LASER PROJECTION FOR TESTING AIR DELIVERABLE CONVENTIONAL MUNITIONS AND ARMAMENTS

CONTROLLED LABORATORY SENSOR TESTING USING SCENE PROJECTION REDUCES SENSOR EVALUATION COSTS BY REDUCING FLIGHT TEST REQUIREMENTS YET PROVIDING ACTUAL SCENE STIMULATION OF A SENSOR. IIS HAS DEVELOPED A MATURE LASER PROJECTION TECHNOLOGY AND IIS HAS RESOLVED, THROUGH ANALYSIS AND TEST, MANY TECHNICAL ISSUES ASSOCIATED WITH IR SENSOR TESTING. IIS HAS BUILT A PROTOTYPE PROJECTOR IN THE VISIBLE SPECTRUM SHOWING FEASIBILITY OF THE CONCEPT BY PRODUCING 1500:1 DYNAMIC RANGE, 200 FRAMES PER SECOND FRAME RATE, FLEXIBLE INPUT FORMAT, AND BAND FLEXIBILITY. THE TECHNICAL EFFORT UNDERTAKEN FOR THE SBIR IS TO INCREASE PROJECTION FRAME RATE TO 1000 HZ FROM 64 X 64 PIXEL IMAGE, AND REDUCE RISK OF THE IR DESIGN BY CHARACTERIZING COMPONENTS IN ACTUAL OPERATIONS. THIS INCLUDES AUGMENTING THE SCANNER, DATA SUPPLY ELECTRONICS, AND BEAM DELIVERY OPTICS. THE VISUAL PROJECTOR WILL FORM A MODULE WHICH WILL BE SIMILAR TO THE BASIC BUILDING BLOCK OF THE IR PROJECTOR.