PAWS - PORTABLE AIR WARNING SYSTEM

A system that assists in the defence of ground installations from airborne attack by autonomously alerting defenders of the presence of inbound aircraft. The system uses IR and visible band video surveillance combined with sophisticated target detection, tracking and classifications methods. The gimbal-mounted system continuously scans the horizon in a track-while-scan mode and then can track individual targets providing zoomed video to assist with threat assessment.

VIDEO TRACKER

A product that provides real-time video-based target acquisition and pointing of a weapon station to assist with fire control in moving-weapon / moving-target situations. Ballistic offsets may be determined in real-time and applied to the pointing angles to maximise the hit probability.

Video tracking is a technology area that allows a camera system to be continuously pointed at a target, irrespective of the movement of a target. The technology finds a number of uses such as recording the flight of aircraft, rockets and missiles, etc.; surveillance applications; pointing weapons for fire control; and, potentially, for collision avoidance in autonomous vehicles.

The technology requires video information from a camera, which could be visible band, infrared or image-intensified for night time use, to be processed in such a way as to detect the presence of objects within the field of view. The position of the detected object is then used to control the system that holds the camera so that the camera always points towards the object.

The video tracker uses novel statistical processing techniques to separate the object from the background as well as a sophisticated 3-D tracker for state-of-the-art tracking performance. A Proportional Integral Derivative (PID) controller enables control of the host platform.

MISSILE SEEKER SIMULATION

A gimbal-mounted system for the video-based tracking of infra-red targets. The system incorporates an IR camera operating in the 3-5 micron band, video tracker and gimbal pointing software. Also featured is the control of a separate missile seeker gimbal for agile movement of the camera field-of-view, independent of the pointing of the main gimbal.

FOURIER TRANSFORM SPECTRORADIOMETER

The Fourier Transform SpectroRadiometer provides an IR spectral representation of a target area using a scanning interferometer and a detector array. The main physical components of the airborne deployed system are the scanning mirrors, the Fourier Transform IR Spectrometer, the CALS system and the operator console.