SBIR-STTR Award

Modern cell phone technology has been driven to create processors with capabilities appropriate to video processors for small unmanned aircraft systems. High definition streaming, video processing and compression, low SWaP and fast development are fundamental industry requirements that mesh perfectly with the SUAS ISR mission. Having built end-to-end SUAS ISR Payloads, including in particular the video processing component, Adsys Controls is well positioned to conduct the work with insight and experience. Adsys Controls will assess and benchmark a number of new generation System On Chip processors including the latest in cell phone and broadcast video processors. An evaluation of software development platforms will be performed to assess ease of code implementation. A software development toolchain and codebase will be developed that will lay the foundation for development of a next generation hardware platform to meet the challenging ISR needs of SUAS platforms.

Benefit:
This activity will have two major benefits. The first is the creation of a flexible, powerful test platform. Using this platform, researchers can easily implement, test and fly different alternative image processing algorithms. That will speed the development cycle, enabling improvements in our national UAS capability. Secondly, the creation of a new, cutting edge hardware platform will bring a generational improvement in the performance and cost of today""s very light vision systems. By reducing SWaP while expanding processing capability, more complex missions will be brought within reach of very lightweight, perhaps even hand-launched unmanned aircraft systems. Performance of Small UAS platforms will approach that of much larger and higher cost platforms with a commensurate reduction in logistics requirements. In addition to DoD applications, the platforms will also enhance the capabilities for other first responder (police, firefighter, emergency relief), border patrol, and homeland security operations. Additional uses exist in the commercial marketplace for video surveillance for security, traffic monitoring, weather observation, as well as entertainment applications.

The past decade has seen dramatic improvements in miniature electronic cameras, and materials science enables commensurately small, lightweight flying vehicles. These enhancements have made small UAS viable and delivered increasing value to the military, but weight and power remain key limiters; it is well known that total aircraft size and cost are multiplied by payload mass fraction, so payloads must be reduced. Barriers to continually improving ISR vehicle performance in the immediate future lie in two principal areas: propulsion and electronics. A substantial fraction of the electronics are dedicated to collecting, processing, interpreting, compressing and telemetering the acquired mission data, especially video imagery. Advances in computation, software, and in the science of video data interpretation are all needed. This is a dual-use program which offers a 17-fold increase in video processing performance over existing gimbal processors. The benefits will apply to both military and commercial UAV payloads. The SVP program aims to deliver significant improvements in the first two aspects: computation and software. This will enhance the effectiveness of scientific development efforts in video processing, and provide better technology with lower Size, Weight and Power (SWaP) to improve the performance of today?s systems.

Benefit:
The Small Video Processor (SVP) is a dual-use program which offers a 17-fold increase in video processing performance over current chipsets used in gimbal processors. The benefits will apply to both military and commercial UAV EO/IR payloads that perform onboard video processing. This benefit equates to higher resolution of multiple imagery streams for improved identification, tracking and data fusion when performing DoD missions. For commercial users, the improved performance equates to greater efficiency, improved confidence in analysis, and new applications that leverage the higher resolution and onboard processing power. Following Phase II prototype development, work will be focused on creating a commercialized Small Video Processing (SVP) module that will essentially update Adsys Controls? existing XSight product. Adsys Controls plans to incorporate the resulting next generation module into both our commercial FalconVision and Arrow EO/IR payloads for improved performance and increased market share. Our commercial and government contracts will be fully leveraged to bring this technology to a marketable configuration.

Keywords:
Small Video Processor (Svp), Snapdragon Video Processing Chipset, Adsys Controls, Small Unmanned Aerial System (Suas), Eo/Ir Gimbal With Onboard Processing, , Arrow, Falconvis