IR/EO TARGET GENERATION CONCEPTS

MAJOR IMPROVEMENTS ARE REQUIRED IN SIMULATION TEST SYSTEMS IN ORDER TO TEST INTEGRATED SENSOR SYSTEMS THAT COMBINE RF, INFRARED AND ELECTRO-OPTICAL SENSORS. RF ENVIRONMENT SIMULATORS CAN NOW GENERATE EMISSIONS ASSOCIATED WITH MAJOR COMBAT SCENARIOS. NO EQUIVALENT CAPABILITY EXISTS TO GENERATE LARGE NUMBERS OF IR AND EO TARGET SIGNATURES SO THAT IR AND EO SENSORS CAN BE TESTED IN THESE SAME SCENARIOS. THIS STUDY WILL INVESTIGATE METHODS TO DIGITALLY GENERATE IR AND EO TARGETS BASED ON THE TECHNOLOGY THAT WAS SUCCESSFULLY EMPLOYED TO DIGITALLY GENERATE SIGNALS FOR RF RECEIVER SYSTEMS. THIS WAS DONE BY DUPLICATION OF THE DIGITAL OUTPUT OF THE FRONT END OF THE RF RECEIVER SYSTEM UNDER TEST. THIS STUDY THUS FOCUSES ON UNDERSTANDING THE IR SENSOR'S (E.G., WARNING RECEIVER) DESIGN AND PERFORMANCE CHARACTERISTICS AND THE CHARACTERISTICS OF IR TARGET SIGNATURES, AND DESCRIBING A DIGITAL STIMULATION APPROACH. EO SIGNAL GENERATION BY USE OF A GRAPHICS PROCESSOR SYSTEM WILL ALSO BE INVESTIGATED.