"Unmanned aerial vehicle" What are your eyes ... October 31st, 5:01
Did you know that an aircraft without a pilot is flying around Japan now?
During a long voyage, the aircraft has a camera, radar, radio wave detector, and so on.
Who on earth for what?
What does that eye catch?
I interviewed.
(Reporter, Social Affairs Department, Yuji Suda)
The aircraft is made in the United States "Sea Guardian"
An aircraft flying around Japan.
It is "Sea Guardian" developed by the American defense company "General Atomics".
A head without any windows.
Below that is a high-quality camera.
The fuselage has a bulging radar and 24 meters of elongated wings.
The total length is 12 meters, which is about the size of a large bus.
From October 15th, this aircraft has
been off the coast of the Sea of Japan from western Japan to northern Japan, including
the Pacific Ocean off Sanriku in the Tohoku
region, around the Ogasawara Islands, and
Yamatotai, where illegal fishing by foreign fishing boats continues. ,
▽
Flying along
the coast of Sado City in Niigata Prefecture,
▽ Flying along the coast of Noto Peninsula in Ishikawa Prefecture.
This "unmanned aerial vehicle".
It is the sea police and the Japan Coast Guard that are skipping.
We have been conducting demonstration experiments for about a month to see if it can be used in business.
The base of the demonstration experiment is the Hachinohe Air Base of the Self-Defense Forces.
The Maritime Self-Defense Force cooperated with the Japan Coast Guard, which was looking for a place that was close to the sea and had a low risk of approaching civilian aircraft so as not to fly on land as much as possible.
Two weeks from the start.
The Japan Coast Guard has released a press release explaining the status of the demonstration experiment.
When I visited Hachinohe Air Base as instructed, there was a white and new "Sea Guardian".
I'm going to take off immediately, so I decided to take a closer look at the situation.
The white aircraft is powered by one rear propeller.
Despite the reporter's question as to whether this alone would really fly, after gliding for about a kilometer, it suddenly emerged and headed for the sea.
The Japan Coast Guard explains that even at a height of 120 meters, it is about 75 decibels = noise that can be heard in a residential area on the side of the street, and it is certainly quieter than the takeoff and landing of P3C patrol aircraft belonging to the air base. It was an impression.
What can an unmanned aerial vehicle do?
In the press release, a person in charge of the Japan Coast Guard explained the mechanism of maneuvering and the contents of the demonstration experiment.
Unmanned aerial vehicles fly according to automatic programming and are maneuvered via satellite from control facilities on the ground.
Information such as captured images will also be sent by satellite to the Information Processing Center at any location in the waters around Japan.
The photo above is the control facility and information processing center.
What does the inside look like ...
I tried to check it with my own eyes, but the answer from the Japan Coast Guard was NG no matter how many times I requested it.
There is a confidentiality issue.
Instead, a video of the inside of the information processing center was shown.
There are three monitors beside the foreign man.
The largest monitor shows off Sanriku, and a purple line is drawn from the air base.
This line is the programmed flight path.
The information processing center is said to be a "command post" that gives instructions for controlling the aircraft as well as receiving information.
These six monitors lined up reflect the information received.
In the released video, most of the monitors are turned off, but in reality, the video taken from an unmanned aerial vehicle, the radar screen showing the existence of the ship, altitude and position information, speed, etc. are shown.
Based on this information, for example, if a suspicious ship is found, the command post will instruct the control facility to change the route.
The Japan Coast Guard is conducting demonstration experiments to confirm whether it can be used for ▽ salvage, ▽ disaster response, ▽ crime control, ▽ marine survey, etc.
Of these, the contents of the experiment to verify the ability to check the ship from the sky, which is necessary for crackdowns, were explained using the images actually taken.
The picture was taken of the 95-meter-long patrol boat "Hida".
Unmanned aerial vehicles fly over 3000 meters above the clouds.
The position of the patrol boat was captured by radar, and the picture was taken with the camera pointing.
In the video, you can see the shape of the ship as it sails from left to right on the screen.
And if you increase the magnification, you can see the rough structure of the ship.
I do not know the size on the screen, but the person in charge said, "I can not say specific visual accuracy, but I had the ability to identify the car from the top of Mt. Fuji" by supplementing with the rules of thumb such as pilots. I was evaluating it.
The camera can also switch to infrared photography.
This is a video of the same patrol boat taken at night.
The location of the engine room of the ship and the number of people can be clearly seen because the hot areas appear white.
The footage captured in detail the 11 sailors on the deck moving around.
These images are said to arrive in near real time.
For example, even in the event of a marine accident in which a ship capsizes, if the thrown person is drifting in a life jacket, the position can be determined in response to body temperature.
The role of communicating the position information to the rescue boat is also assumed.
We also verified the "concealment" required for crackdowns, which does not allow the other party to recognize the existence, and found that it is less noticeable than a manned jet because the sound is quiet.
On the other hand, since the field of view is limited to the screen, it is inferior to a manned vehicle that allows multiple people to look around.
However, a person in charge of the Japan Coast Guard said, "I can't say specifically, but there are some parts that have more capabilities than manned vehicles. Even if they are'unmanned', I feel that they can be used for business." I did.
Why are you doing a demonstration experiment now?
1. Tightening of the waters around Japan
So why is the Japan Coast Guard considering the introduction of unmanned aerial vehicles in the first place?
The background is the "tightening of the situation" in the waters around Japan.
The government established the "Policy on Strengthening the Maritime Security System" in 2016, taking into account the fact that Chinese public vessels have repeatedly invaded the territory around the Senkaku Islands in Okinawa Prefecture.
Based on the policy, we are increasing the number of large patrol boats and aircraft and securing personnel, and this demonstration experiment is part of that, but the Chinese side is also activating its activities.
By October 30, when this manuscript was written, there were 19 invasions into the territory.
The number of days sailed in the "contiguous waters" just outside the territorial waters is 280 days, which is already approaching 282 days, the highest number in the year.
It's not just the Senkaku Islands.
In recent years, fishing boats from North Korea and China have repeatedly operated illegally around Yamatotai off the Noto Peninsula.
2. Reducing the burden on the aviation sector
Even in the event of a series of large-scale disasters, the Japan Coast Guard is frequently dispatched.
Perhaps some have seen footage of isolated residents being lifted and rescued by white and blue helicopters.
However, the number of employees involved in the aviation business responsible for the "sky" is actually about 1,000, which is less than 10% of the total number of the Japan Coast Guard.
In particular, pilots are always in charge of maneuvering in a tense atmosphere, which is said to be a heavy burden.
Therefore, another background of the study is "reduction of burden".
A jet aircraft that monitors distant waters requires at least five people to be on board to be on alert, but an unmanned aerial vehicle requires only two people to operate at a control facility.
In addition, this aircraft has a continuous navigation time of 35 hours.
In the case of a manned aircraft, due to the burden of the pilot, one flight is limited to 8 hours, so it is more than four times as much.
Manned aircraft may not be able to secure sufficient activity time if the sea area of activity is far away, but unmanned aerial vehicles do not require takeoff and landing according to the change of personnel, so it is said that operational efficiency will increase.
It seems that there are only merits
Unmanned aerial vehicles have already been introduced overseas, and are being used for border security in the United States.
Safety is a concern, but the manufacturer says that there is a collision avoidance device with a civilian aircraft as a countermeasure, and in the demonstration experiment, in the future, we will fly a propeller aircraft near an unmanned aerial vehicle and try to actually avoid it. I have decided.
In addition, if wireless communication is interrupted, it will automatically return to the vicinity of the takeoff point and communication without satellite will be possible. In the unlikely event that communication is not possible, the surrounding ships will be evacuated before arriving at the sea. It is a mechanism to make water.
However, when I asked the residents in Hachinohe City, where the demonstration experiment was actually taking off and landing, some people said, "I'm worried about not having a pilot."
It cannot be said that there is no risk that wireless communication will affect other bands or interfere with communication.
Shinji Suzuki, a specially appointed professor at the University of Tokyo's Future Vision Research Center, who specializes in aerospace engineering, points out that in addition to thorough safety confirmation, it is necessary to create rules at the same time.
Specially Appointed Professor Suzuki
"It is necessary to properly confirm how the collision prevention device works in actual operation and what kind of safety precautions are required."
"For large unmanned aerial vehicles, it is institutional. The maintenance is not progressing. It is necessary to create new rules for radio waves. We have to improve the environment in parallel. "
High interest, that's why
An unmanned aerial vehicle packed with the latest technology.
His eyes clearly captured the appearance of ships on the sea and sailors on the deck.
Experiments to test its amazing ability have attracted the attention of many stakeholders, as no institution has introduced it in the country.
However, when introducing new technologies, it is essential to discuss from various perspectives such as safety, effectiveness, purpose, cost, and security issues.
Many unmanned aerial vehicles are made for military purposes, and careful explanation is required in that respect as well.
The Japan Coast Guard is spending more than 900 million yen on this demonstration experiment.
I would like the information obtained from the demonstration experiments to be disclosed as much as possible to lead to open discussions.
Social section reporter
Suda Tada嗣
starting salary distance of Matsue stations.
Currently in charge of the Japan Coast Guard.