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New
Optical Helmet Tracker Unaffected
by Direct Sunlight In Airborne
Tests
BURLINGTON,
VERMONT; October 18, 2005:
Ascension Technology’s next
generation optical helmet
tracker, phasorBIRD,
has successfully
completed preliminary flight
tests at the NASA Glenn Space
Center in Cleveland, Ohio.
Independent testing was conducted
in a commercial aircraft under
a contract with the Aerospace
Research Laboratory (AFRL)
at Wright Patterson Air Force
Base, OH. AFRL is a member
of the DARPA (Defence Advanced
Projects Agency)-led Department
of Defence consortium that
funded prototype development
of the new tracking technology
for potential future use in
tactical air and ground vehicles.
phasorBIRD employs LED emitters
and custom detector arrays
to track a pilot’s head over
a wide field of view at high
speed with better than 0.1°
accuracy. The recent flight
test evaluated the effect
of direct sunlight on the
optical tracker’s accuracy,
repeatability and noise. In
two flight tests in a modified
Twin Otter aircraft flying
at altitudes up to 9,000 feet,
six detectors were aimed directly
at the sun and raw data was
collected for post-flight
analysis. Direct sunshine
on the detectors was achieved
by installing a polycarbonate
windscreen in place of the
rear cargo door. Its construction
simulated the amount of sunlight
the detectors would see in
the cockpit of a tactical
aircraft at an altitude of
40,000 feet.
Results showed that that
phasorBIRD tracks the position
and orientation of its emitters
without degradation in the
presence of direct sunshine.
Line-of-sight (LOS) accuracy
was shown to be better than
0.10°. LOS noise was approximately
0.01° degree RMS with
DC filter on, versus 0.02°
with filters off.
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NASA
Twin Otter aircraft
with polycarbonate wind
screen in cargo door
to test effect of direct
sunshine on phasorBIRD
linear array detectors
(cameras). The test
fixture holding phasorBIRD
emitters and a test
bracket containing six
detectors can be seen
on the floor of the
cargo bay. Accuracy,
noise and repeatability
measurements were taken
in various system configurations
on the ground and in
the air |
phasorBIRD is a solid state
tracking system, not limited
by the narrow field of view
of lens-based optical trackers
or the metal distortion issues
of magnetic trackers. Primary
uses include target acquisition,
intra-cockpit cueing and off-boresight
weapon slewing.
For more information about
phasorBIRD and Ascension Technology
Corporation (Burlington, VT)
contact Jack Scully at jscully
(at) ascension-tech.com or
visit www.ascension-tech.com.
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