vulnerabilities, so we won’t do that until we move to a web-based model, when it’ll become necessary.” AI systems As mentioned, inspection heads connect to the top of the Keyper through a single D-Sub connector with power and data pins. The standard inspection head includes a 30x optical zoom camera, a thermal camera, an acoustic sensor and a torch, as well as a gimbal designed to stabilise the view for inspecting distant targets at maximum zoom. The stereo cameras are designed for depth sensing and short-distance 3D modelling, not high-resolution inspection, hence the inspection head will provide all the high-zoom or wideangle HD imaging data. “Many companies making this type of robot will rely on third-party analysis software, which is expedient, but the more complicated the robot is, the harder it is to make a success of what those parties tend to provide, so we’ve written our inspection head image processing components from scratch,” Tome says. “Neural networks are key to the Keyper reading gauges and analysing data, and because we want the payload to be a modular, independent system, the 35 Uncrewed Systems Technology | October/November 2023 GCS and the other to the company’s network infrastructure,” Tome says. The UI software has been designed inhouse to make the robot easy to use by untrained personnel. It comes in the form of an app that is meta-compiled to be accessible from any smartphone, tablet, laptop or desktop, although Keybotic anticipates it will eventually move to a web-based interface to prevent users having to install new software on company hardware. “It’s the most frictionless option, provided we comply with all the cybersecurity laws,” Tome says. “And because our software’s meta-compiled for all these platforms we don’t have to change a single line of code for it to work on the web. “Also, regarding cybersecurity, we use all the proper firewalls and VPN tunnels to keep our system closed. That can make it harder for users to change things about it, but opening your software can bring An emergency stop function can be triggered through the GCS remotely or by a red button on the back of the UGV The standard inspection head contains optical, thermal and audio sensors as well as a torch, with a single D-Sub connector for power and data
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