1. FAST: Fully Autonomous Sentry Turret
ECE 4007 L01 DK6
Dr. David Keezer
Patrick Croom, Kevin Neas,
Anthony Ogidi, Joleon Pettway
Pat
ECE 4007 L01 DK6

2. FAST Overview
Fully Autonomous Sentry Turret – area denial gun turret with integral IFF capabilities
Improve security, reduce unnecessary casualties, and reduce operational costs
Intended for US Department of Defense, other armed federal organizations, and licensed private security companies
$2500 component cost; $200,000 prototype development
Pat
Don’t forget to mention that this system is uniquely usable indoors unlike any other systems
Barbed wire, landmines, live troops…
ECE 4007 L01 DK6

3. Design Objectives
Once activated, this system will operate without user interaction
Uses visual monitoring to detect significant sources of movement
Rapidly engages targets while avoiding designated friendly personnel
Easy to use, portable, and low cost
Pat
ECE 4007 L01 DK6

4. System Block Diagram Digital Video (USB) Notebook Computer Webcam USB
Azimuth Servo
Voltage Data
Phidget Control Board
Pat
DC Voltage
Power Supply
Altitude Servo
ECE 4007 L01 DK6

5. Turret Configuration
Stand Dimensions: 2’x2’x2’Feet
ECE 4007 L01 DK6

6. Mechanical Turret Will consist of: Phidget servo controller
A pair of HiTec Servomotors
Pan and Tilt servo mount
Mounted laser pointer
Kevin
ECE 4007 L01 DK6

7. Motion Tracking Interface
Joleon
ECE 4007 L01 DK6

8. Motion Tracking Algorithm
Save Current Frame
Save Next Frame
Detect Differences
Start
Locate rectangle around connecting edges
Send coordinates to servo motors
Mark largest rectangle and its center on video
Joleon
ECE 4007 L01 DK6

9. Target Differentiation
Identify Friend/Foe (IFF) Capability
Identity determined by color of uniforms
Sample color around aim-point
Compare to predetermined “safe” color spectrum
Color Spectrum Example:
Safe Color: Red
Color Range Accepted as “Red”:
R: ; G: 0-50; B: 0-50
Kevin
ECE 4007 L01 DK6

10. Problem #1: Target Acquisition Rate
Motion Tracking software currently exhibits a delay between image capture and target identification
Acquisition time needs to be fast enough to prevent targets from bypassing the turret
Kevin
ECE 4007 L01 DK6

11. Target Acquisition Rate Solutions
Reduce Image Resolution
Improve Simple Compression Algorithm
Filter and sort motion sources based on relative size
Employ a more powerful central processor
Kevin
Already does basic sort by size, could change function to only return largest…
ECE 4007 L01 DK6

12. Problem #2: Target Differentiation
Current software converts images to grayscale
IFF code may decrease run speed
Color sampling locations may not be consistent
Tony
ECE 4007 L01 DK6

13. Preliminary Acceptance Testing
Tony
ECE 4007 L01 DK6

14. Project Schedule 3/29/10 – Basic Servo Control functional
4/05/10 – Total System Integration
4/19/10 – IFF Operational
4/26/10 – Prototype Complete
Tony
ECE 4007 L01 DK6

15. Conclusions FAST – Revolutionary New Defense Technology
Reliable Basic Design
Functional Motion Tracking
Problems:
Acquisition Rate
Target Differentiation
Questions?
Tony
ECE 4007 L01 DK6