PASSIVE SENSOR ALTITUDE AND TERRAIN AWARENESS SYSTEM

THE PRIMARY OBJECTIVE OF THE PHASE I STUDY IS TO EVALUATE THE FEASIBILITY OF DEVELOPING A PASSIVE OPTICAL SENSOR ALTITUDE AND TERRAIN AWARENESS SYSTEM (ATAS). THE BASIC TECHNIQUE PROPOSED FOR STUDY MAKES USE OF THE OPTICAL FLOWFIELD PRESENT IN ALL PASSIVELY-IMAGED DYNAMIC SCENES, TO DEVELOP EVOLVING AND AUTONOMOUS ESTIMATES OF RELATIVE TIME/RANGE TO ALL POINTS IN THE IMAGER FIELDOF-VIEW. THE PROPOSED ARCHITECTURE CONSISTS OF A PASSIVE IMAGING SENSOR DRIVING A FLOW-FIELD COMPUTER, WHICH GENERATES MEASUREMENTS FOR A STATE/TIME ESTIMATOR AND DOWN-STREAM TERRAIN MODELER. A VIRTUAL IMAGE HELMET-MOUNTED DISPLAY PROVIDES THE PILOT WITH COMPUTED TERRAIN-RELATIVE ALTITUDE, AND AN IMAGE OF THE LOCAL TOPOGRAPHY. WE PLAN AN INITIAL APPLICATION OF ATAS TO TERRAIN-FOLLOWING FLIGHT AND PROPOSE A PHASE I FEASIBILITY ASSESSMENT COMPRISED OF FOUR TASKS. WE WILL: 1) DEFINE THE OVERALL SYSTEM ARCHITECTURE FOR ATAS; 2) DEVELOP A SIMULATION OF BOTH THE EXTERNAL ENVIRONMENT AND THE PROPOSED SYSTEM; 3) SIMULATE OVERALL OPERATION, CONDUCT PERFORMANCE TRADES, AND SPECIFY SENSOR, SIGNAL PROCESSING, AND COMPUTATIONAL REQUIREMENTS; AND 4) DEFINE REQUIREMENTS FOR PHASE II DEVELOPMENT AND EVALUATION OF A WORKING PROTOTYPE.