SBIR-STTR Award

The capability of instantly transmitting images of interest from video sensors deployed in the battlefield back to the commander’s base station is an important combat operational advantage. To be able to have “extra eyes” in a combat zone is indeed the goal of any surveillance network. However, design and development of such a functional video network involves solving many technical issues. Some of these issues are day-night vision capability, power conservation, image resolution, range, line-of-sight, stealth-camouflage, robust transport protocols, video packet transmission integrity, bandwidth availability, anti-tampering and finally, an integrated video sensor system that is cost effective, as some of these components are necessarily disposable in a combat zone. In order to cover various area sizes, the video network needs to be able to expand, i.e., scalable, to meet the changing demands. This proposal presents a cohesive wireless video sensor network that would provide real-time battlefield situation awareness by instantly transmitting target surveillance images to the base station on demand or when triggered. This video sensor network can function alone, or in combination with sensor systems such as seismic, acoustic, magnetic and thermal. This network will also be scalable to meet changeable coverage requirements.

Keywords:
Wireless Sensors, Surveillance System, Image Sensors, Scalable Network, Range Extender, Video Transmission And Reception.

This Phase II effort proposes to design and develop a field deployable hyperspectral image sensor that is capable of standoff detection, identification and quantification of plumes of chemical and biological agents in the modern battlespace, as well as being capable of disclosing hidden objects and enemy combatants through background subtraction techniques and algorithms. These hyperspectral sensors provide a large amount of information for the battlefield commanders to counteract chemical warfare, which has become an imminent threat and concern for the U.S. military. The objective is to leverage the hyperspectral technology to create deployable devices for surveillance and reconnaissance missions as a complement to scalable video sensor networks, thus forming a comprehensive battlefield situation awareness system covering the great majority of the spectrum. This proposal will design and prototype a portable hyperspectral image sensor; develop a database of hyperspectral images of common chemical and biological agents; characterize hyperspectral images for anomaly detection algorithms that can be applied with the image sensor; develop automatic target detection techniques for standoff identification of enemy vehicles and combatants in a battlefield, and transition the scalable video network into a combination visual-hyperspectral surveiilance and reconnaissance system.

Keywords:
Hyperspectral Imaging, Algorithms, Probability Of Detect, Wireless Sensor, Chemical Plumes, Surveillance.