Optimized Taggant Delivery Systems

ABSTRACT: In this Phase II SBIR, a Voxtel Inc. led team will develop a lightweight small unmanned aircraft system (SUAS) delivered payload, including targeting and fire-control sub-system, taggant dissemination hardware, and taggant reservoir, that is capable of covertly delivering optical taggants. Because the performance of auto-pilots and video trackers is limited by SRPA system constraints, the vehicle state errors, will likely lead to low target estimation precision. As the taggant delivery efficiency falls off with distance and operational viability of optical taggants depends upon depositing nanoparticles in specific spectral mixtures and at precise target locations, increased precision is required for this application, especially at the long standoff ranges required for covert delivery. Toward this end, fixed- and gimbal-mounted day/night sensor systems will be characterized, augmented with auxillary sensors and off-board data, and integrated with the SUAS'navigation system. After determining the target estimation accuracy, taggant dissemination systems will be developed, and an integrated delivery payload will be first tested on zip lines and then in flight field tests. The information gained from these tests will be used to develop an optimized small sized, light weight SRPA-based taggant delivery payload, which will be validated in military sponsored flight tests. BENEFIT: The military interests discussed in the Defense Science Board's 2004 study entitled Transition to and from Hostilities recommends a"Manhattan Project-like"focus to develop extensive, covert tagging, tracking, and locating (TTL) technology. Using optically encoded taggants, a powerful, new tool, addresses the challenges resulting from unconventional war targets and technical advances in military weaponry, and applies the Defense Science Board's recommendations. Optical taggants also satisfy the military's need for combat identification (CI), and identification of friend or foe (IFF). Commercial markets include anti-counterfeiting and high Value Document Authentication.