FEBRUARY 9, 2009--Using algorithms formulated for the US Missile Defense Agency (MDA), Energid Technologies Corp. (Cambridge, MA, USA; www.energid.com) developed a cost-saving, highly configurable software backbone for robotic aircraft passenger gateways, robotic repositioning systems, and surgical training simulators. The software backbone identifies and tracks the position and orientation of any 3-D object.
The system requires nothing more than computer aided design (CAD) data to identify and track a new object, be it a tool, robot, vehicle, or satellite. Energid developed the software through an SBIR Phase II award to track and model missile body and plume trajectories. These algorithms developed for the original MDA project are now being leveraged through the reusable software backbone into a large and growing number of applications.
The software can track virtually any object type given its CAD data. It also can track any number of objects simultaneously, and it can use almost any sensor type, such as black-and-white cameras, color cameras, and hyperspectral imagers. For more information, go to: http://www.defensetechbriefs.com/content/view/1332/36/
