One of the key projects being pursued by Pretoria-based electronic engineering company Sparcx is an artificial intelligence (AI)-based radar target classification (RTC) system that has broad applications in the defence and security sectors.
This was detailed by Sparcx Managing Director Sujo Mulamattathil, who was speaking at the Aerospace Industry Support Initiative (AISI) Industry Day hosted by the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) on 29 November.
The RTC system is currently being developed for a defence customer, although it could also be used in public safety. Mulamattathil said RTC systems often struggle to accurately classify targets due to several challenges such as clutter, noise, multiple targets and rapidly changing environments. This lack of precision impacts safety and accuracy.
Consequently, Sparcx is building an AI-based system to identify targets faster and more accurately, and is making use of expertise at the CSIR and Reutech Radar Systems to do this – funding for the project is being provided by Sparcx, the AISI/Department of Trade, Industry and Competition, and Reutech Radar Systems.
Mulamattathil said the next phase of development is size, weight and power optimisation, industrialisation, manufacturing, marketing and sales. The company’s business model is to sell its RTC system hardware with radars manufactured by companies like Reutech.
He added that a combination of radar and camera technologies to identify and better classify targets is being integrated. Use cases include farm security, wildlife monitoring, border security etc. as the system is able to tell the difference between a vehicle and, say, an animal or a human being.
Sparcx is a wholly black military veteran owned and managed electronic engineering company focussing on the aerospace, defence, and public safety sectors. It is developing several technologies, some in collaboration with the CSIR, to serve the African market.
For example, Mulamattathil explained that this year Sparcx has been developing an artificial intelligence (AI)-based automatic speech recognition system for an aerospace customer to reduce incursions/accidents at airports. Other projects include implementing less lethal devices for a law enforcement agency, and industrialising AI-based smart water network sensors to reduce leakage losses for municipalities and water boards (up to 60% of municipal water is lost countrywide due to leaks).
In 2024 Sparcx was chosen as the sole South African representative in a cohort of 10 businesses from Africa in Qualcomm’s “Make in Africa 2024” start-up incubation programme. It was selected on the basis of its RTC system.
Since its inception in 2015, Sparcx has developed a number of different technologies, such as a radio frequency measurement system for the government, and an AI-driven runway occupancy alerting system.
