Neptec Design Group
Neptec Design Group is an Ottawa-based Canadian vision systems company that provides machine vision solutions for space, industrial, and military applications. Privately owned and founded in 1990, Neptec supplies operational systems to NASA's Space Shuttle and International Space Station programs as one of their prime contractors. In 2000, Neptec expanded its technology to include active 3D imaging systems and 3D processing software. This led to the development of the Laser Camera System, an operational system used by NASA to inspect a shuttle's external surfaces during flight. Neptec also used this system to develop the TriDAR, a 3D imaging and tracking system designed for automated on-orbit rendezvous, inspection, and docking. It combines the LCS with a long range LIDAR sensor into the same optical path. On July 18 2018, Neptec Design Group was purchased for $32 million (CAD) by a subsidiary of Maxar Technologies, MacDonald, Dettwiler and Associates. Laser Camera System The Laser Camera System (LCS) is a short-range, high-precision autosynchronous triangulation sensor. The camera uses a laser to measure the distance between itself and points on a target and is able to create a three-dimensional representation of the area it has scanned. First demonstrated on the Shuttle Discovery Mission STS-105