Home On-Going Programs contact us Work with us Home › On-Going Programs Techno System Developments is currently involved in several Space Programs. In this page, continuosly updated, are listed the main ones MULTI-OCULAR SMART SENSOR Vision-based navigation is a major enabling technology in support of the autonomy requirements of Space Applications like: Exploration missions (orbiters, landers, rovers, etc.), On-Orbit Servicing Applications (Satellite Inspections, Rendezvous, Docking etc.) and Formation-Flying Missions. Vision-based navigation systems for future missions shall offer faster image processing, compatible with the computational loads of sophisticated navigation algorithms, and simultaneously fulfill the constraints in terms of mass, volume, and power consumption of missions increasingly based on small platforms. A novel system (currently under development in the frame of ASI MOSS program) represents the TSD answer to all those demanding requirements. MOSS is a powerful, compact, light, and low power system that can be used in different configurations by combining the following parts: Multi-ocular Camera (Multi-Cam) provided with three image sensors and fixed lens CMOS Monocular Camera (CMOS Mono-Cam) provided with one image sensor and fixed lens CCD Monocular Camera (CCD Mono-Cam) integrated with motorized lens High-performance Processing Unit for Visual Navigation (HPVN) The different configurations of the cameras are aimed at fulfilling a wide range of imaging and accommodation requirements, depending on the specific mission and the space platform. Three cameras can operate in stand-alone mode or connected to a very powerful and fault tolerant processing unit (HPVN), capable of supporting up to 4 HD video inputs, and performing a number of hardware accelerated image processing algorithms: loss-less and/or lossy compression, feature detection and tracking and real-time disparity map calculation. The cameras are internally provided with a lossy image compressor, based on Wavelet SPHIT algorithm, and, in stand-alone configuration, they can output compressed video by means of an embedded SpaceWire I/F. Multi-Cam Main Specifications Image size & Frame rate 30fps@720p (Panoramic) 2 x 10fps@1Mpix (3D-Cameras) I/O Redundant power Input Interface Video data interfaces (Left & Right - LVDS SerDes) Redundant CAN bus Interfaces External acquisition trigger interface (Left & Right) Thermal control Interface Power Charcteristics Power supply: 5V ± 5 % Stereovision only: 3.3W@5V Panoramic image acquisition only: 3.22W@5V Full functions activated: 7.3W@5V Panoramic Image Compression: 5.2W@5V Volume 230 x 68 x 45 mm3 (excluding optics) Mass 880 g (excluding optics) 1250 g (including optics) FOV ±45° (3D Vision) ±15° (Panoramic) CMOS Mono-Cam Main Specifications Image size & Frame rate 100fps@720p 30fps@1080p I/O Power Input Interface Video Data Interface (LVDS SerDes) Redundant CAN bus Interfaces External acquisition trigger interface SpaceWire I/F for compressed video data Thermal control Interface Power Characteristics Power supply voltage: 5V ± 5 % Acquisition only (1080p): 2.3W@5V Acquisition & Compression(720p): 3.5W@5V Acquisition only (720p): 2.2W@5V Volume 69.5 x 69.5 x 51 mm3 (excluding optics and fixation points) Mass 310g (excluding optics) 465 g (including optics) FOV ±50° CCD Mono-Cam Main Specifications Image size & Frame rat 30fps@1080p I/O Power Input Interface Video Data Interface (LVDS SerDes) Redundant CAN bus Interfaces External acquisition trigger interface SpaceWire I/F for compressed video data Control I/F Thermal control Interface Power Characteristics Power supply voltage: 28 V ± 25 %, 5V ± 5 % Acquisition only: 1.8W@ 5V;4.1W@28V Acquisition & Compression:1.9W@ 5V;4.1W@28V Volume 215 x 115 x 87 mm3 (excluding attachment points) Mass 2150 g (including optics) FOV from ±25°@17mm to ±7°@65mm HPVN Main Specifications I/O Redundant Power Input Interface High Priority Commands Interfaces Redundant CAN bus Interfaces (OBDH side) 2 x SpaceWire Interfaces Redundant CAN bus Interfaces (Optical Head side) Multi-Ocular Camera Power Supply (Nominal + Redundant) Multi-Ocular Camera Temperature Control Interface CCD Camera Power Supply (Nominal + Redundant) CDD Camera Temperature Control Interface Video data input left (Nominal + Redundant) Video data input right (Nominal + Redundant) Camera external trigger left (Nominal + Redundant) Camera external trigger right (Nominal + Redundant) Pixel Rate 120Mpixel/s (2 x 30Mpix/s (nominal) + 2 x 30Mpix/s (redundant) or 4x30Mpixel/s) Power Characteristics Power input: 28V ± 25% Communication & Control: 6.9W@28V One active FPGA Processing section: 15.1W @28V Two active FPGA Processing sections: 23.3W@28V Volume 244 x 179 x 54 mm3 (excluding fixation points) Mass 2255 g Image Processing Algorithms Real-Time Stereo vision Wavelet based Image compression @30fps, CF=(8 ¸100) in lossy o loss less mode Feature extraction & tracking SDAB for PRISMA SATELLITE Payload The “PRecursore IperSpettrale della Missione Applicativa (PRISMA)” (Hyperspectral Precursor for the Applicative Mission) it’s an italian satellite dedicated to the Earth Observation with innovative, electro-optical instrumentation that combine a hyperspectral sensor with a medium-resolution panchromatic camera. Techno System is currently involved in development of a board called Scientific Data Acquisition Board (SDAB, prime contractor SELEX GALILEO) used to: • Receive TCs and send TMs to the board computer (called Single Board Computer, SBC) • Acquire video data coming from SWIR, VNIR and PAN cameras • Re-assemble the acquired video frames and to applying them the CCSDS formatting for data downlink DIGITAL VIDEO SYSTEM for ELECTRO-MAGNETIC LEVITATOR The Materials Science Laboratory - Electro Magnetic Levitator (MSL-EML) is an element of the ESA Microgravity Facilities for Columbus (MFC) programme, and is aimed for containerless materials processing in space. The MSL-EML facility will be accommodated in the Columbus Laboratory. In the frame of a contract with Astrium GmbH, TSD is developing a Digital Video System for the flight segment of the MSL-EML composed of: • one High-Resolution High-Frame Rate Video Management Unit (H2VMU) • one Hard-Disk (HD) unit The H2VMU of the EML is a very powerful unit dedicated to real-time image acquisition, lossy or loss-less compression and their ground trasmission or on board storage. The H2VMU is able to fulfil a wide range of requirements by interfacing the latest generation of high-performance digital cameras and can acquire high-resolution images (up to 4Mpixel@15 fps) and/or high frame rate images (256 x 256 @ 1000 fps). CWICOM The TSD CWICOM (CCSDS Wavelet Image Compression ASIC) Validation & Evaluation Platform provides all the data handling and interfaces resources to prototype the CWICOM RTL code with FPGA and to test the ASIC samples, both in a representative H/W environment. The available interfaces are: 220 V AC power input CameraLink or Parallel LVDS video input Ctrl/Cfg Gigabit Ethernet Port RS232 Debug UART line Compact-flash Card connector SpaceWire Interface Standard socket to host CWICOM sample Virtex-5 FPGA to prototype RTL code Thanks to its flexible architecture and the wealth of available interfaces, the Validation & Evaluation Platform allows to validate and evaluate CWICOM in two different scenarios: Stand-alone configuration Live configuration The stand-alone configuration is meant for RTL code prototyping and ASIC validation according to the verification plan. user sets test parameters to platform via Ethernet line from host computer platform configures CWICOM via SPI interface according to test parameters user sends test data to the platform via Ethernet port from host computer platform moves received image data to CWICOM via its input parallel interface platform retrieves CWICOM compressed data from its parallel output port compressed stream is forwarded to host computer via Ethernet network and checked against reference file generated by bit-accurate SW model log file is generated Live configuration is meant to evaluate CWICOM performances in a representative scenario: user sets configuration parameters to platform via Ethernet line from host computer platform configures CWICOM via SPI interface according to test parameters platform continuously grabs images from connected camera and move relevant data to CWICOM via its parallel input interface concurrently acquired images are displayed on the XVGA monitor platform retrieves compressed data from CWICOM parallel output interface and sends them via Ethernet port to host computer host computer decompresses and displays received images in real time user can visually compare uncompressed and decompressed video stream and adjust compression parameters MASER 12 MISSION Techno System was involved in MASER, TEXUS e MAXUS Sounding Rocket missions (prime contractor Swedish Space Corporation) since 1993. Particularly TSD designed, tested and manufactured the Digital Video Systems for the payloads hosted on-board MASER 6-9-10-11 and is currently developing a Digital Video System for the MASER12. The Digital Video Systems under development will interface the cameras dedicated to three on-board experiments (BIOMICS-2, SOURCE-2, XRMON-GF) LIFT The Liquid Film Tensiometer (LIFT) is a Capillary Pressure film tensiometer. It will be employed to investigate the physical-chemical characteristics of isolated emulsion droplets and foam droplets (“thin film” or double droplet experiments). The LIFT module consists of an Experiment Unit (EU) and an Additional Electronic Unit (AEU). It shall be adapted to the FASTER Facility Controller (FC) being developed by ESA for the European Drawer Rack on the “Columbus” ISS Facility. TSD is in charge of developing the AEU (presently phase B). The AEU is required to command the laser used in the LIFT interferometer design, to control the laser temperature, to acquire and process fringe image data, and to transmit droplet thickness data to the FC via a dedicated link as well. AMALIA MISSION The AMALIA (Ascensio Machinae Ad Lunam Italica Arte) Mission is the result of the activities performed by the Team Italia in order to achieve the objectives of the Google Lunar X Prize, a competition initiated by the X Prize Foundation aimed to safely land on lunar surface before the end of 2012 and to cover at least 500m of distance transmitting back to Earth videos and images. TSD is involved in the design of Video Acquisition and Processing Subsystem (VAPS) for the AMALIA ROVER and in the LANDER subsystem. OLCI CAMERA SCOE In the frame of a contract regarding SENTINEL-3 programme, Techno System has developed the OLCI Camera SCOE. This SCOE will be used for the validation activities of the Ocean Land Colour Instrument (OLCI) Cameras (one among five cameras) carried on board SENTINEL-3 satellite. The SCOE interfaces the FPA (Focal Plane Assembly) and the VAM (Video Acquisition Module) of each camera in order to perform the electrical tests and data acquisition (Housekeeping and Video data), real-time processing, visualization and local/remote storage. The Camera SCOE is able to interface up to 4 Optical Ground Support Equipment for calibration activities and can be used in stand-alone mode or driven in remote mode (by the OCOE). The camera SCOE comprises an unit (called Embedded Terminal Unit, ETU on top side of the rack) in charge of managing the SCOE Power distribution and allowing to manage the VAM and power supplies for a Peltier located on the target and a further equipment called Local Unit. The Local Unit is not mounted in SCOE rack (but usually contained in the bottom drawer) and is able to generate power supplies for VAM, to acquire FPA peltier and to control it, to upload TCs to VAM and to acquire TMs from VAM. OLCI IMAGE SCOE The OLCI Instrument Image SCOE is a system developed for the validation activities OLCI Cameras (one among five cameras) developed by Techno System for the OLCI instrument in the frame of the activites for the SENTINEL-3 programme. In particular the OLCI Image SCOE performs the optical, electrical and detection test sequences of the OLCI instrument. The SCOE acts as simulator of the PDHU (Payload Data Handling Unit) using the SpaceWire interface for science data acquisition. It can be used in stand-alone mode or driven in remote mode. The main provided capabilities are: • Science Data acquisition, processing, real-time treatment and visualization of treatment results in 2D/3D • test mangement, general management functions, remote control functionality (via ethernet by using dedicated protocols) and data storage (on-board or on a remote WS) • simulation of OLCI Electronic Unit (OEU) • OGSEs TM/TC interface 1553 SCOE In the framework of GMES Sentinel-3 Programme (prime contractor TAS-I), TSD has designed, developed and manufactured the 1553 SCOE that will support all the Integration and Test activities performed on Sentinel-3 satellite and finally the launch. The equipment acts as Bus Monitor and Remote Terminal simulation system over the two MIL-STD-1553 S/C buses, i.e. Payload Bus (P/L Bus) and Platform Bus (P/F Bus). The Central Checkout System (CCS) of the Ground Segment can interface the SCOE via ethernet using a dedicated protocol for remote control. All the acquired data can be stored locally or sent to CCS via ethernet. The SCOE is also able to be used in auto-test configuration to simulate both P/L and P/F (to give an example to allow a functional test of the harness used during normal test activities). PAYLOAD DATA TRANSMITTER The number of Space Missions requiring the transmission to Ground of a huge amount of data is continuously increasing.To avoid the risk of a congestion in the S-band, the CCSDS (Consultative Committee for Space Data Systems) recommends for high data rate telemetry range transmission exceeding 2MBit/s,the adoption of band-efficient modulations (like SOQPSK, FQPSK,and Multi h CPM). Techno System's answer to this general trend is a low cost Payload Data Transmitter (PDT) using SOQPSK band-efficient modulation and currently under development, able to provide a bandwidth up to 20Mbits/s. The system will be flown on board a small dedicated ring of the MASER 12 sounding rocket payload. The envisaged test of the PDT will consist of transmitting to the ground station, at predefined bit rate, a video test pattern plus a set of HK data. A small micro-controlled electronic box (called Controller & Data Generator, CDG) located externally to the PDT housing will generate the pattern (formed of images sequence packetized according to the CCSDS source packet format). The communication link between the PDT and the CDG is SpaceWire. MIOSAT The MIOsat mission is a small technological demonstration mission dealing with the realization of an high-performance Optical Payload dedicated to Earth observation. The Optical Payload is composed of: High-resolution 2 meters Earth imager observation Panchromatic (PAN) Camera working within the range [0.4, 0.9]µm High-resolution Earth observation and spectral analysis by the Aerospace Leap-frog Imaging Stationary Interferometer for Earth Observation (ALISEO) working in the range [0.4, 1.0]µm High spectral resolution observation by means of the Mach Zehnder miniaturized spectrometer working in the range [0.4, 2.5] um. The Optical Payload shall be provided by a centralized electronics with advanced technology, the Payload Data Handling Electronics (PDHE) in charge of Techno System (prime contractor SELEX Galileo), which shall implement the following main functions: Management of the status and commands exchange with the satellite OBDH Processing and storage of the data from the ALISEO interferometer, PAN camera, and Mach Zehnder spectrometer (including data pre-processing, compression using lossless or near lossless compression techniques, storage on memory modules, formatting by addition of ancillary data and payload TMs relevant to the imaging) Transmission of the stored data and of the related housekeeping information to the X-band antenna for downlink to the ground Monitoring and control of the scientific instruments and of the PDHE internal functions INVISS The purpose of the INVISS project (Innovative Network VIdeo Surveillance System) is to realize an integrated and smart video-surveillance system. The INVISS will join, in a single product several features like advanced compression techniques, high storage capabilities at high data rate and very compact architecture with high performances. The INVISS is composed of three modules: a video camera comprising the Mass Storage Module (MSM) handling the I/F towards a solid state memory (capacity 16GBytes) used to store the acquired video images after their real time compression at low compression factor by an Embedded Video Encoder a Processing Unit (PU) hosting the motion detection, audio detection and alarm detection algorithms and used to perform "lossless" and "visually-lossless" compression of video data; the unit will be also capable to perform the compression of Region of Interest of the images in a MPEG4 compatible format and to send these compressed data on ethernet network an I/O module able to handle ethernet I/F (used both for data transmission and camera powering according to PoE standard), USB I/F and further I/O devices a Wireless Communication & Control Module in charge of handling all wireless I/Fs of the system (i.e. WiFi for data transmission/reception towards wireless router/switch, GPRS I/F for SMS transmission, "Satellite" I/F used to transmit data also in extreme conditions when the traditional communication links are not available) Space Products Main Space Programs Industrial & Commercial Products Development Process Control and Automation Systems Skills and Tecnologies Reference Partnership Facilities Work with us © 2009 - TECHNO SYSTEM DEV Srl - P.IVA 01393240633 - ALL RIGHTS RESERVED - PRIVACY WEB PROJECT AND DESIGN AGRELLI&BASTA PUBBLICITÀ GRAFICA WEB NEW MEDIA