CASE

Compact Airborne Spectral Exploitation (CASE)

NovaSol's CASE system is a light weight, low cost, compact, low power, advanced signal processor that combines an Intel multi-core processor with the latest generation FPGA to provide significant processing power
even with size and power constraints. This new hyperspectral (HSI) processor system provides real-time spectral target detection and precision geo-location.

The new CASE processor enables the implementation of HSI sensing with a wide variety of airborne and ground-based platforms whose payload limitations previously precluded hosting an HSI system, in particular the rapidly expanding fleet of small military UAVs are now able to take advantage of the powerful target detection and environment discrimination inherent to HSI sensing.

NovaSol's CASE processor controls the acquisition and synchronization of the microHSI™ and panchromatic sensors and annotates the image data with precise navigation data from the INS. The raw HSI data is calibrated prior to advanced anomaly and matched filter spectral detection algorithm processing. Real-time target detections are presented to the operator via a display as shown at right. 
 
In the case of unmanned platforms, automatic detections can be used to trigger transmission to a ground station of geo-registered imagery chips that include the target. The raw HSI and Pan data are stored on disk for archival purposes and further post-processing. 

                        CASE Processor Specifications 

Real-time HSI data acquisition
  • Gigabit Ethernet
  • Camera Link 

Real-time HSI detection algorithms
  • SSRX anomaly
  • SSMF matched filter 

Calibration algorithms in FPGA
  • Dark subtraction
  • 3rd order NUC
  • BIL to BIP format conversion 

Removable solid state hard drives
  • 2 x 128 GB SLC NAND flash
  • SATA interface
  • 110 MB/s sequential read/write speed 

Processing capability (single card) 
 CPU
  • Intel Core 2 Duo @ 2.26 GHz., 4 GB DDR3 SDRAM, 8 GB flash
 FPGA
  • Virtex 5 XC5VLX110 FPGA, 3 banks of QDR2 SRAM, 8 MB/bank, 2
    banks of DDR2 SDRAM, 128 MB/bank, Camera Link available
 
I/O Options
  • 2 x gigabit Ethernet
  • 2 x RS232
  • 2 x USB 2.0
  • 4 x GPIO CPU board
  • 4 x GPIO FPGA board
  • VGA
 
Chassis
  • 2 slot cPCI backplane
  • Air cooled
  • 0° C – 50° C operational temperature
  • 28 VDC input
  • 180 W internal power supply 

Power
  • 87 watts 

Dimensions
  • 7.85"W x 4.5"H x 11.6"D 

Weight
  • 11.6 lbs.