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Aerial Response Systems markAERIAL RESPONSE SYSTEMSARS · Public Safety UAS Engineering
Development-stage portfolio

Projects

What we are building, and how far each has actually come

ARS is a small engineering company. This page states each project's purpose, what has been demonstrated, and what has not, so partners and collaborators can judge the work on its evidence.

Portfolio

UAS platforms

ARS Phoenix

Prototype development

A six-rotor (hexacopter) reference platform for intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance work in search and rescue and wildfire response, with airspace awareness and TAK-compatible output.

Where it stands

  • On a disarmed bench aircraft with a real flight controller and companion computer, 1090 MHz ADS-B reception, tiered traffic alerts, and a software watchdog have been exercised. The two automatic return-to-launch responses (a critical traffic alert, and a monitored onboard software fault) each produced a mode change accepted by the flight controller; no return flight has occurred.
  • Traffic and drone position messages in TAK Cursor-on-Target format have been broadcast and received by an independent listener on the bench network. Display in a TAK client and secured server connections have not been demonstrated.
  • The thermal camera interface and its recovery from a disconnected camera have been exercised; sustained image capture is still being qualified.
  • The onboard software installs and starts on the companion computer on the bench. Aviation-weather decision support and a search-and-rescue planning service are implemented and tested as software; neither is deployed on the aircraft.

Limitations

  • The aircraft has not flown and no flight is authorized. Flight-readiness work (calibration, power system, emergency-stop design) is outstanding.
  • Thermal person and hotspot detection, Remote ID alerting, and RF monitoring have not been demonstrated on hardware.
  • The traffic-alert response uses engineering-judgment thresholds, has been exercised on a bench only, and is not a certified detect-and-avoid system.
  • The platform holds no FAA approval or certification and is not commercially available.
Platform detailsAsk about ARS Phoenix

ARS Kestrel C7 companion UAS

Concept / design study

ARS Kestrel C7 is a compact companion aircraft intended to give public-safety, search-and-rescue, and inspection teams an additional sensing viewpoint alongside a primary aircraft. It is a companion aircraft, not a counter-drone system.

Where it stands

  • Requirements, architecture principles, and performance analyses are written.
  • Design priorities are documented, including ruggedness in field use and operation without a continuous network connection.

Limitations

  • Nothing has been built, flown, or measured, and no aircraft hardware has been selected.
  • Weight, endurance, and payload figures are design targets or analysis results, not demonstrated performance, so none are published.
Ask about ARS Kestrel C7 companion UAS

Portfolio

Sensor systems and software

ARS Airspace Sensor Payload

Prototype, bench-exercised on earlier hardware

A companion payload intended to give an aircraft or ground station awareness of nearby aircraft and drones. It is designed to receive Remote ID broadcasts and 1090 MHz ADS-B traffic, apply plausibility checks, and publish alerts to a host system or TAK-compatible tools.

Where it stands

  • Wi-Fi beacon Remote ID reception, plausibility checks, and 1090 MHz ADS-B reception have been exercised on the bench, against ARS-built test transmitters and live aircraft traffic, on an earlier development computer.
  • Software also exists for 978 MHz UAT reception and for 2.4/5.8 GHz RF energy detection; neither has been demonstrated end to end on hardware.

Limitations

  • Bring-up on the current target onboard computer is pending, and no field or flight data exists.
  • Remote ID reception has been exercised only against ARS's own transmitters, not real aircraft. Bluetooth reception hardware is not yet selected.
  • RF detection range and false-alarm rates are not characterized.
  • It is not a detect-and-avoid system, and no regulatory compliance is claimed.
Sensor technologyAsk about ARS Airspace Sensor Payload

ARS Vector

Prototype, software only

Incident-intelligence software that turns sensor and mission data into a shared picture and advisory suggestions for human decision-makers, with planning modules for areas such as search and rescue, wildfire, and airspace awareness. It produces estimates and recommendations only and does not command aircraft.

Crash analysis module: software, not validated

Within ARS Vector, a crash-analysis module works from crash-scene evidence that a person supplies, such as vehicle position, roadway and terrain evidence. It does two separate things.

Trajectory analysis estimates the direction in which an occupant or object may have left a vehicle, showing the evidence and assumptions behind the estimate.

Search-area support takes that estimate and produces ranked candidate search areas for a potentially displaced occupant, as advisory planning tasks for people to review. It does not locate the crash itself, does not confirm that anyone was ejected, does not identify any person, and does not command an aircraft.

The module's methods have not been validated against real incidents. It is built to use public historical crash records and has been tested as software on those records and on synthetic scenes; it has not been used in the field. Its outputs are estimates for human investigator review, never forensic findings or legal conclusions.

Incident-support module for public-safety agencies: software, not validated

ARS Vector also includes a module designed to organize incident observations and evidence references and to present candidate indicators of people, vehicles and objects, with their sources and uncertainty, for review by authorized personnel. It does not identify individuals, implements no facial recognition or biometric identification, and is not a basis for any legal determination or enforcement action. It is software only: it has not been validated in the field and is not deployed.

Where it stands

  • The core software, mission modules, and an operator interface have been built and tested in simulation.

Limitations

  • Its release-candidate evaluation used simulated data; no real sensor or aircraft hardware was part of it.
  • Outputs are estimates for human review, not legal, medical, or forensic determinations.
  • Its role relative to the aircraft's onboard software is still being defined. It is not commercially available and is not deployed with any agency.
Ask about ARS Vector

Nothing on this page is an offer for sale, a certification, or evidence of operational deployment. Concept imagery elsewhere on this site is illustrative.

Talk with the engineers

Tell us what you work on and what would be useful. This is an engineering conversation, not a sales presentation.

Contact ARSEngineering research program