The present trend of increasing functionality onboard unmanned vehicles is made possible by rapid advances in high-performance computers (HPCs). An HPC is characterized by very high computational capability (100s of billions of operations per second) contained in lightweight, rugged, low-power packages. HPCs are critical to the processing of sensor data onboard these vehicles. Operations such as radar image formation, target tracking, target recognition, signal intelligence signature collection and analysis, electro-optic image compression, and onboard data exploitation are provided by these machines. The net effect of an HPC is to minimize communication bandwidth requirements and maximize mission flexibility. This paper focuses on new and emerging technologies in the HPC market. Emerging capabilities include new lightweight, low-power computing systems: multi-mission computing (using a common computer to support several sensors); onboard data exploitation; and large image data storage capacities. These new capabilities will enable an entirely new generation of deployed capabilities at reduced cost. New software tools and architectures available to unmanned vehicle developers will enable them to rapidly develop optimum solutions with maximum productivity and return on investment. These new technologies effectively open the trade space for unmanned vehicle designers.

Date Published: 26 October 2005
PDF: 5 pages
Proc. SPIE 5986, Unmanned/Unattended Sensors and Sensor Networks II, 59860D (26 October 2005); doi: 10.1117/12.630741

Published in SPIE Proceedings Vol. 5986:
Unmanned/Unattended Sensors and Sensor Networks II
Edward M. Carapezza, Editor(s)