TECHNOLOGY AREAS: Sensors

ACQUISITION PROGRAM: PMA-290, Maritime Surveillance Aircraft, ACAT I

RESTRICTION ON PERFORMANCE BY FOREIGN CITIZENS (i.e., those holding non-U.S. Passports): This topic is "ITAR Restricted." The information and materials provided pursuant to or resulting from this topic are restricted under the International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR), 22 CFR Parts 120 - 130, which control the export of defense-related material and services, including the export of sensitive technical data. Foreign Citizens may perform work under an award resulting from this topic only if they hold the "Permanent Resident Card", or are designated as "Protected Individuals" as defined by 8 U.S.C. 1324b(a)(3). If a proposal for this topic contains participation by a foreign citizen who is not in one of the above two categories, the proposal will be rejected.

OBJECTIVE: Develop a compact optical system that provides greater than diffraction-limited resolution for airborne tactical systems.

DESCRIPTION: Many airborne platforms rely on optical systems to locate and identify threats and targets. The ability to successfully carry out these missions is strongly related to the optical system�s ground resolution. In traditional optical systems, ground resolution decreases linearly with stand-off distance causing operators to trade off safety and covert operation for better probability of detection, classification, and identification. For example, to get high enough resolution to detect Improvised Explosive Devices (IED), an airborne platform would likely fly low enough to risk drawing enemy ground fire.

Conventional methods to increase imagery resolution include increasing aperture size and focal lengths. These methods increase costs, add undesired weight gains, and increase wind drag to the platforms.

Innovative solutions are sought to develop an active optical system that can achieve 4X the resolution of a conventional optical system of the same aperture size. The selected approach needs to image at various distances within the systems operational range for finding targets of opportunity.

PHASE I: Determine the feasibility of developing a high resolution compact airborne optical system design. Provide analysis to show that the technique is capable of producing significantly higher resolution imagery that is at least 4X the resolution of a diffraction limited system with the same aperture with a low-cost, low-risk, and near-term design. Provide laboratory data to support theoretical analysis.

PHASE II: Design, build, and test an airborne prototype. Using actual hardware, characterize the performance of the system with respect to various lighting conditions, ranges, and other stressful conditions. Demonstrate system effectiveness during flight. The prototype demonstration shall show the effective increase in resolution using an actual 6 inch aperture system.

PHASE III: Transition and integrate on to appropriate Navy systems.

PRIVATE SECTOR COMMERCIAL POTENTIAL/DUAL-USE APPLICATIONS: Successful outcome from this SBIR topic could be used in commercial still imaging systems especially from airborne platforms.

REFERENCES:
1. Buell, W.F., Marechal, N.J., Dickinson, R.P., Kozlowski, D., Wright, T.J., Buck, J.R. & Beck S.M., (2003). Synthetic Aperture Imaging Ladar: Lab Demo and Signal Processing. Proceedings of the 2003 Military Sensing Symposia: Active EO Systems http://www.aero.org/publications/crosslink/summer2004/08.html

2. Duncan, B.D., Dierking, M.P. (2008). Stripmap Holographic Aperture Ladar. IEEE Lasers and Electro-Optics Society. LEOS 2008. 21st Annual Meeting http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/xpls/abs_all.jsp?arnumber=4688716

KEYWORDS: Compact; Optical; Sensor; Airborne; Imaging; Ladar

** TOPIC AUTHOR (TPOC) **

DoD Notice:   Between November 10 and December 12, 2010, you may talk directly with the Topic Authors to ask technical questions about the topics. Their contact information is listed above. For reasons of competitive fairness, direct communication between proposers and topic authors is not allowed starting December 13, 2011, when DoD begins accepting proposals for this solicitation.

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