MPATH: Miniaturized, Plug-and-play, Acquisition and Tracking Hardware - Phase II

The MPATH program integrates semi-autonomous, real-time, EO/IR, target acquisition and tracking into a sensor gimbal to produce a plug-and-play tracking system for small UAVs. SSCI’s flight-tested FOCUS algorithms run on a TX2 module and meet the requirements for such a system, except that the TX2 is too heavy and the algorithms must expose some additional inputs and outputs. Known optimizations should reduce computation sufficiently to run the algorithms on current, cutting edge hardware with sufficiently low SWaP for integration into a gimbal. In Phase I, we have augmented the algorithms, verified performance and speed, and projected speed that can be obtained on sufficiently light hardware. In Phase II, we will select hardware, port the algorithms to it, integrate into a small UAV gimbal, and demonstrate system performance. The result will be a plug-and-play, small UAV, sensor system that quickly converts a generic small UAV into an acquisition and tracking platform, and that facilitates transitioning future developments of FOCUS algorithms (visibility-aware target search, detection, classification, localization, and tracking) to the warfighter.