SBIR-STTR Award

ASC is involved in the Autonomous Vehicle community (air, ground and sea) and development of Future Combat Systems. The 3D Flash LIDAR camera developed under the proposed program will increase the readiness level of the navigation software that can be used in commercial Guidance Navigation and Control (GN&C) for autonomous vehicles. Flash LIDAR is unique because it is compact and lightweight, making it much more cost effective and deployable than radar or scanning LIDAR sensors. ASC has developed, designed, and fabricated multiple commercial and military 3D products and is also developing sensors for various space applications.

Benefit:
Advanced Scientific Concepts, Inc. (ASC) has developed 3D Flash LIDARTM imaging sensors that can provide a solution for precise, automated position-keeping for ocean going vessels. 3D Flash LIDAR can provide a solution that does not require targets and can generate 3D imaging and tracking of ocean vessels. 3D Flash LIDAR is based on ASCs patented focal plane array technology that has demonstrated 3D navigation for birthing with the International Space Station (ISS). ASCs eye-safe 3D Flash LIDAR cameras provide a breakthrough in 6DOF computations for RS2S control systems. This 3D array technology has allowed ASC to produce compact non-mechanical LIDAR cameras that collect full frame 3D point clouds in a single FLASH (Flash LIDAR). 3D Flash LIDAR Cameras (FLC) can output frames of 128x128 3D point clouds in real-time (30Hz) making them a robust solution for relative navigation. The three dimensional

Keywords:
guidance navigation and control, guidance navigation and control, RS2S, Hazard avoidance collision, Relative Navigation,, ASC LADAR 3D Flash LIDAR Flash Brown-Out 3D Flash3D real-time

Existing Relative Reference Sensor Systems (R2S2) employed on SSBN blocking vessels impose a safety risk because they require sailors to go topside while underway to install / uninstall targets on the submarine deck. During the Phase I program, ASC acquired 3D Flash LIDAR images of sea going vessels and demonstrated that a vessels relative bearing can be derived from these images. The ASC 3D Flash LIDAR based Relative Reference Sensor System architecture concept, developed on the Phase I SBIR, is designed to be deployed on a blocking vessel and interface with the existing shipboard dynamic positioning systems (DPS). The R2S2 system will determine range and bearing used to maintain position of a surfaced submarine without the need to physically modify the submarine deck or hull. Redundancy can be achieved by mounting two sensors on the blocking vessel. The system uses off-the-shelf hardware technology combined with machine vision object recognition and tracking algorithms enabling a TRL 7 solution to be implemented in Phase II.

Benefit:
Existing Relative Reference Sensor Systems (R2S2) employed on SSBN blocking vessels impose a safety risk because they require sailors to go topside while underway to install / uninstall range targets on the submarine deck. The proposed ASC 3D Flash LIDAR-based R2S2 eliminates the need for sailors to install /uninstall range targets because the range and bearing of a surfaced submarine is determined by direct LIDAR images of the submarine deck hull.

Keywords:
Bearing, object recognition, Flash LIDAR, Relative Reference Sensor System (R2S2), dynamic positioning (DP), Range, Machine vision, Tracking algorithm