Geospatial R&D

Tools for Urban Modeling and Data Integration

Accurate and timely geospatial data has always been crucial to defense operations; SAIC is a long-time provider of cartographic and geographic information system (GIS) data and applications to the military. The civilian market for geospatial data and products has expanded tremendously in recent years with the advent of applications such as Google Earth, personal navigation devices, and location-based services.

Urban model production from LIDAR

LIDAR is becoming the sensing technology of choice for urban modeling, due to its time and cost advantages. SAIC's proprietary LIDAR tools and the experience gained from using them on a large number of projects provide significant competitive advantages.

The LIDAR data is initially delivered in the form of a dense cloud of 3D points. This point cloud is processed to extract the "bare earth," the terrain surface without vegetation or man-made objects such as buildings or bridges. This Digital Elevation Model (DEM) is used in hydrologic modeling to delineate flood plains and quantify runoff. The next step is the extraction of the 3D building geometry. If desired, vegetated areas or individual trees can also be extracted from the LIDAR data.

Data delivery

SAIC has implemented enterprise geospatial data and imagery dissemination architectures for a number of government clients. The Geospatial Enterprise Architecture Rack (GEAR) system is a family of geospatial servers which are delivered pre-configured with database, server, and exploitation software, as well as data as required by the customer. The largest model contains multiple processors and multi-terabyte RAID disk arrays in a self-contained rack which can be delivered, plugged in, and be ready to serve as a central data server for emergency operations.

Integrated Building Interior Surveillance System

The Integrated Building Interior Surveillance System (IBISS) will provide a revolutionary capability to help give soldiers in urban combat complete interior situational awareness of buildings before entering them. IBISS integrates data from ground-based and airborne through-wall radar sensors to reconstruct the interior structure and contents of a building as a 3-D computer-aided design (CAD) model that can be displayed on a soldier's portable display device. This removes the enemy's advantage of concealment, enables more effective mission planning, and reduces soldier casualties. An industry leader in sensor imaging and data exploitation, SAIC is developing the core exploitation technology for IBISS and integrating the overall system for transition to the services.

IBISS is a flexible solution that adapts sophisticated sensing and exploitation technology to specific urban operations mission requirements:

• Processes ground-based, airborne, and handheld sensor inputs singly or in combination
• Supports long-term and short-term quick-reaction mission timelines
• Provides intuitive mission-centric interpretation of nonliteral radar data measurements
• Facilitates mission planning, in-mission combat support, and post-mission forensics

Through-wall sensed data can be converted automatically into an intuitive missionoriented form that is readily understood by soldiers with no training in radar interpretation. This capability is critical for urban operations in which the combat situation evolves quickly, and life or death decisions must be made instantaneously. IBISS provides a breakthrough that brings sophisticated sensing and exploitation technologies directly to the soldier in a system that helps support the full breadth of urban combat needs for the Army, Navy, Special Operations, Marine Corps, and Air Force.

The core enabling technology in IBISS is the use of model-based reasoning (MBR) to infer internal building structure from the complex nonliteral radar data. MBR succeeds where other classical data inversion techniques fail because it explicitly accounts for the phenomenology of through-wall radar data and its interactions with the building structure to derive the interior 3-D CAD model. Coupling the reconstructed building structure with novel techniques for detecting and tracking insurgents interior to the building, IBISS provides a continuous readout of the building interior situation as it evolves throughout the mission.

Safe Collection of Geospatial Information

With our ike 504™ product line, SAIC provides operators with a safe and reliable way to collect accurate geospatial information at a distance in situations where you cannot be on location, such as dangerous or inaccessible environments.

ike can provide operators with a rapid, safe, flexible, and reliable method to collect geospatial information from a position up to 1,000 meters (3,280 feet) away and with the push of a button ties all this data to a photograph of the target. Field tools such as the ike 504 can be used to add ground-level detail to the model efficiently and safely.