The Army desires observations of an area over time in order to perform littoral terrain estimates, hydrodynamics estimation, and estimation of geological properties in turbid environments. Analysis options include 3-D terrain generation (structure-from-motion photogrammetry) and bathymetric processing (e.g. bathymetric inversion). The Army requires the data collection to be performed with a hand-launchable SUAS. SUAS-based photogrammetry and bathymetry processing require geo-registration of images from a moving platform. The current state-of-the-art for SUAS image collection and geo-registration is not suitable for near real-time tactical applications. Current registration algorithms degrade over water and cannot reliably quantify performance. In Phase 1, Prioria will collect SUAS data of coastal environments using high-resolution camera array of COTS cameras and use the data to demonstrate the feasibility of robust geo-registration with error estimate for coastal land, surf zone, and littoral regions. In our proposal, we describe a novel data acquisition concept using the array camera which should mitigate traditional failure modes for registration over water. Finally, in the option, we will perform a preliminary design of an objective payload which will establish SWAP and performance tradeoffs of the passive array and optional LIDAR across the spectrum of hand-launchable SUAS.
