Success Stories
3-D Visualization Tool Lets Engineers Observe How Missiles Fly Over Actual Landscape
Client:
White Sands Missile RangeChallenge:
- During open-air missile testing, a long-standing concern has been that a missile might stray from its intended course. In support of the White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico, the U.S. Department of Defense wanted a tool to improve test engineers' awareness of a missile's location and performance during live missile testing.
Solution:
- A CSC joint venture, New Tec, helped develop a powerful 3-D visualization tool called RAGE (Real-Time Advanced Graphics Engine). By presenting a moving image of the missile's flight over actual terrain, RAGE helps engineers track the missile's precise position, its health and status.
Results:
- RAGE's advanced capabilities have made it easy for engineers to track test missiles during live tests and safely bring down missiles that go off course.
The tool's range of analysis capabilities also enables test flights to be exhaustively analyzed and re-visualized from different perspectives.
Plus, RAGE can be used to support air traffic control, and is helping fly drone planes.
For nearly half a century, a vast array of weapon systems has been tested at the White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico. During open air missile testing, a long-standing concern is that a missile might stray from its intended course. The Department of Defense wanted a tool to improve the testers' awareness of a missile's location and performance throughout flight, so that a malfunctioning missile could be destroyed.
DoD turned to a CSC joint venture partner – NewTec – to develop a tool to enhance situational awareness during live missile tests. NewTec, formed in 1997, is a joint venture of DynCorp, Lockheed Martin, TRAX International and Northrop Grumman. DynCorp is the longest-serving contractor at White Sands, having supported the range for more than 50 years. CSC acquired DynCorp in March 2003.
Multiple Inputs Yield Multiple Perspectives
The powerful 3-D visualization tool developed to meet DoD's requirements is called RAGE, or Real-Time Advanced Graphics Engine. Development of the predecessors to the current version of RAGE began in the mid-1990s. RAGE accepts input from a variety of sensor technologies – radar, telemetry, Global Positioning System (GPS) and optics – to track a missile's precise position throughout its flight. But the RAGE team took the technology to a new level to make the data "viewer-friendly" by presenting a moving image of the missile's flight over actual terrain.
Simply, RAGE renders a 3-D grid of the earth's surface, over which actual images – such as aerial photographs of mountains and lakes – are set. While a prototype missile is flying, RAGE presents a real-life, 3-D visualization of the flight from any perspective the individuals viewing the scene desire, using real world imagery of the surrounding terrain as a backdrop. At the same time, RAGE displays information about the health and status of the missile. If the missile goes off course, it will be brought down.
After a flight is complete, RAGE offers a wide range of analysis capabilities. It lets engineers re-visualize the flight from different perspectives. Engineers can replay and analyze every stage of the flight in a vivid, 3-D rendering.
Other Applications: The Sky's the Limit
As the cost of computers has dropped, RAGE has become useful in a growing range of applications. For example, a current demonstration shows how RAGE can support air traffic control. Controllers can pinpoint the precise location of each plane and see a 3-D visualization of planes against the actual landscape that surrounds the airport. A controller who sees an image of a plane flying behind a mountain 20 miles away can quickly change views to see just how close the plane is to the mountain.
RAGE also is being used to fly drone aircraft. The drone "pilot" sits in front of a cockpit simulation console and controls the plane with a joystick. RAGE shows these pilots 3-D renderings of the actual hills and valleys under the flying drone, allowing the pilot to guide the craft by means of visual input rather than relying exclusively on standard cockpit instrumentation.
Approved for Public Release; Distribution is Unlimited. OPSEC review conducted on 28 May 2004.
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