Agile, Detecting and Discriminating, Infrared Electro-Optical Systems (ADDIOS)

The ADDIOS solicitation addresses a fundamental limitation imposed by physics on all imaging sensor systems: performance requirements demand higher sensor resolution, but processor capabilities demand lower sensor resolution. The pixels of a low-resolution sensor cover areas that are much larger than the target. This dilutes the pixel's signal energy with background energy, decreasing the detection performance of the sensor. Increasing the resolution of the sensor alleviates this problem, but has a corresponding penalty in the amount of processing power needed for real-time detection. DRA has developed an effective two-color missile warning sensor that operates in the visible spectrum (VMWS). During the Phase I effort of ADDIOS, DRA incorporated CMOS imaging technology into the VMWS in order to analyze the threat scene using variable resolution (VR). Using VR in missile warning allows for efficient detection at low-resolution for the entire threat scene as well as effective high-resolution tracking and declaration of missile threats. The concept of VR is analogous to having electronic foveal vision, except the high-resolution fovea can move as needed about the field of view. During Phase II, DRA will formulate the algorithms to accomplish VR in missile warning.