Infrared Simulator for Testing Electro-Optical Systems Against Smoke and Obscurants

摘要

This paper describes the concept and current status in the development of an infrared simulator for testing electro-optical (EO) sensor systems against smoke/obscurants. The objective of the research is to implement realistic indoor smoke/obscurant testing of a variety of military electro-optical sensor systems under highly repeatable, computer-controllable conditions. The concept is to replay appropriate, previously recorded imagery from free-air smoke/obscurant field tests, utilizing an infrared scene generator. A reduced set of requirements was developed by limiting the application to a HgCdTe-based sensor system, the tank thermal slight, which represents a class of FLIRs that might be tested using the simulator. The simulator's requirements in terms of the role of scattering, target spectral characteristics, dynamic range, time constant, and spatial resolution are discussed. A group of technical approaches to infrared scene generation and their relative attributes are briegly reviewed, and the technical approach selected for continued development is described. The status of the research and performance of the current proof-of-concept image generator are summarized. 4 refs., 7 figs.