Acquisition and Near Real-Time Display of Multispectral Test Data from Widely Separated Test Sites

Abstract

As modern weapons grow more sophisticated and capable of operating autonomously, the challenge of testing these weapons has also grown more complex. Seekers may be multispectral and must be able to overcome threat countermeasures. To effectively analyze the performance of these weapons, time-correlated test data must be efficiently, simultaneously acquired from both the weapons' internal busses and from the threat countermeasures' internal communication busses, often in a "live fire" environment. The test data must be transmitted to a central processing station where test personnel may immediately analyze the performance of the weapon with the assistance of scientific visualization techniques. In addition, the data must be captured on permanent media for future playback and more detailed analysis. One solution is to link the test article, threat countermeasures and other test support resources through an Integrated Telemetry System (ITS). Instrumentation to acquire high-speed test data is installed in data collection vans that are remotely located in the vicinity of the article under test or in the vicinity of the threat countermeasures systems or test support resources. The remote vans will be interconnected and linked to a control van which provides a centralized test control and monitoring point. Remote Data Formatter (RDF) instrumentation units, located in the remote vans, can acquire data from and control seekers, sensors, emission sources or other equipment located in or near the remote vans. The RDF units can also format the data for transmission to the control van via either fiber optic or microwave radio links. The data transmitted from multiple remote vans is received by Real-time Data Processing System (RTPS) units located in the control van for merging, processing and recording. Some of the processed data can be transferred to a Host Processing System (HPS) where it can be displayed on color graphic workstations. The control van's HPS workstations provide user-friendly displays and menus for test setup and control. Both the remote and control vans are equipped with secure digital communication systems capable of supporting compressed digital video, audio, high-speed instrumentation data and an Ethernet computer network.