Goleta Puts Spotlight on Firefighting
Wildland fire managers need to be able to direct their firefighters away from volatile fire lines. They need to mark where homes are, too, to evacuate. Both require radar to see through smoke, but radar typically gives a still image that’s been stitched together from strips or lawnmower pattern flown in the air.
Goleta Star (Booth #1929) has developed a radar system with a spotlight video mode. Attach the unit to an unmanned — or manned — craft, program it to fly in a circle with a radius of 2.5 kilometers, and the system returns a live video of the area. The company has a working prototype and expects to go into production in 2017.
“So if you had firefighters at a particular area, you would point the radar at a particular spot and you could watch them,” says Scott Darden, Goleta Star’s senior signal processing engineer. “This is a persistent vision technique.”
Goleta Star received development funding from the Department of Defense. “Now the question is, is there a civil market,” says Michael Naderhirn, the company’s head of business development
Forestry agencies have expressed interest, as have coastal authorities. In June, Goleta Star is participating in Coastal Trident, a joint first responder exercise, in Southern California to test its ability to find and track illegal ocean vessels.
