Compact, Low Cost Laser Radar (LADAR) for Smart Submunition Target Sensing

The proposed effort is to design, analyze, fabricate and test a los cost, application specific LADAR system for weapon guidance. This LADAR system must autonomously detect, locate and classify various ground targets in clutter from a SADARM like platform. Project objectives are to demonstrate that this system can be packaged into a given volume constraint and enter into production at a maximum cost goal. Previous SEO submunition LADAR sensor work indicates thta multi-channel LADAR systems provide superior performance over single-channel systems in cluttered environments, but are significantly larger and much more expensive. The best design for this LADAR system is one which would provide multi-channel performance with single-channel simplicity and low cost. SEO will design a system which provides nin-channel performance with three-channel complexity, size, and cost. This will be accomplished by constructing a three-channel transmitter and a nine-channel receiver which uses optical fibers and discrete detectors. The receiver output will be time-multiplexed through three-channel electronics. One channel of the transmitter will alternate its output polarization from pulse to pulse and the polarization of the three corresponding receiver channels will be examined to detect polarization shifts in the reflected pulse as an aid in target detection. A breadboard sensor will be constructed under Phase I to verify the design which will become the basis for Phase II.