Estimating pose of missiles in flight from ground-based imagery presents a variety of challenges, such as low-resolution imagery, varying lighting conditions, cluttered background, and poor contrast between target and background. 3D models of the target object can simplify the problem by providing a strong constraint on the space of possible target poses. VSI proposes SkyLock, a robust and efficient framework for missile pose estimation and uncertainty characterization, leveraging 3D models to estimate pose of in-flight missiles from 2D imagery. The targeted audience for this proposal is the community of analysts and scientists tasked with test and evaluation of missiles and missile defense systems. VSI is uniquely suited to this project, offering significant expertise in model-based 3D pose estimation for challenging real-world conditions across several disparate domains; extensive experience in the development of innovative software solutions for challenging defense and intelligence problems; and a thorough understanding of the needs of digital engineering scientists across the defense and intelligence community.
