Orbit Logic Announces Cloud-Based Collection Planning & Analysis Workstation Software

 Orbit Logic announced recently that they have released a new version of their Collection Planning & Analysis Workstation (CPAW) software with enhanced constellation collection planning optimization. A mission planning and scheduling software for imaging satellite operations, CPAW is deployed operationally on multiple commercial and government programs. specializes in mission planning and scheduling solutions for aerospace and geospatial intelligence. Orbit Logic’s operationally proven COTS products create efficient plans with fewer resources for all mission phases.

Prior versions of CPAW were capable of performing coordinated imagery collection planning for a constellation of imaging satellites, yet the new CPAW cloud-enabled constellation planning optimizes constellation collection planning considering all asset collection opportunities to all imaging targets within the user-defined planning period.  The new cloud-based algorithm solution provides significantly enhanced overall solution scoring using an algorithm-independent figure-of-merit for both Earth observation and Space Situational Awareness (SSA) scenarios.

“CPAW’s enhanced constellation optimization capabilities are enabled by scalable cloud-computing resources.” said Alex Herz, president of Orbit Logic. “We’re continuing to advance the collection planning state-of-the-art as imaging satellite constellations grow in size and capability, and we are leveraging cloud computing resources that have become more affordable and accessible to both commercial and government customers.”

In an interview with Orbit Logic CEO Ella Herz, she answered some questions about the new CPAW version.

The new version of CPAW provides enhanced constellation planning optimization, support for gimbaled sensors, configurable figure-of-merit enhancements, and an external plan import capability, among other new and enhanced features and performance improvements.

GISCafe Voice: What percentage of your existing customer base wants to move to the cloud?

Nearly 90-100% want to use some form of virtual machine, gov cloud, or AWS cloud

GISCafe Voice: Is this a subscription based offering?

We have options for perpetual licenses or subscriptions.  But typically the server is a customer server, not software-as-a-service (SAAS).

GISCafe Voice: Will your  Collection Planning & Analysis Workstation (CPAW) software still be available without the cloud?

Yes.

GISCafe Voice: Do you expect users to rely heavily on your engineering services to implement the Cloud Constellation Planning or rely on their inhouse expertise?

We have a broad range of users from almost complete COTS and no services to using our services for custom models, inputs, outputs, user interfaces, and specialized features.  On a small service engagement we often offer training, configuration, and some model services.  The cloud aspect is super easy and does not require any services from us

GISCafe Voice: How easy is it to implement the Cloud enabled Constellation Planning?

The cloud aspect is super easy and does not require any services from us.  We have enabled a variety of parallel processing techniques to enable improved performance in large constellations when executed on a cloud configuration with multiple cores and good memory availability.  Configuring the system for constellation planning is also fairly straight forward for most missions due to good configurability in the software for number of spacecraft, orbits, sensor capabilities, recorder management, ground stations, power usage, and more.

GISCafe Voice: What types of satellite imagery are you able to acquire, analyze and implement with the Cloud-enabled Constellation Planning that you could not do with the previous CPAW?

CPAW already handles constellation planning for EO (including hyperspectral) and SAR imagery for agile line sensors, pushbroom and beam modes, and frame cameras for both earth and space targets.  The latest release of CPAW allows us to do bigger problems better and faster.  Specifically the constellation algorithms optimize constellation collection planning considering all asset collection opportunities to all imaging targets within the user-defined planning period.

Orbit Logic’s Collection Planning & Analysis Workstation (CPAW) couples a spacecraft simulator with scheduling algorithms to generate valid and optimized high fidelity imagery collection plans for use in satellite operations, analysis, or imagery ordering. CPAW generates plans for imagery collection of space and ground targets, contact scheduling, and downlink planning that accounts for spacecraft agility, sensor characteristics, imaging modes, power modeling, pointing constraints, data storage modeling, antenna agility and downlink sites, system timing rules, lighting conditions, target constraints, and more.  Planning can be completely manual, fully automated, or anywhere in between.

Tags: cloud, data, geospatial, GIS, Google Maps, imagery, Infrastructure, intelligence, remote sensing, satellite imagery

Categories: analytics, cloud, data, geospatial, GIS, location intelligence, remote sensing, satellite imagery

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