SBIR-STTR Award

Some key elements in the Test & Evaluation (T&E) of modern munitions systems are live fire test events. These are conducted in a safely controlled manner to avoid human injury and minimize risk of damage to the equipment being tested. Ground truth about the munitions being fired is essential to assess performance of the system under test and to support engineering model development. MSI’s single-camera T&E software solution for identification and tracking is currently available in the market today, and is actively being used to quickly and accurately support ongoing test operations at DoD facilities (TRL 9) to reliably and accurately identify and track the test articles during live fire events. However, future test requirements including more advanced capability such as multiple targets and deformable modeling render the current technology a TRL 6. The current technology tracks a single missile or bomb to provide position, velocity, and attitude during the test. During the course of this proposed effort, the software will be extended to include deformable modeling (to support egress testing) and multiple object tracking (to support dispenser testing). These, and other enhancements identified in Phase I, will result in a Phase II product that provides an accurate and cost-effect data analysis tool to the test range engineering teams.

The Test & Evaluation (T&E) has a mandate to digitalize the development process. However, at present it is a complex challenge to measure and digitize dynamic objects without foreknowledge of their geometry at Air Force T&E Centers, such as Eglin, Holloman, and Edwards. The legacy methods rely on manual interpretation with significant man-hours required. As a result, T&E data can be incomplete and inaccurate, often relying on 70 year-old legacy technology of inferring the object’s dynamic performance based on “where it lands” after the event via witness panels, catch bundles, and post-event site surveys. After demonstrating the Mechanical Solutions, Inc. (MSI) modern high-speed camera and artificial intelligence digitalization techniques to the Chief of Capability Development for the 846th Test Squadron at Holloman AFB, it was clear that state-of-the-art techniques for unknown-geometry object tracking and characterization will substantially improve T&E digital test data and provide the completeness and accuracy necessary for digital capture of both ejection/egress and dynamic warhead tests. The digital information can then be used to create a digital development model of the egress ejection seat and dynamic warhead event, which will be translated into a digital engineering approach to the egress ejection seat and warheads and help move the T&E community into the new digital engineering age. The basis for these innovations is the VibVue® solution, which uses high-speed video to enable its users to characterize and comprehensively understand the sources and effects of object’s complex vibration issues.