Event-Based Propellant Testing

The advancement of propellant technology for artillery systems is critical to enhancing both the range and effectiveness of modern weapon systems while maintaining the highest standards of safety for Soldiers. Current methods of evaluating propellant performance are constrained by the limitations of conventional imaging systems in capturing and analyzing the chaotic, high-speed ignition and combustion phenomena under challenging lighting conditions. These limitations hinder progress in optimizing propellant designs for next-generation artillery systems.This effort proposes the development of an advanced hardware and software system integrating neuromorphic event cameras with high-speed video technology to address these challenges. Unlike traditional cameras, which capture frames at fixed intervals, event cameras operate asynchronously, capturing changes in brightness at the pixel level with microsecond precision. This approach enables them to operate with extremely high temporal resolution while minimizing data redundancy and bandwidth requirements. Combined with their ability to function effectively in high-dynamic-range (HDR) environments exceeding 100dB, event cameras are uniquely suited to capturing the rapid, chaotic phenomena associated with propellant ignition and combustion.Central to the effort is the fusion of single-photon avalanche diode and event camera data with high-speed video data, leveraging classical methods and AI/ML models to perform complex 3D image analysis. This integration will enable a deeper understanding of the ignition phenomenon and combustion propagation in transparent acrylic test chambers, providing unparalleled insight into dynamic events and allowing for the precise extraction of critical metrics such as ignition delay, flame propagation speed, and particle trajectories. A user-friendly graphical interface will be developed to allow analysts to visualize and interpret the data efficiently, generating detailed reports for both scientific evaluation and engineering application.Through this effort, the U.S. Department of Defense will gain a transformative tool for improving artillery propellant designs, advancing the safety, lethality, and operational effectiveness of future weapon systems.