July 2021 - Physical Sciences Inc.

Press Release

Physical Sciences Inc. (PSI) has been awarded a contract from the U.S. Army to develop a novel low-cost wearable sensor to detect exposure to high-power microwave (HPM) weapons.

PSI’s sensor will be lightweight, small, and require minimal maintenance to facilitate widespread distribution allowing definitive identification of invisible HPM weapon usage and support treatment decisions by medical personnel. HPM attack is suspected in the symptoms experienced by U.S. personnel at foreign diplomatic embassies in 2016 & 2017, but could not be confirmed due to the absence of sensing equipment.

While radio frequency safety sensors are in regular use by communications and radar technicians, these devices are not appropriate for detection of HPM weapon usage due to low field strength ratings compared to expected HPM fields, high cost, and required maintenance including frequent recharging / battery replacement that complicates widespread usage in the DoD. This program will result in a validated HPM sensor that can be widely distributed ensuring that HPM weapon usage is detected and medical personnel can apply appropriate treatment to anyone affected.

For more information, contact:

William Kessler
Vice President, Applied Optics
kessler@psicorp.com
Physical Sciences Inc.
Telephone: (978) 689-0003

Press Release

Physical Sciences Inc. (PSI) has been awarded a contract from DARPA for the enhancement and maturation of BioSIGMA, a persistent early-warning capability for the detection and identification of aerosolized biological warfare agents.

The BioSIGMA technology utilizes PSI’s DisperseNET, an advanced suite of algorithms that correlate spatio-temporal sensor responses with real-time physical dispersion modeling to estimate relevant source terms, including release location and plume extent. BioSIGMA uses this dispersion modeling to power real-time simulations where bio point-sensor and anemometer measurements are then fused within a Bayesian Sequential Estimation framework to reduce alarms from clutter and confusers by an order of magnitude. The capability also improves the accuracy of threat decisions and has been demonstrated to achieve a 1 in 30-day false alarm rate at the network-level.

During this effort, PSI will update DisperseNET with a machine-learning based computational fluid dynamics solver that is capable of reproducing high-quality outputs on the order of milliseconds, compared to tens of minutes for traditional software. Additionally, this effort will enhance BioSIGMA by implementing simulation support for mobile sensor platforms, and developing a data-driven normalcy modeling approach for BWA confusers in cluttered urban environ¬ments. Finally, PSI will update BioSIGMA for enhanced correlation of species identification outputs from emerging BWA sensing technologies.

For more information, contact:

Dr. Bogdan Cosofret
Vice President, Detection Systems
cosofret@psicorp.com
Physical Sciences Inc.
Telephone: (978) 689-0003

Press Release

Physical Sciences Inc. (PSI) has been awarded a research program from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) to develop the Single Image Super Resolution for Quantitative Analysis (QuantSISR) software suite comprising state-of-the-art super-resolution (SR) algorithms optimized to reduce errors during subsequent image analysis such as common computer vision tasks (image segmentation, object detection).

QuantSISR will be designed to achieve a 50% reduction in edge localization errors while matching pixel-wise accuracy comparable to methods optimized for visual perception quality. The software will be capable of 4x-8x up-sampling of satellite images based on image statistics learned during training and augmented with textures extracted from high resolution reference images. This feature can be used during Solar System exploration missions to mitigate mismatch between terrestrial training data sets and the newly acquired data. By leveraging multiple observation geometries, high resolution in situ references can be obtained and used to enhance wide area images acquired at lower spatial resolution.

PSI’s QuantSISR capability will directly address NASA’s need for more accurate super-resolution of existing and future observations. Potential NASA applications include Moon to Mars (rover navigation, obstacle avoidance); Europa Lander (landing site selection); long-term Earth observations (combining historical low resolution images with currently available high resolution images), such as Surface Biology and Geology (SBG) mission. Non-NASA Commercial Applications include up-sampling of low-resolution images to improve accuracy and/or reduce cost of analyses used for Land Management, Urban Planning, Environmental Monitoring, Transportation and other applications.

For more information, contact:

Dr. Bogdan Cosofret
Vice President, Detection Systems
cosofret@psicorp.com
Physical Sciences Inc.
Telephone: (978) 689-0003

Press Release

Physical Sciences Inc. (PSI) has been awarded a research program from the Department of Energy (DOE) to develop a sensor and software to provide real-time correction of optical-turbulence-induced distortion in video imagery and enable reduction of optical-turbulence-induced laser beam spread.

PSI’s sensor will enable distortion correction of video imagery at >1 kHz update rate without the use of adaptive optics or processing of multi-image sequences. The sensor may be converted to a Shack-Hartmann wavefront sensor with equal or greater response bandwidth. This innovation addresses DOE’s objective to increase standoff range and minimize measurement noise in remote sensing applications by exploiting edge sensing.

PSI’s sensor will be used in conjunction with an imaging sensor or laser-based illumination system to improve the spatial resolution of imagery and to enable laser illumination systems to deliver more power on target. Applications of the sensor include:
• Image quality enhancement of airborne surveillance imagery
• Image quality enhancement of ground-level tactical, ship-board and surveillance imagery
• Increase energy on target for laser designators and high-power laser weapons.

For more information, contact:

Dr. Chris Gittins
Group Leader, Marine Technologies
cgittins@psicorp.com
Physical Sciences Inc.
Telephone: (978) 689-0003

Press Release

Physical Sciences Inc. (PSI) has been awarded a research program from the Department of Energy to develop a high-resolution optical microscopy system that can be installed on many common electron microscopes.

Electron microscopes and optical microscopes – two of the most important tools for most fields of science – offer complementary methods of profiling surface morphologies and chemical processes of microscopic specimens. However, currently there is no quick, easy way to directly compare or overlay the images and other data provided by these separate instruments. PSI’s high-resolution optical microscopy system that can be installed on many common electron microscopes will address this problem. This optical system will allow instantaneous overlay of optical and electron microscope images. It will also enable simple, direct comparison of surface morphological and chemical maps obtained using complementary electron and optical instruments.

Electron and optical microscopes are essential tools for most fields of science. PSI’s methods of seamlessly integrating them allows scientists to examine microscopic specimens using the best aspects of both types of microscopic imaging. The optical devices, microscopy methods and related software developed in this program will result in a third-party product for electron microscopes allowing researchers in chemistry, physics, biology and many other fields to increase productivity and generate new, otherwise unobtainable scientific insights.

For more information, contact:

Dr. Julia Dupuis
Vice President, Tactical Systems
jdupuis@psicorp.com
Physical Sciences Inc.
Telephone: (978) 689-0003

Press Release

Physical Sciences Inc. (PSI) has been awarded a contract from the U.S. Navy to develop a non-intrusive recession rate and surface temperature monitoring system that will be operational in flight test environments.

PSI’s monitoring system will address the Navy’s need of an in-flight diagnostic tool capable of measuring surface temperatures and recession rates of various materials and geometries of the Thermal Protection System (TPS) of hypersonic missile surfaces during flight tests. Atmospheric friction heating dictates varying requirements for aircraft surfaces, including high temperature survival and/or sacrificial material ablation over the flight profile.

PSI’s recession rate and temperature sensor targets the monitoring of aircraft structures, ablative edges, engine flow-paths, rocket nozzles, and other aerodynamic surfaces where extreme high-temperature conditions exist. The sensor system will help in advancing both ground-based and in-flight testing capabilities, materials research and fabrication techniques, and optimization of thermal protection system surface geometries for efficient cost/performance of next-generation hypersonic vehicles.

For more information, contact:

Shin-Juh Chen
Group Leader, Industrial Sensors Group
schen@psicorp.com
Physical Sciences Inc.
Telephone: (978) 689-0003

Press Release

Physical Sciences Inc (PSI) has been awarded a research program from the US Navy to develop the Simplified Atom Interferometer Laser System (SAILS) that will be capable of generating two frequency-referenced and phase-coherent optical wavelengths to reduce the size, weight, and complexity of the optical systems that support portable atom interferometry based sensors.

In hermetic packaging, SAILS will contain three high power, narrow linewidth lasers all referenced to a compact magnetically shielded rubidium vapor cell with two fiber-coupled outputs, one for 2-photon atom interferometry (AI) and one for atom state preparation and detection. It will exhibit fast start-up, auto-locking, and agile frequency tuning for universal compatibility with AI architectures for strategic-grade inertial navigation and low noise laser drive & lock circuits.

PSI’s laser source technology developed in this program will allow quantum sensor technology to progress from the laboratory to actual field use. Quantum sensors address key applications such as inertial navigation, precision timekeeping, and sensitive magnetometry.

For more information, contact:

Dr. Joel Hensley
Vice President, Photonics
hensley@psicorp.com
Physical Sciences Inc.
Telephone: (978) 689-0003