Introduction

ULTOR® technology was developed by AOS to provide extremely accurate target recognition technology for missile interceptor applications. At the heart of ULTOR® is a high bandwidth processing engine that can operate on high sensor frame rate data. ULTOR® has been used to process information from both 2d and 3d sensors in various wavelengths.
   

Applications

AOS has extended ULTOR® technology to the application of passive six-degree-of-freedom (6DOF) measurement of objects called ULTOR® P³E. Leveraging its ULTOR® heritage of precise target aim-point capability, ULTOR® P³E performs position and attitude estimation of objects in real-time at sensor frame rates. ULTOR® P³E 6OF measurement provide relative navigation information crucial for proximity operations and Automated Rendezvous and Docking (AR&D) applications.

Hardware

ULTOR® P³E has been developed as portable VHDL firmware for portability and speed. This enables ULTOR® P³E to take maximum advantage of current and emerging Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) technology. To date, the ULTOR® P³E process has been ported to five different hardware platforms, including two platforms developed for space flight.

ULTOR® P³E in the Field

ULTOR® P³E technology has been vetted through simulation as well as open and closed loop hardware in the loop (HWIL) testing. Currently ULTOR® P³E is supporting multiple NASA multiple space exploration programs.
    

ULTOR® Timeline Highlights

2005		2006-2007		2008		2009		2010
ULTOR® P3E HWIL Testing At MSFC FRL(Small Air Sled) Pose Output Rate: Up To 15Hz Max Test Range: 18 meters ULTOR® P3E Maturation TRL: 5 (in AOS processor)		ULTOR® P3E Relative Navigation Sensor ExperimentFor HST SM4 Pose Output Rate: 3Hz (Frame Rate) Max Range: 150 meters ULTOR® P3E Maturation TRL: 7 (GSFC SpaceCube)		ULTOR® P3E Phase I NASA SBIR ULTOR® P3E Simulation Pose Output Rate: Up To 1-2Hz Max Test Range: 150 meters Orion Subsystem Maturation TRL: 3		ULTOR® P3E Phase II NASA SBIR Commercial Equivalent Orion Hardware HWIL Testing at Orion AR&D Sensor Test Facility Pose Output Rate: Up to 20Hz Max Test Range: Up to 40 meters TRL: 5 (in VPU FEU)		ULTOR® P3E Phase III SBIR Integration and Test with Orion Hardware Pose Output Rate: Up to 20Hz Max Test Range: 150 meters TRL: 7 (in VPU EDU)

For more information contact:

Joel Hannah
civilspace@aos-inc.com