Autonomous Optical Sensor (AOS)

The US Army needs a rapidly deployable, unmanned capability to observe missile launch tests. MZA Associates Corporation proposes to design a lightweight, autonomous optical system to observe missile launch tests in real time. The system design will include several high-speed cameras to collect imagery and the ability to operate unmanned indefinitely. The unmanned operation is enabled by a solar-powered battery, low power consumption, a ruggedized enclosure, machine learning as part of the automation, and network communication link. Specific automation tasks include calibrating itself, determine its position automatically, managing its data and wirelessly communicating to a command and control center. Remote communication will allow the optical system to receive guidance and queuing data to initiate its track of the missile and transmit its preprocessed data to a data center for analysis. Machine learning algorithms will be used to operate the automation of these tasks. Finally, the lightweight nature of the system will allow it to be deployed rapidly with minimal manpower.