Automatic camera driven aircraft control for radar activation

1. A surveillance system, comprising:

a remote control unit operatively connectible over a communication network with an aerial control unit mountable on an aircraft having autonomous flight capabilities; the aerial control unit comprising an electro-optic (EO) data acquisition device and a radar;

the EO data acquisition device is configured, while the aircraft is airborne, to capture one or more images of a surveyed area and transmit the images to the remote control unit;

the remote control unit is configured to enable interaction of an operator in real-time with the one or more images captured by the EO data acquisition device for providing data identifying an area of interest in the one or more images, the area of interest selected to be scanned by the radar;

the surveillance system further comprising processing circuitry configured, in response to the data identifying an area of interest, to:

register the one or more images to a respective map of the area displayed in the one or more images;

identify a sub-area in the respective map corresponding to the area of interest identified in the images; and

automatically generate a flight route for navigating the aircraft over the area of interest while enabling operating the radar;

the aerial control unit is configured to:

execute flight instructions for autonomously controlling the aircraft along the flight route, and activate the radar for acquiring radar data output over the area of interest.

2. The surveillance system of claim 1 , wherein the flight route is adapted to any one of desired radar operation modes including SAR operation mode and GMTI operation mode.

3. The surveillance system of claim 2 , wherein data received from the remote control unit includes data indicative of a desired radar operation mode.

4. The surveillance system of claim 1 , wherein the processing circuitry is integrated as part of the remote control unit and is configured to transmit to the aerial control unit, data indicative of the flight route.

5. The surveillance system of claim 1 , wherein the processing circuitry is integrated as part of the aerial control unit, the remote control unit being configured to transmit to the aerial control unit, data indicative of the area of interest in the one or more images.

6. The surveillance system of claim 1 , wherein the remote control unit comprises a user interface that includes a display device for displaying the one or more images and configured to enable an operator to interact with images to provide the data identifying the area of interest.

7. The surveillance system of claim 1 , wherein the processing circuitry is configured to identify map coordinates in the respective map, the coordinates indicate a location of the area of interest.

8. The surveillance system of claim 1 , wherein the processing circuitry is configured to define the area of interest in the respective map based on the received data.

9. A remote control unit operable in a surveillance system; the surveillance system comprising an aerial control unit operatively connectable over a communication link to the remote control unit and mountable on an aircraft having autonomous flight capability; the aerial control unit being further operatively connectable to an electro-optic (EO) data acquisition device and a radar mounted on the aircraft;

the remote control unit is configured, while the aircraft is airborne, to:

receive one or more images of a surveyed area captured by the EO data acquisition device while the aircraft is airborne;

enable interaction of an operator in real-time with the one or more images captured by the EO data acquisition device for providing data indicative of an area of interest in the one or more images, the area of interest selected to be scanned by the radar;

register the one or more images to a respective map of the area displayed in the one or more images;

identify a sub-area in the respective map corresponding to the area of interest indicated;

automatically generate a flight route for navigating the aircraft over the area of interest while enabling operating the radar, based on the data provided by the operator, interacting with the images; and

transmit data indicative of the flight route to the aerial control unit, to thereby enable the aerial control unit to execute flight instructions for autonomously controlling the aircraft's flight along the flight route, and activate the radar for acquiring radar data output over the area of interest.

10. The remote control unit of claim 9 further comprising a user interface that includes a display device for displaying the images and configured to enable an operator to provide the data identifying the area of interest.

11. A method of operating a radar in a surveillance system, the surveillance system comprising: a remote control unit operatively connected over a communication link to an aerial control unit mounted on an aircraft; the aerial control unit comprising an electro-optic (EO) data acquisition device and a radar;

the method comprising, while the aircraft is airborne:

receiving, at the remote control unit, one or more images of a surveyed area captured by the EO data acquisition device while the aircraft is airborne;

at the remote control unit, receiving data provided by an operator in real-time by interacting with the one or more images captured by the EO data acquisition device, the data comprising data identifying an area of interest in the one or more images, the area of interest selected to be scanned by the radar;

registering the one or more images to a respective map of the area displayed in the one or more images;

identifying a sub-area in the respective map corresponding to the area of interest indicated;

automatically generating a flight route for directing the aircraft over the area of interest while enabling operating the radar; and

executing, at the aerial control unit, flight instructions for autonomously controlling the aircraft along the flight route, and activating the radar for acquiring radar data output over the area of interest.

12. The method of claim 11 further comprising adapting the flight route to any one of desired radar operation modes including SAR operation mode and GMTI operation mode.

13. The method of claim 11 , wherein the generating of the flight route is executed at the remote control unit, the method further comprising transmitting the flight route to the aerial control unit.

14. The method of claim 11 , wherein the generating of the flight route is executed at the aerial control unit, the method further comprising transmitting data indicative of the area of interest in the one or more images to the aerial control unit.

15. The method of claim 11 , further comprising displaying the one or more images on a display device and receiving the data identifying the area of interest in response to an interaction of the operator with the displayed images for indicating the area of interest, wherein the data includes two or more points pointed to by an operator on the images displayed on the display device.

16. The method of claim 11 , further comprising identifying map coordinates in the respective map, the map coordinates indicate a location of data identifying the area of interest in the images.

17. The method of claim 11 , further comprising defining the area of interest in the respective map based on the received data.

18. A method of operating a radar in a surveillance system comprising an aerial control unit mounted on an aircraft; the aerial control unit comprising an electro-optic (EO) data acquisition device and a radar;

the method comprising, while the aircraft is airborne:

generating one or more images of a surveyed area captured by the EO data acquisition device while the aircraft is airborne;

receiving data identifying an area of interest in the one or more images, the area of interest selected to be scanned by the radar; wherein the data is generated in real-time by an operator interacting with the one or more images captured by the EO data acquisition device for indicting the area of interest; registering the one or more images to a respective map of the area displayed in the one or more images; identifying a sub-area in the respective map corresponding to the area of interest indicated; and automatically generating a flight route for directing the aircraft over the area of interest while enabling operating the radar; executing, at the aerial control unit, flight instructions for autonomously controlling the aircraft along the flight route, and activating the radar for acquiring radar data output over the area of interest.

19. A computer-readable non-transitory memory device tangibly embodying a program of instructions executable by a processing circuitry operatively connected to a surveillance system for executing a method operating a radar in a surveillance system, the surveillance system comprising: a remote control unit operatively connectable over a communication link to an aerial control unit mountable on an aircraft; the aerial control unit comprising an electro-optic (EO) data acquisition device and a radar;

the method comprising, while the aircraft is airborne:

receiving, at the remote control unit, one or more images of a surveyed area captured by the EO data acquisition device while the aircraft is airborne;

receiving data provided by operator in real-time by interacting with the one or more images captured by the EO data acquisition device, the data comprising data identifying an area of interest in the one or more images, the area of interest selected to be scanned by the radar;

registering the one or more images to a respective map of the area displayed in the one or more images;

identifying a sub-area in the respective map corresponding to the area of interest indicated;

automatically generating a flight route for directing the aircraft over the area of interest while enabling operating the radar; and

executing, at the aerial control unit, flight instructions for autonomously controlling the aircraft along the flight route, and activating the radar for acquiring radar data output over the area of interest.

20. A method of autonomously adapting an aircraft flight path during transition between operation of an onboard electro-optic (EO) data acquisition device to an onboard radar, the method comprising, while the aircraft is flying autonomously:

generating one or more images of a surveyed by the EO data acquisition device while the aircraft is airborne;

receiving data generated by an operator by interacting with the one or more images captured by the EO data acquisition device identifying an area of interest in the one or more images, the area of interest selected to be scanned by the radar; registering the one or more images to a respective map of the area displayed in the one or more images; identifying a sub-area in the respective map corresponding to the area of interest indicated; and automatically generating a flight route for directing the aircraft over the area of interest while enabling operating the radar according to the sub-area identified in the map; executing, at the aircraft, flight instructions for autonomously controlling the aircraft's flight along the flight route, and activating the radar for acquiring radar data output over the area of interest.