Autonomous Acquisition Simulator System: A Testbed For Tactical Image Processing Algorithm Development

The Autonomous Acquisition Simulator System (AAS) is a modular real time image processing system that is currently being developed by the Ford Aerospace & Communications Corporation (FACC) for the U.S. Army Night Vision & Electro-Optics Laboratory (NV&EOL). As a cooperative effort between FACC and NV&EOL, the AAS Program has as its primary objectives, the development of a flexible real time image processing algo-rithm simulation device that may be used as a tool for the evaluation of artificial intelligence and image processing algorithms for application to tactical systems over the next few years. This paper summarizes the operational and system requirements for a testbed that would function as such a simulation device. The architecture of both the hardware and software designs for the AAS are then described in the context of resulting data structures and computational requirements for implementing these algorithms in real time. Also included is an approach for providing a compiler level language as a highly desirable feature to facilitate the development of software for implementing new algorithms.