Zero Foreign Object Damage (FOD): Inlet Debris Monitoring System (IDMS)

Foreign object damage (FOD) to military aircraft has historically been very costly and is projected to continue to be very costly in the near-term. For example, mishaps due to FOD have cost the Navy Aviation Enterprise over $400M in the past three years and is expected to cost more than $2B over the next five years. The Navy is actively engaged in developing a FOD System-of-Systems to synthesize and analyze data from multiple sensor technologies to calculate and remediate FOD. For this topic, an inlet debris monitoring system (IDMS) is of particular interest. The IDMS will detect and characterize FOD that enters an aircraft engine inlet. In this proposal Prime Photonics proposes a novel method of optical debris detection. The proposed method achieves much greater dynamic range at much lower data rates, processing power, and cost than conventional high speed camera systems. In the Phase I we demonstrated the systems ability to detect debris of varying types over a wide range of velocity and size. In Phase II, more exhaustive lab testign will be performed, as will on-engine testing. The probability of detection (Pd), and the probability of false alarm (or false categorization) will also be quantified. We expect a TRL of 5/6 at the conclusion of Phase II.