Boost Phase Guidance and Control Using Motion Energy

"During Phase I, Computational Sensors Corporation (CSC) will develop algorithms for estimat-ing boost-phase target characteristics using motion energy analysis of the target plume. Boost phase intercepts have an extremely compressed time line. Guidanceand control systems must react to target maneuvers swiftly and accurately. Current systems can only react to deviations from the target track after the target has maneuvered. In this project, CSC proposes using a mo-tion energy analysis of the targetplume to enhance guidance and control. Parts of the plume change during target maneuvers, before the target has had time to significantly deviate from its previous trajectory. By estimating target characteristics from the plume motion energy, thereexists the potential for increasing the interceptor's responsiveness to maneuvers. CSC will de-velop new motion energy-based algorithms to detect target maneuvers and anticipate changes in the target track. A motion energy approach leverages the naturalability of existing massively parallel analog hardware to perform computationally intensive image processing tasks in real-time. Limited hardware-in-the-loop (HWIL) testing will be conducted throughout Phase I. In Phase II, we plan to fully implement themost promising algorithms and perform complete HWIL testing at missile system test beds, such as the KHILS facility. Target analysis capabilities using nonlinear motion energy image processi