Synthetic Scenery for Tracking System Evaluation

ABSTRACT: MZA Associates Corporation, partnered with the University of Dayton (UD) propose to develop a dynamic scene generation capability within WaveTrain. We propose authoring a scene renderer using proven Computer Graphics Imagery (CGI) techniques to produce target maps that WaveTrain will use to represent an array of sources. The code library will be compiled in such a way that is will be accessible by other engineering software like MatLab. We will outline specific scene generation processes we"ve used in the past and how they can be incorporated or expanded upon to produce higher fidelity dynamic scenes in WaveTrain, with less effort. We will also provide a road map for expanded thermal modeling in WaveTrain that include the scene renderer and three dimensional (3D) targets as part of the solution. Sources associated with state changes like smoke will also be addressed with a novel solution involving hyper-voxels and fractals. Finally, we propose investigating a commercial render engine to augment the scene renderer. Mr. Joseph Riley with be the principal investigator for MZA and Dr. Joseph Haus will be the lead for UD. BENEFIT: Adding this expanded synthetic scene generation capability to WaveTrain will provide higher fidelity passive and active wave optics imagery and support dynamic changes in the target. The effect of this will be better evaluations of optical tracking concepts and controls in turbulent and cluttered environments, resulting in a reduced need for expensive field experiments. The time needed for an analysis to simulate engagements will also shrink since many separate and slow running scripts will be optimized and collated into a single library linked to WaveTrain components. Accessibility of the scene library by products like MatLab should also increase its applications in both professional and academic fields.