10.4 - Method and software to perform Pitch Drop
- Event
- ettc2018 - European Test and Telemetry Conference
2018-06-26 - 2018-06-28
Nürnberg, Germany - Chapter
- 10. Imaging & Video
- Author(s)
- L. Guarino de Vasconcelos - Instituto Tecnológico de Aeronáutica (ITA), Sao Jose dos Campos (Brazil), N. Leite, A. Yoshimi Kusumoto - Instituto de Pesquisas e Ensaios em Voo (IPEV), Sao Jose dos Campos (Brazil), L. Roberto - Instituto de Estudos Avançados (IEAV), Sao Jose dos Campos (Brazil), C. Araujo Lopes - Instituto de Aeronáutica e Espaço (IAE), Sao Jose dos Campos (Brazil)
- Pages
- 228 - 237
- DOI
- 10.5162/ettc2018/10.4
- ISBN
- 978-3-9816876-7-5
- Price
- free
Abstract
Store separation flight tests are considered high risk. Something that precedes the in-flight tests are the pitch drop tests. Pitch drop are fundamental because they allow the static evaluation that the separation meets a minimum degree of safety. A process that has added value to the experimental trials is the use of high data rate acquisition cameras (i.e. greater than 200 fps) and the use of three-dimensional software. In order to reconstruct the 3D separation path with 6DoF from images, 2 or more cameras are required. When using cameras in any activity that requires accuracy in the results, it is necessary to calibrate the optical system used in the tests. In Brazil, the IPEV carried out these tests for years, and the determination of the trajectory of store separation was carried out with a commercial software. In addition, the process was inefficient and costly as it required many weeks of work for the analysis of results and execution of flight tests. To eliminate the use of the commercial tool and to have technical mastery over the entire test, a solution was developed that (1) the construction of a calibration field with depth so that camera calibrations can be performed using a single frame; (2) a method for carrying out pitch drop; (3) and an application that uses computational vision to process the data and generate the results in 6DoF. The benefits of such a solution include better use of resources, minimization of workload, and reduced costs and time. In this paper, the calibration field, the method created for pitch drop, the steps for the development of the computational application and the experiments performed to validate the application are demonstrated.