Development, integration, testing, and evaluation of the U.S. Army Buckeye system to the NAVAIR arrow UAV

The Buckeye high-resolution geospatial collection system is currently supporting operations within both Iraq and Afghanistan. The Buckeye system, originally developed by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE), Engineer Research and Development Center (ERDC), provides timely tactical high resolution geospatial information to field commanders. The Buckeye system is applicable in the following arenas: intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR), mapping, change detection, mission rehearsal, simulation, and battlefield visualization. Three distinct Buckeye systems hosted on multiple air platforms have provided continuous geospatial data delivery to U.S. Forces since November 2004. Further capability is to be provided by integrating next generation Buckeye components to an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV). The UAV selected for this effort is the experimental Arrow Unmanned Aerial System (UAS). This paper describes the physical and systems integration of the Buckeye Electro-Optical (EO) and Light Detection and Ranging (LIDAR) components to the Arrow platform. Engineering solutions for mass balancing, thermal dispersion, and component calibration are presented. The distributed on-board architecture which performs instrument control, image compression, and data downlink, is described and discussed. Finally theoretical, laboratory and flight testing results are presented with a discussion on implementation and data dissemination within a tactical environment.