Customer Interview
Building a better UAV
Switchblade scenario takes flight with help of Lyon and SciVis Team
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David Lyon Supervisory Mechanical Engineer WMRD, Army Research Laboratory |
Q: Name a project that used MSRC Capabilities.
A: Switchblade is a small Unmanned Aerial Vehicle that comes packaged in its own launch tube that also serves as a storage and transport container. Any number of these “UAVs in a tube” can be clustered in a launch platform. When coupled to a firefinder radar or an acoustic detection system, this concept provides an immediate response for C-RAM (Counter-Rocket, Artillery and Missile) missions. Switchblade UAVs can remain “at the ready” for an indefinite period and can respond either at the press of a button or in an automated fashion as soon as an in-coming threat is detected. This provides tremendous advantages over other small UAVs that require assembly and hand launch. As a self-contained, one-time use item in a robust container, it can easily stand up to the rough handling of actual battlefield conditions and is not fragile like conventional UAVs.
The technology development portion of this project was funded by ARL, while application specific integration efforts are customer funded.
With the assistance of the ARL MSRC Scientific Visualization Team, we developed conceptual animations to provide context and insight for development of the Switchblade. The animation provided valuable feedback necessary to optimize parameters of the system. This process reduced the number of prototype systems as well as numerous hours of flight experiments required to evaluate their performance. The generation of the conceptual animation required many hours of design, modeling and animation utilizing the ARL MSRC computational resources.
Q: That project’s impact on DoD?
A: Ultimately, this tool illustrated the operational value of deploying a small UAV over the launch point of an in-coming threat with an extremely short response time. By providing “eyes over the target” a commander can develop a response utilizing high fidelity video information viewed in real time. This affords the commander an additional level of confidence that his/her response is the most appropriate given the current Rules Of Engagement.
Q: What was the project’s objective?
A: The Scientific Visualization portion of this effort began with generating a model that mimics realistic flight performance of the airframe, based upon wind tunnel and experimental flight data. Next, various camera angles and fields of view were evaluated to allow optimization before hardware fabrication. The tool also allows designers and potential users to conduct “mock-missions” allowing them to obtain a feel for how the system performs and reveal how they could best utilize it to contribute to mission success.
Q: What HPC systems here did you use?
A: Many ARL MSRC Scientific Visualization systems were utilized for generating and rendering the complex Switchblade animation sequences to include the SGI Unix systems Oyster, Octane1, Crab, Clam and Sponge, and Linux Systems Patrick and Crush 1 through 9. Oyster and Octane1 are located in the Collaboratorium facility at Adelphi, Maryland.
Q: What MSRC Resources were used?
A: Throughout this project I would meet with the team in various Scientific Visualization facilities to fly the UAV in physics-based flight simulator, view rendered frames, dub audio, etc. The Scientific Visualization lab was used for the initial project meeting, several status meetings and remote rendering of the animation segments.
A rough estimate for the creation and rendering of the animation sequences is about 1,000 CPU hours. The work on the project extended over a period of several months. To produce the video, 5 hours of CPU time was used to process animation frames and 20 hours of rendering time to process edited movies, all of which were created in HD format (High Definition). The ARL MSRC’s current editing system (Final Cut Pro HD) supports HD editing and most projects created can be viewed in High Definition on full-resolution monitors throughout the DoD. These HD movies can also be displayed on many current desktop and laptop computers.
Q: Which personnel assisted you?
A: Originally John Vines and Jim Nelson, then transitioned to Susan Neczyporuk and Jim Nelson. Also, Joe Hager and Mark Bolstad were involved in a supporting role.
Q: The highlight of your career?
A: Having COL James Brown (Commander, Task Force 709 - Kosovo) return from a deployment and express his gratitude for my efforts in developing a non-lethal munition that clearly contributed to the success of his mission by saving lives.
Q: Hobbies?
A: Volleyball, golf, running and my two children.