SBIR-STTR Award

Small military maritime craft are responsible for the expedient delivery of personnel to an area(s) that will allow for the successful accomplishment of mission objectives. Often these craft are required to operate in littoral (shoreline) areas under various extreme conditions. It is therefore vital that an All-Weather Vision Enhancement / Situation Awareness System be designed and developed that will improve the performance of the craft by enhancing it's ability to collect, analyze, display, and distribute vital information to the crew. Such a system must be modular in size (<12"W x 12"L x 8"H total net package size) and weight (<201lbs net package weight) yet have the full capacity to significantly optimize the operator's awareness and ability to closely monitor the craft's sensors, processing and display elements. To address these issues, the proposed Phase I research will initially include a thorough investigation of the various technologies that can be used to integrate the bridge of small military maritime craft and further enhance the vision of existing navigational aids. Appropriate technologies will then be procured, and/or designed and develop, and integrated into a laboratory scale prototype to further illustrate and demonstrate the potential capabilities, limitations, and opportunities for future development of a modular All-Weather vision Enhancement/Situation Awareness System.

Keywords:
Vision Enhancement, Situation Awareness, Military Maritime Craft, Initial Design Specifications

The original objective of the Small Craft Vision enhancement/Situational Awareness System (SCVESAS) program was to develop a vision enhancement system to be used in small military craft. However progress on the Marine Forward Looking Infrared (MARFLIR) program resulted in the modification of our original objective of Phase I to focus on developing a system that will integrate the MARFLIR program with the ongoing Integrated Bridge System (IBS), while improving the usability of the night vision systems. Emphasis on enhancing situational awareness (SA) continues unabated. Azimuth's goals of Phase I were to 'investigate and obtain technologies and devices' that is applicable to the project. Our findings indicate that the technology to implement required capabilities is mature and stable.This is true despite the fact that there does not exist an off-the-shelf solution to this requirement . The scope of the effort has to be carefully tailored to assure maximum chances of success. During Phase II, it is imperative that the entire design team be cognizant of future plans for the system for military and commercial applications. The user identified requirements of image capture/transmission capabiliites of an improved Night Vision Integrated System be implemented. Therefore, we strongly recommend a phased approach to expanding SCVESAS' capabilities.

Keywords:
Vision Enhancement; Situational Awareness (Sa); Maritime Craft; Marine Forward Looking Infrared (Mar