’s 35th anniversary.
T-A merges mobile phone detection, location, and communications, along with a dual-band maritime automatic identification system (AIS) and Cospas search and rescue satellite-aided tracking (Sarsat), to fuse cellular and AIS sensor data in a single user interface/analysis tool. That essentially transforms mobile phones into location beacons.
The 4.2-kg T-A will prove “invaluable on search and rescue or disaster relief missions,” according to the UK company, enabling more effective and efficient maritime patrol operations and reducing operator workload. Covering all global cellular frequencies and technologies, the T-A is fully qualified to RTCA DO160 (G) environmental standards and can identify, locate, and communicate with mobile handsets at ranges exceeding 30 km.
The T-U offers identical cellular capability in a small SWaP housing with a single input/output, making integration of the 1.4-kg unit simple and economical.
The Artemis-Simulator allows operators to develop real-world scenarios, including creation of simulated mobile devices in and out of coverage on a variety of network types, which can then be located as they would in the field. With functioning addressed in the simulator training, operators “can concentrate on the live operation, instead of worrying about the operation of the user interface,” the company said.