A high speed tracker is being developed for the Airborne Laser (ABL) program. This paper outlines the parallel processing concept that is being considered for design on the program. A sensor array to be built specially for the ABL program will implement parallel channels to read out the sensor data. This 16-wide parallel data path will be followed through the processing, including pixel processing and application of the tracking algorithms. To implement the tracking algorithm in a fewer number of processors, subregions of the sensor data are tagged during pixel processing as being of interest (e.g. within the track gate) and only those regions are assigned to processors for further processing. The paper includes discussion on methods for grouping these subregions. Approaches for implementing two candidate tracking algorithms using these methods, and a discussion of the plan for implementing this concept.

Date Published: 8 September 1998
PDF: 5 pages
Proc. SPIE 3381, Airborne Laser Advanced Technology, (8 September 1998); doi: 10.1117/12.323938

Published in SPIE Proceedings Vol. 3381:
Airborne Laser Advanced Technology
Todd D. Steiner; Paul H. Merritt, Editor(s)