On the 60th anniversary of the founding of the State Institute of Applied Optics

The joint-stock company Scientific and Production Center State Institute of Applied Optics (NPO GIPO), which is a part of the Shvabe Holding company, has firmly occupied a place as the leading enterprise in the development and production of thermal imaging devices placed on various carriers. Over the past decade, NPO GIPO has established leadership in an additional area: the development of on-board detection and guidance systems for missile defense of military and civilian aircraft.
The demonstrated success of NPO GIPO as a leader in the segments of optoelectronic device manufacturing is undoubtedly due not only to the effectiveness of a number of completed basic experimental design projects, development of a production and technological base, involvement of a competent team, and effective cooperation with the related organizations, but also to its systematic approach to the creation of a scientific and technical knowledge base, conducting preliminary studies, and actual project realization, which implies the development of a number of theoretical and applied research areas.
The improvement of the utilized methods of mathematical modeling and simulation (MMS) of currently manufactured products represents one of these research directions.
Despite constantly and rapidly expanding technological capabilities, the development of an electronic and optical component base, improvement of design methods, and specified tactical and technical parameters of a developed product require the comprehensive analysis and selection of the optimal combination from multiple possibilities, especially after taking into account the entire product lifecycle.
The advancement of MMS technology led to error reduction and minimization of development costs, as indicated by the results obtained using the known method of “trial and error,” which was widely used for solving problems related to the development of various types of complex devices in the 1950s–70s.
This problem is particularly relevant to the development of modern optoelectronic systems (OESs) [1,2] for imaging that are used in complex, highly dynamic weather conditions (when much shorter times are required for the search, detection, and recognition of a given object), in different geographical latitudes, at different orographies of the underlying surfaces and illumination of the observed scenes, and at various viewing angles.
Another practically important feature of MMS technologies, which is related to the possibility of simplifying the mandatory and expensive field testing procedure for fabricated products, is computer modeling of the likely regimes and conditions of their use.
In fact, it is impossible to solve the problems of the optimal synthesis of multispectral and complex OESs without involving MMS methods.
The reliability of simulation modeling results is generally determined by the presence of a knowledge system in the required operational spectral ranges that includes databases on the radiative and reflective characteristics of the studied objects in their spatial and temporal dynamics, as well as on the optical characteristics of the environmental elements and coatings of structural materials; utilized methods for calculating the radiation transfer in the environment (including models for calculating the transparency and brightness of the atmosphere of arbitrarily oriented optical paths, models for determining the reflection indicatrix of radiation, noise models, and others); techniques for modeling the 3D images of the background and target scenes; and the methodology for the signal conversion process in the OES itself.
A significant part of the required spectroradiometric information regarding the characteristics of the natural environment and anthropogenic objects was obtained and represented by the model developments that were conducted at NPO GIPO in the 1980s–90s, which were approved by the Interdepartmental Scientific and Technical Coordination Council of the S. I. Vavilov State Optical Institute. Recently, these materials have been supplemented by results obtained using modern metrologically certified measuring equipment with high spatial resolution.
The methods for calculating radiation transfer in the environment represent a separate part of the MMS system. This information is provided by the consistent development of the experimental and methodological base and, in our opinion, is sufficiently optimized for the purpose of OES modeling (at least, in the troposphere).
The task of modeling three-dimensional images of various background and target scenes (BTSs) accumulates the described areas of the knowledge base and can be solved as a sequence of multiple steps, including the creation of BTSradiance (brightness) fields that arrive at the entrance pupil of the OES from the surrounding space. This problem can be solved by utilizing specialized software that allows the creation of brightness field distributions for three-dimensional complex and compositionally diverse scenes using various modeling parameters, including spectral range, season, time of day, and weather conditions, and taking into account the arbitrary observational aspects and lighting from external radiation sources (either natural or artificial).
The OES model represents a separate MMS block. Obviously, the corresponding methodology of computer simulation modeling should allow signal processing reproduction with sufficient depth in the order corresponding to that in the studied device. In general, computer simulation of OESs makes it possible to evaluate the technical characteristics and performance indicators (for example, the probability of object recognition) of the modeled OESs, analyze their influence on the image quality of the parameters and characteristics of individual OES units, and predict the OES performance under different conditions.
In general, the “OES” block of the software developed by NPO GIPO is a part of the “end-to-end background-target environment—OES” model, which allows simulation of the successive transmission of the received BTS images through the main components of the OES information path: a porthole (protective window), an objective, a photoreceiver, and an electronic circuit for reading and processing signals accompanied by the formation of a noisy electronic signal field, which must be subjected to some form of digital processing and, if necessary, visualization.
In addition to the improvement and application of the simulation modeling methods utilized for the creation of OESs, their effective development strongly depends on the conducted research and technological studies focused on the creation of the corresponding experimental and metrological base for testing the developed products, optimizing their individual functional units, and many other related uses.
These particular aspects of the scientific and production activities of NPO GIPO are reflected in this special issue of the Journal of Optical Technology.