Advances in Terrain Augmented Geometric Pairing Algorithms for Operational Test

Abstract : Geometric paring (GP)systems are being developed by AOTC Ft. Hood to augment or replace laser-pairing instrumentation for long-range and unconventional weapon tests. Such systems require terrain-augmentation to rapidly calculate accurate line-of-sight (LOS) algorithm accommodating vegetation and obscurants and non linear trajectory prediction through complex near earth terrain. At one meter resolution, both vegetation types and terrain elevation uncertainty complicate the LOS calculations. We will present advances in statistical LOS algorithm for calculating LOS probabilities, which accounts for elevation measurement errors and a varying vegetation density along the LOS path. The use of PVNT deterministic partial visibility calculations is presented as low cost algorithm test methodology. Then the results of several accuracy vs. speed studies using this method are presented. In addition requirement for small, rugged, lightweight equipment capable of being unobtrusively carried by dismounted infantry has generated the necessity to develop wide-area, 1-meter resolution, compact terrain database formats and LOS algorithms suitable for execution in small commercially available hand held devices. We will describe a Hierarchical LOS culling technique designed to increase the speed of LOS calculations suitable for execution in small devices.