Proceedings Article | 11 May 2012
Proc. SPIE. 8356, Technologies for Synthetic Environments: Hardware-in-the-Loop XVII
KEYWORDS: Extremely high frequency, Sensors, Ultraviolet radiation, Modulators, Computer simulations, Monte Carlo methods, Projection systems, Modulation transfer functions, Missiles, Atmospheric modeling
State-of-the-art hardware-in-the-loop (HWIL) test facilities have been established and in operation at the
U.S. Army's Aviation and Missile Research, Development, and Engineering Center (AMRDEC) in
McMorrow Laboratories, on Redstone Arsenal Alabama for over 37 years. These facilities have been
successfully developed and employed supporting numerous tactical and interceptor missile systems. The
AMRDEC HWIL facilities are constantly in a state state of modification and revision supporting
evolving test requirements related to increasingly complex sensor suites, guidance implementations, and
employment strategies prevalent within both existing and emerging aviation and missile programs. . This
paper surveys the role of the U.S. Army Aviation and Missile Research, Development, and Engineering
Center (AMRDEC) in the development and operation of HWIL test facilities and the implementation of
new, innovative technologies that have been integrated within facility test assets. This technology spans
both the Near IR (NIR- 1.064um) and IR (3 - 12um) and RF (2 - 95 GHz) operating ranges. The
AMRDEC HWIL facilities represent the highest degree of simulation fidelity, integrating all the major
parts of a HWIL simulation including tactical missile and seeker hardware, executive control software,
scene generation, and NIR, IR or RF scene projection systems. Successful incorporation of scene
generation and projection technologies have become a key thrust of the AMRDEC HWIL development
focus, with the intention to adapt and anticipate emerging test element requirements necessitated by future
system sensing technologies.