Pathfinder Unattended Ground Sensors (Mini / XL)

Pathfinder is ARA's combat-proven family of expendable seismic unattended ground sensors for covert intrusion detection across military, border-security, critical-infrastructure and private-security applications. Each sensor is a fully self-contained tan cylinder — the Mini at 2.6 in diameter x 2.2 in height and 0.5 lb, the XL at 2.6 in diameter x 4.75 in height and 1.0 lb — hand-emplaced in the ground at avenues of approach with no external batteries, wires or gateways, leaving a footprint small enough to stay effectively invisible. Onboard intelligent machine-learning algorithms classify what the geophone hears: human footsteps are detected up to a 10 m radius in seismically quiet conditions, and lightweight off-road vehicles such as ATVs and dirt bikes up to 20 m. Dedicated filters reject rain events, and the footstep algorithms discriminate against small animals (dogs, groundhogs), with only occasional false alarms for large quadrupeds — giving a high probability of detection with a low false-alarm rate. Validated alerts report over a simplified wireless architecture with no repeaters, gateways or relays — typically up to 10 km depending on terrain, and considerably further when the receiver antenna is elevated. Two radio versions are offered (a low-power FCC-approved radio for ranges up to 1 km and a high-power radio for up to 10 km), with six factory-set regional frequency options covering the US/Canada, EU, Africa, India, South Korea and South America; the 2018 datasheet lists the US variant at 916 MHz / 0 dBm with an FCC waiver path to 20 dBm. Embedded lithium-ion batteries run the Mini up to 6 months and the XL up to 24 months at up to 50 alerts per day in moderate temperatures, with quiescent draw below 2 uA off and 600 uA on. Detections display on the Pathfinder base-station software and integrate seamlessly with the Tactical Assault Kit (TAK); ARA provides interface control documents for autonomous camera slew-to-cue and unmanned-aircraft fly-to-cue, making Pathfinder suited to remote, long-haul perimeters from a single facility up to areas of several square miles. Sensor kits normally ship as 60 Mini or 30 XL sensors with quantities customisable, and additional sensors integrate seamlessly into an existing kit. Pathfinder is classified ECCN 6A999.a under US Export Administration Regulations; ARA assists with licensing and coverage maps for known deployment coordinates.

Available variants.