Coastal Battlefield Reconnaissance and Analysis (COBRA) Hardware In The Loop and Software Sensor Simulator

This project addresses the issue of characterizing current and future Coastal Battlefield Reconnaissance and Analysis passive sensors and their impact on system performance. COBRA currently utilizes a passive, multi-spectral imaging sensor and is investigating other sensors for future Block I and Block II systems. There is a need for evaluating and comparing the performance of these sensors to facilitate design decisions and operational performance estimates. To predict operational performance of an imaging sensor it is not sufficient to simply make standard laboratory measurements, such as modulation transfer function. Rather, it is necessary to evaluate the system including both the sensor and processing algorithms in operationally relevant tests. However, field tests of the full COBRA system are expensive, and when comparing multiple sensor alternatives the test matrix can grow large.Areté’s solution will deliver a “Hardware-in-the-Loop” (HiL) test-bed and Software Sensor Simulator to the COBRA program comprised of; Hardware-based optical instruments supporting camera characterization sufficient to populate a Software Sensor Model and generate simulated imagery, Closed-loop model validation whereby COBRA sensor imagery is generated on the HiL platform and compared to the model-generated imagery, and Software Performance Estimation model that estimates COBRA system performance based on the validated sensor model.