Closed Hatch Driving, Vision, and Sighting System

Closed hatch driving systems allow commanders and drivers to maneuver, locate and identify without having to exit the vehicle. These systems rely on networked, externally placed cameras and sensors to provide a complete field of view that is presented on display screens inside the vehicle.

In this application, high-bandwidth low latency video is transmitted from multiple cameras to multiple displays over a single multicast network. In some designs, windows are removed to eliminate a high point of failure with the driver fully operating the vehicle by real-time video. The video can also be accessed by other vehicle crew members for surveillance and situational awareness.

Pleora designed a custom display receiver, based on its vDisplay HDI-Pro External Frame Grabbers, that outputs GigE Vision video streams from up to two cameras to display panel over HDMI/DVI. Converting the video feed from HDMI to GigE Vision enables the use of extended reach, more flexible cabling in the vehicle while supporting multicast to reduce cabling complexity and weight.

In a similar application, a custom video distribution unit converts multiple video feeds into standards-based Def Stan 00-82 format for a situational awareness system. The uncompressed video is streamed with low latency over Ethernet to multiple endpoints in the vehicle. In parallel the video is compressed and encoded for archiving.