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| RPA developed a man-wearable solution for wireless, high-speed, 3-D video transmission to enable untethered training with a helmet mounted display system. It can support up to HD (1080p) resolution video as well as other required sensors such as head motion tracking, simulated weapons, motion control, audio, and others. |
RPA’s
president, Rick Pray, described how the company got started in 1995. “Barry
(RPA’s vice president of engineering) and I worked together at another company,
and with the OK from our employer, we began doing some private consulting work.
That ultimately led to several contracts for design projects, and that’s when
the company really got traction.”
“Initially we
had four people working long hours in the basement of my house. Much of that
early work ended up in deployed systems built by several major defense
contractors.”
In 1998, RPA
developed its first generation FIO (Flexible Input/Output) board line. This
product is based on a field-programmable gate array (FPGA), which is an
integrated circuit designed to be configured by a customer or a designer after
manufacturing. Fifteen years later, updated versions of these boards are still
in demand. The I/O products have been used in applications such as RADAR and
SONAR signal processing, video camera interfaces, and sensor simulation.
The business
evolved to include large scale parallel processing, with as many as 900
processors in a single system. RPA also developed a product that synchronizes
the output from multiple PC video sources. This Genlock solution is used by
many customers in the flight simulation and virtual reality / gaming
world.
“We had
continued success and growth until the dot-com bubble burst and our customers
slashed their new product work,” said Pray. “At that point, we decided to
return to more familiar territory, which was simulation and training
technology.”
That was
apparently a good move because, since then, many industries have added or
expanded their use of simulated environments for training. Building on their
experiences, RPA staff have won a number of Small Business Innovative Research
(SBIR) grants that have helped fund internal R&D projects.
One example
is a recent SBIR project that focuses on the development of components for
wireless, real-time training environments. One use of this type of system is
for military and law enforcement personnel. A dozen or more trainees can move
about in simulated scenarios, “seeing” via head mounted video displays and with
sensors that detect movement, weapons use, and a range of other data that
supports interactivity and performance monitoring.
In 2006, Pray
and Williams engaged Lloyd Johnson from AM&T to help them develop a
strategic plan for the company. In describing the result of that process, Pray
said they are using the plan on an ongoing basis, and have updated it from time
to time. “Of course, we had to adapt it to changing needs of our market, but we
haven’t diverted much from the core plan.”
Williams
added, “We’ve used it for a lot of proposals, including material from the
strategic plan to help potential customers understand the match between their
needs and our core business trajectory. It helps them understand that we’ll be
a good long-term partner.”
“Since RPA is
small, winning contracts from large companies depends on their understanding
our track record and trusting our capabilities and performance.” As such, Pray and Williams explained that
they concentrate on building successful relationships with those customers,
concentrating on the company mission created in 2006 as part of the AM&T
strategic planning effort. “Our mission
is to provide reliable hardware and software building blocks for the real-time
data acquisition, test and measurement, and image processing communities. We are a true partner that provides cost
effective solutions through a deep understanding of customer’s requirements.”
For more information visit RPA Electronic Solutions, Inc. on the web at rpaelectronics.com
See this and other newsletter articles at http://amt-mep.org/files/1613/8989/6049/2014-01_Web.pdf
Visit our website at http://www.amt-mep.org
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