DA’s IRBC product was a spiral development of our Boom Camera, a 51MP hand-held camera system for bomb disposal technicians operating in bomb suits. The BoomCam was designed to allow bomb technicians to capture high quality images and video of threats in tight and dark places. The IRBC furthered this development with the addition of a long-wave Infrared (LWIR) camera and mounting system for use on EOD robotics. Key enabling technologies for the IRBC included proprietary color camera and IR fusion used to highlight potential threats onscreen and encrypted digital radio links used to transmit the camera feed to a monitor when the IRBC is mounted on a robot or placed at a distance. DA delivered 20 IRBC prototypes, manufactured inhouse.

This product was designed to be suitable for the EOD mission, and thus rugged enough to survive consistent use in a wide range of environmental conditions aboard a moving vehicle. Furthermore, the system relies on multiple mechanical and electronic systems working in tandem. DA performed a host of engineering analyses both in the design and testing phases of the project to ensure desired functionality. For mechanical systems, these included heat transfer analysis of the system at worst case for heatsink design, temperature range testing to validate heatsink performance, water and dust ingress testing to confirm compliance with IP54 protection standards, and MIL-STD 810G-516.6 shock testing.

Electronic systems underwent battery and radio range performance testing, both to down-select hardware (i.e. battery type/quantity, radio antennae, etc.) and validate compliance of final system performance with customer requirements. DA provided the customer with test reports for each, as well as system specifications analysis verifying compliance with size, weight, power, and cost (SWAP-C) constraints.

View: All Case Studies | OUR Design EXPERTISE