NCSIST showcases AI-powered drone intelligence hub, simulator

Taichung, Dec. 24 (CNA) Taiwan's National Chung-Shan Institute of Science and Technology (NCSIST) on Tuesday demonstrated a domestically developed artificial intelligence (AI) powered intelligence center that aims to facilitate deployments involving unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) on battlefields.

Central to the facility is an intelligence sharing platform that can receive and display footage transmitted from all types of drones deployed on a dashboard, NCSIST staff told reporters during an open house.

Utilizing generative AI and generative pre-trained transformer models, the platform can analyze drone images and produce data that command centers can then use to increase the situational awareness of ground personnel, the staff explained.

The images are further sorted and stored to enable fast queries when specific footage or graphics need to be located, saving on human labor and time, they added.

Yeh Chia-fan (葉嘉範), director of the Aeronautical Systems Research Division at the NCSIST, said the institute can even integrate footage transmitted by MQ-9B drones that Taiwan has purchased from the United States with the platform.

The NCSIST can start working on the system integration as soon as Taiwan's Armed Forces file a request, Yeh added.

The NSCIST also showcased a UAV flight simulator that features a realistic digital dashboard and images captured using an optical payload.

The simulator can simulate different weather conditions and missions to help familiarize internal drone pilots and payload operators with operating drones.

The simulator is modular and can be configured to approximate different types of drones and missions or be linked to the AI intelligence hub to simulate intelligence transmission sequences.