Knowledge of impact conditions is critical to evaluating the terminal impact performanceof a projectile. For a small caliber bullet, in-flight velocity has been precisely measured fordecades using detection screens, but accurately quantifying the orientation of the bullet on atarget has been more challenging. This report introduces the Automated Small-ArmsPhotogrammetry (ASAP) analysis method used to measure, model, and predict theorientation of a small caliber bullet before reaching an impact surface. ASAP uses advancedhardware developed by Sydor Technologies to record a series of infrared digitalphotographs. Individual images (four orthogonal pairs) are processed using computer visionalgorithms to quantify the orientation of the projectile and re-project its precise position andorientation into a three-dimensional muzzle-fixed coordinate system. An epicyclic motionmodel is fit to the measured data, and the epicyclic motion is extrapolated to the targetlocation. Analysis results are fairly immediate and may be reviewed during testing. Proveoutdemonstrations have shown that the impact-angle prediction capability is less than sixhundredths of a degree for the 5.56mm ball round tested.
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