The Communications-Electronics Research, Development and Engineering Center Night Vision and Electronic Sensors Directorate recently completed a project for the Rapid Equipping Force on reusing discarded Common Remotely Operated Weapon Station imaging sensors for inexpensive, ground-based persistent surveillance systems. (Photo courtesy of the U.S. Army)

Army researchers are championing reuse of drawn-down or demilitarized items to save time, money and the environment!

The Communications-Electronics Research, Development and Engineering Center Night Vision and Electronic Sensors Directorate recently completed a project for the Rapid Equipping Force on reusing discarded Common Remotely Operated Weapon Station imaging sensors for inexpensive, ground-based persistent surveillance systems.

The M153 Common Remotely Operated Weapons Station is known as CROWS. The CROWS system gives soldiers the ability to remotely target and fire a weapon mounted atop a vehicle. The soldier stays safely inside the vehicle. The technology behind the system has the potential to be recycled if the CROWS is disabled.

Army engineers experimented with commercial, off-the-shelf computer hardware and developed new software control functionality needed to operate the sensors separately from the existing old CROWS electronics units.

The software, integrated by Allison Thackston and Sean Jellish, electronics engineers at CERDEC NVESD, allows for an operator to change sensor parameters and control the sensors on a pan/tilt unit, enabling the use of sensors within a new mission area.

For this project, called CROWS ISR, Bob Mayer, a mechanical engineer at CERDEC NVESD used a commercially available hardware processor board to host new software, mounted the sensors on a tripod and added a GPS.

(more…)