GEOMETRIC PROCESSOR FOR HARDWARE-IN-THE-LOOP SIMULATION .

WE PROPOSE TO DEVELOP A GEOMETRIC PROCESSOR TO PERFORM REALTIME 2-DIMENSIONAL IMAGE TRANSFORMATION, WHICH INCLUDES ROTATION, TRANSLATION AND ZOOMING, OF TARGET SCENES TO BE USED FOR HARDWARE-IN-THE-LOOP SIMULATION OF IMAGING MISSILE TRACKER SYSTEMS. IN PHASE I, WE WILL DEVELOP AN OVERALL GEOMETRIC PROCESSOR CONCEPT WHICH CANBE IMPLEMENTED BY OFF-THE-SHELF HARDWARE, AND DESIGN A FULL PROCESSOR TO MEET THE SPEED AND REALTIME TRANSFORMATION REQUIREMENTS, FOLLOWED BY FORMULATING A PLAN FOR PHASE II TO CONSTRUCT THE PROCESSOR. THE KEY PROCESSOR ELEMENTS TO BE DESIGNED ARE: ARCHITECTURES FOR THREE MEMORIES: FRAME BUFFER, VIDEO STORAGE AND DISPLAY, AN ANTI-ALIASING LOWPASS FILTER, A SYSTEM CONTROLLER, AN IMAGE COORDINATE TRANSFORMER AND A HI-LINEAR PIXEL INTERPOLATOR. THE RESULTANT PROCESSOR WILL BE CAPABLE OF MANIPULATING IN REALTIME THE GEOMETRICAL ORIENTATIONS OF A DYNAMIC TARGET, CONTAINED IN A COMPLEX SCENE GENERATED BY A GRAPHIC COMPUTER, AS MIGHT BE SEEN BY THE TRACKER AS IT TRACKS THE TARGET DURING DEPLOYMENT. THIS REALTIME MANIPULATION WILL ENHANCE REALISM IN SIMULATION AND REDUCE TIME AND COST IN EVALUATING TRACKER SYSTEMS.