AIS Transponder for UAV:s

This Call is a part of the Providence Search & Rescue UAV Project.

AIS is the system that helps ships see each others names, positions, courses, speeds, etc. It’s the maritime cousin of aviations’ ADS-B system.

For a UAV participating in maritime Search & Rescue (SAR) there might be several benefit to using AIS:

• Collision Avoidance Redundancy – Manned SAR airplanes and helicopters usually have AIS transponders on board. AIS could be used as a secondary collision avoidance system besides ADS-B.
• Search and Rescue coordination – The rescue coordinator at an MRCC (Maritime Rescue Coordination Centre) as well as the On Scene Coordinator often use a map showing AIS targets as their primary visualization of a SAR operation. Seeing participating UAV:s in the same picture will likely be helpful.
• Visual direction – If a UAV is first on the scene it could act as dynamic waypoint, showing approaching rescue boats where to go by just following the UAV:s AIS target on the chart display.
• Situational Awareness – The AIS system allows for extra information (called messages) to be sent. One way to use this would be to let the UAV broadcast the direction in which the onboard camera is looking.
• Flight Control Redundancy – The extra messages could be used to send commands to the UAV if all other communication were to fail. E.g. a command to loiter or to land.

Here are a few links that might be of interest:

http://www.srt-marine.com/products/modules/cobalt-class-b-ais-transceiver/

http://www.skagmoelectronics.com/owl/downloads/datasheet_rev_b.pdf