Architecture of the real-time target detection processing in an airborne hyperspectral demonstrator system

An airborne demonstrator for real-time hyperspectral target detection has been developed at FFI. The real-time image processing is challenging, not only due to the computational complexity of the algorithms, but also due to the sustained high data rate. A software framework has been designed in C++ to handle large data flows in a nonlinear pipeline architecture. The cross-platform framework enables full exploitation of multicore processors and graphics processing units (GPU), and even distribution among multiple computers. Object oriented design enables flexible reconfiguration of the pipeline. Tests demonstrate sustained real-time performance of complex anomaly detection processing.