McQ Inc. — Department of Defense SBIR Phase I: A18-040

Description

The purpose of this SBIR is to provide a low resolution imager that is unaffected by DVE (Degraded Visual Environments) encountered by Army ground vehicles. While LWIR cameras provide suitable image quality for navigation in daytime, nighttime, and light dust conditions, the quality degrades significantly in heavy dust, fog, or smoke conditions. The imager will be integrated together with a high resolution LWIR camera to provide enhanced vision in presence of visual obscurants. The imager will provide an outline of potential obstructions in the path of the vehicle using active MMWradar based on a set of COTS automotive radar IC. These outlines will be fused together with the high resolution LWIR images to provide sufficient context in order for the driver to avoid the obstacle. McQs approach is to use its extensive experience in embedded sensor system development, low cost radar solutions, and signal processingto create a low SWaP-C ROADE (radar for obstacle avoidance and detection in all environments) system; with a simple, intuitive user interface, which is usable in a larger system such as the DVEDCM (Drivers Vision Enhancer Display Control Module).McQs system, based on COTS hardware components, will cost <$1000, and will be <0.2ft3.