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Affiliated with the Artillery Regiment (no, seriously) #SriLanka’s Army has recently established a #drone regiment, that in just a couple of days has contributed to serious privacy violations & even arrests. What exactly is in our skies & what can these drones do? #lka https://twitter.com/sanjanah/status/1326822926348218368
The Army is using consumer grade to industrial grade drones. What is being flown matters as much as who is flying it. The Army isn’t bound by existing @caaslofficial drone regulations which civilian operators have to abide by. https://www.caa.lk/images/drone_operation_information/SLCA_IS053_1st_Edition_Rev02_10JAN2017.pdf
The military does NOT need CAASL permission to fly over crowds. They can fly farther (beyond visual line of sight). They can fly at night. None of these are possible for civilian flight operations w/out permission. VLOS completely prohibited for civilian operators. #lka
The consumer grade drone capabilities are well-known. @DJIGlobal’s industrial grade drones are in a different league. Think Toyota Corolla & Toyota 4WD Hilux. Both vehicles from same manufacturer, but 4WD Hilux far more powerful & capable. *You cannot conflate the two*. #lka
Army’s industrial grade DJI model is a Matrice 300 RTK platform. It can fly farther & for ~2X longer than DJI’s own consumer grade drones. It is configurable to fit various mission parameters. Let’s focus on camera, since in a way, that’s the most imp. aspect of these devices. https://twitter.com/sanjanah/status/1326822928021741568
The Army’s drones are fitted with Zenmuse H20, which come in 2 variants. Helpfully, the sensor array is very different between the 2 models. From @adaderana video frame, we learn that Army uses H20T quad-sensor camera, w/ thermal imaging capabilities. That’s significant. #lka
What can either of these cameras do & see? Quite a bit & far more than, again, DJI’s consumer grade drone cameras. DJI’s website provides an overview of the optics in the Zenmuse H20 cameras. Think of it like a D-SLR in the sky, which can be pointed at you. #lka
The camera allows for vehicle/object tracking, with a very high degree capture and precision. #lka
The camera + drone platform can quickly & extremely accurately determine the location of persons. Here, it is for search & rescue (SAR), which is a life-saving use case for these machines. In #SriLanka, they are already used for arrests & privacy violations.
The camera allows for a 40X zoom, night-vision and thermal imaging. Put simply, drone can be very far from you & still track your movements, through windows/thin coverings (e.g. cars), even at night/low-light (which civilian operators can’t fly in but the military can & will).
Some news reports suggest that even more sophisticated drones are a few months away. Already, #China’s Embassy has tweeted in support of these drones & how they have been used in the mainland with stress on utility of drones in maintaining “public discipline”. #lka https://twitter.com/chinaembsl/status/1326877024540090369
Drone use for syndromic surveillance/pandemic response isn’t new or limited to #SriLanka. There are however major concerns & in the US, #privacy concerns have led even led to halting drone operations by Police https://twitter.com/sanjanah/status/1326954583625592832?s=20 https://twitter.com/sanjanah/status/1326954585466941441
AFAIK, no article on Army’s #drone regiment in #SriLanka flags CAASL regulations, global context, #privacy or the technical capabilities of these drones. To reiterate, these are NOT consumer grade machines. They are designed for industrial work, now used for citizen surveillance.
As my colleague @bfonseka notes, #drone use “should be done in adherence to laws, with the involvement of the civilian administration/health professionals, be transparent & have oversight”. Nothing of the sort happening now or even on horizon (no pun intended). Chilling. #lka https://twitter.com/bfonseka/status/1327105315867746304
Apologies for pixelated video in thread above. Here’s a clearer video of the Zenmuse H20’s object/vehicle tracking. From https://www.dji.com/nz/zenmuse-h20-series Note camera used by Army is H20T. #lka #SriLanka #Covid19SL
And here’s a clearer video of the camera+drone capabilities around object/person detection, incl. in low-light conditions/night. From https://www.dji.com/nz/zenmuse-h20-series Note camera used by Army is H20T. #SriLanka #lka #drones #Covid19SL
