The U.S. Army‘s Edgewood Chemical Biological Center has collaborated with various private technology developers and joint organizations to demonstrate an integrated system of unmanned vehicles and sensors designed to detect chemical and biological threats.ECBC showcased its Deep Purple unmanned aerial vehicle and Mobile Detection Assessment and Response System unmanned ground vehicle as part of the SK Challenge technology demonstration at the Dugway Proving Ground in Utah, the Army said Wednesday.
Deep Purple and MDARS carry sensor packages that include the Tactical Biological Generation II Detector that works to identify airborne biological threat presence as well as the Joint Chemical Agent Detector that is built to detect chemical warfare agents, according to the Army.
The service branch added the sensor-mounted vehicles worked to intercept an agent simulant cloud to identify simulants during the test.
Alan Samuels, ECBC team leader and principal investigator, said Deep Purple’s chemical sensors worked to engage the cloud and recognize simulants but the TACBIO biological agent sensor needs to be miniaturized to fit the UAV.
ECBC created Deep Purple using commercial off-the-shelf parts that were developed in collaboration with the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory for the Defense Threat Reduction Agency, the Army said.
