Phase II SBIR research Program for Synergistic EO and RF SAR/SAL Processing

June 21, 2017

Perceptive Innovations has been selected by the Air Force Research Laboratory for a follow-on Phase II SBIR research program for Synergistic EO and RF SAR/SAL Processing. This two-year research project seeks synergy between RF (SAR) and optical (SAL) synthetic aperture imaging, such that advantages can be identified to share a common processor for both functions on a tactical SWaP-constrained ISR platform. Traditionally, these very different functions would be implemented as completely independent and isolated "stove pipe" payloads. However, future tactical ISR platforms must be small and potentially expendable in contested environments, and there is significant opportunity to improve SWaP efficiency through shared SAR and SAL processing in a common processor. In this Phase II, the PI2 team seeks to identify and quantify such opportunities in an open COTS hardware architecture that enables us to create a Testbed to predict such advantages for future Air Force integration of SAL onto a tactical SAR platform with shared processing.