Debris Trajectory and Classification (DTAC) System

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. High speed optical and radar imaging methods are viable for inlet debris monitoring but require high data rates, high processing power, and high-cost systems. Prime has used optical tip timing probes in the past to detect blade vibrations/displacement due to a FOD strike. This system was effective for moderate to high momentum FOD impacts and when FOD struck a blade near a probe, however, low-momentum impacts away from an optical probe led to inconsistent detection. 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 Base we will demonstrate the ability of the debris trajectory and classification (DTAC) system to detect inlet debris as small as 4.5 mm, and determine the velocity and direction/trajectory of the debris. Furthermore, we will demonstrate the DTAC system’s ability to determine the envelope volume of the inlet debris. In the Phase I Option we will build a machine learning library and algorithm to classify multiple types of debris. We will start with high priority debris such as nuts, bolts, safety wire, and gravel. The probability of detection (Pd), and the probability of false alarm (or false categorization) will also be quantified. We expect a TRL of 3/4 at the conclusion of Phase I.  In Phase II, more advanced features of the system will be tested in different environmental conditions.