Jason Deacutis - Portfolio

Inter-Coastal Electronics - SPIKE NLOS Simulator

Prototype Embedded Simulator for Rafael’s SPIKE NLOS Missile using Unity Engine.

SPIKE Non-Line-Of-Sight is a ground or helicopter based long range anti-tank missile. The video feed allows it to engage targets much further than previous missiles. The non-line-of-sight nature also allows it to engage targets while the operator remains well hidden.

The goal is to train air crews on SPIKE without the hassle of live fire. SPIKE’s analog video feed is replaced with realtime rendered video from a fully simulated missile. Our hardware is miniaturized & ruggedized enough to be placed on the aircraft (AH-64, Blackhawk, etc) & connected to the aircraft’s data bus. The actual cockpit display & controls are used as if a live missile is being fired.

Prelaunch on an Apache
The dashed box indicates unable to fire

Missile Launch. Small box indicates the current target destination, dots indicate ground track.

Operator can slew & zoom the camera while the autopilot flies.

Flashing indicates manual control is about to be entered.

Manual control mode, hitting a T-72 tank

Old OSD

Old font reconstructed from videos

A huge challenge was getting the graphics realistically low quality, as the real video feed is low resolution & can be heavily distorted. Unrealistically clear video would be bad training, as half the difficulty is identifying the target. Unity was instrumental in running on an embedded device with less GPU power than some smartphones. Also it was difficult to match the real OSD (On Screen Display) because they kept changing it!!