Radar Technology

In this book “Radar Technology”, the chapters are divided into four main topic areas: Topic area 1: “Radar Systems” consists of chapters which treat whole radar systems, environment and target functional chain. Topic area 2: “Radar Applications” shows various applications of radar systems, including meteorological radars, ground penetrating radars and glaciology. Topic area 3: “Radar Functional Chain and Signal Processing” describes several aspects of the radar signal processing. From parameter extraction, target detection over tracking and classification technologies. Topic area 4: “Radar Subsystems and Components” consists of design technology of radar subsystem components like antenna design or waveform design

Abstracts on Radio Direction Finding (1899 - 1995)

The files on this record represent the various databases that originally composed the CD-ROM issue of "Abstracts on Radio Direction Finding" database, which is now part of the Dudley Knox Library's Abstracts and Selected Full Text Documents on Radio Direction Finding (1899 - 1995) Collection. (See Calhoun record https://calhoun.nps.edu/handle/10945/57364 for further information on this collection and the bibliography). Due to issues of technological obsolescence preventing current and future audiences from accessing the bibliography, DKL exported and converted into the three files on this record the various databases contained in the CD-ROM. The contents of these files are: 1) RDFA_CompleteBibliography_xls.zip [RDFA_CompleteBibliography.xls: Metadata for the complete bibliography, in Excel 97-2003 Workbook format; RDFA_Glossary.xls: Glossary of terms, in Excel 97-2003 Workbookformat; RDFA_Biographies.xls: Biographies of leading figures, in Excel 97-2003 Workbook format]; 2) RDFA_CompleteBibliography_csv.zip [RDFA_CompleteBibliography.TXT: Metadata for the complete bibliography, in CSV format; RDFA_Glossary.TXT: Glossary of terms, in CSV format; RDFA_Biographies.TXT: Biographies of leading figures, in CSV format]; 3) RDFA_CompleteBibliography.pdf: A human readable display of the bibliographic data, as a means of double-checking any possible deviations due to conversion

Aeronautics and space report of the President, 1980 activities

The year's achievements in the areas of communication, Earth resources, environment, space sciences, transportation, and space energy are summarized and current and planned activities in these areas at the various departments and agencies of the Federal Government are summarized. Tables show U.S. and world spacecraft records, spacecraft launchings for 1980, and scientific payload anf probes launched 1975-1980. Budget data are included

Space Transportation System and associated payloads: Glossary, acronyms, and abbreviations

A collection of acronyms in everyday use concerning shuttle activities is presented. A glossary of terms pertaining to the Space Transportation System is included

The NASA SBIR product catalog

The purpose of this catalog is to assist small business firms in making the community aware of products emerging from their efforts in the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program. It contains descriptions of some products that have advanced into Phase 3 and others that are identified as prospective products. Both lists of products in this catalog are based on information supplied by NASA SBIR contractors in responding to an invitation to be represented in this document. Generally, all products suggested by the small firms were included in order to meet the goals of information exchange for SBIR results. Of the 444 SBIR contractors NASA queried, 137 provided information on 219 products. The catalog presents the product information in the technology areas listed in the table of contents. Within each area, the products are listed in alphabetical order by product name and are given identifying numbers. Also included is an alphabetical listing of the companies that have products described. This listing cross-references the product list and provides information on the business activity of each firm. In addition, there are three indexes: one a list of firms by states, one that lists the products according to NASA Centers that managed the SBIR projects, and one that lists the products by the relevant Technical Topics utilized in NASA's annual program solicitation under which each SBIR project was selected

Towards secure & robust PNT for automated systems

This dissertation makes four contributions in support of secure and robust position, navigation, and timing (PNT) for automated systems. The first two relate to PNT security while the latter two address robust positioning for automated ground vehicles. The first contribution is a fundamental theory for provably-secure clock synchronization between two agents in a distributed automated system. All one-way synchronization protocols, such as those based on the Global Positioning System (GPS) and other Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS), are shown to be vulnerable to man-in-the-middle delay attacks. This contribution is the first to identify the necessary and sufficient conditions for provably secure clock synchronization. The second contribution, also related to PNT security, is a three-year study of the world-wide GPS interference landscape based on data from a dual-frequency GNSS receiver operating continuously on the International Space Station (ISS). This work is the first publicly-reported space-based survey of GNSS interference, and unveils previously-unreported GNSS interference activity. The third contribution is a novel ground vehicle positioning technique that is robust to GNSS signal blockage, poor lighting conditions, and adverse weather events such as heavy rain and dense fog. The technique relies on sensors that are commonly available on automated vehicles and are insensitive to lighting and inclement weather: automotive radar, low-cost inertial measurement units (IMUs), and GNSS. Remarkably, it is shown that, given a prior radar map, the proposed technique operating on data from off-the-shelf all-weather automotive sensors can maintain sub-50-cm horizontal position accuracy during 60 min of GNSS-denied driving in downtown Austin, TX. This dissertation’s final contribution is an analysis and demonstration of the feasibility of crowd-sourced digital mapping for automated vehicles. Localization techniques, such as the one described in the previous contribution, rely on such digital maps for accuracy and robustness. A key enabler for large-scale up-to-date maps is enlisting the help of the very consumer vehicles that need the map to build and update it. A method for fusing multi-session vision data into a unified digital map is developed. The asymptotic limit of such a map’s globally-referenced position accuracy is explored for the case in which the mapping agents rely on low-cost GNSS receivers performing standard code-phase-based navigation. Experimental validation along a semi-urban route shows that low-cost consumer vehicles incrementally tighten the accuracy of the jointly-optimized digital map over time enough to support sub-lane-level positioning in a global frame of reference.Electrical and Computer Engineerin

Trajectory planning based on adaptive model predictive control: Study of the performance of an autonomous vehicle in critical highway scenarios

Increasing automation in automotive industry is an important contribution to overcome many of the major societal challenges. However, testing and validating a highly autonomous vehicle is one of the biggest obstacles to the deployment of such vehicles, since they rely on data-driven and real-time sensors, actuators, complex algorithms, machine learning systems, and powerful processors to execute software, and they must be proven to be reliable and safe. For this reason, the verification, validation and testing (VVT) of autonomous vehicles is gaining interest and attention among the scientific community and there has been a number of significant efforts in this field. VVT helps developers and testers to determine any hidden faults, increasing systems confidence in safety, security, functional analysis, and in the ability to integrate autonomous prototypes into existing road networks. Other stakeholders like higher-management, public authorities and the public are also crucial to complete the VTT process. As autonomous vehicles require hundreds of millions of kilometers of testing driven on public roads before vehicle certification, simulations are playing a key role as they allow the simulation tools to virtually test millions of real-life scenarios, increasing safety and reducing costs, time and the need for physical road tests. In this study, a literature review is conducted to classify approaches for the VVT and an existing simulation tool is used to implement an autonomous driving system. The system will be characterized from the point of view of its performance in some critical highway scenarios.O aumento da automação na indústria automotiva é uma importante contribuição para superar muitos dos principais desafios da sociedade. No entanto, testar e validar um veículo altamente autónomo é um dos maiores obstáculos para a implantação de tais veículos, uma vez que eles contam com sensores, atuadores, algoritmos complexos, sistemas de aprendizagem de máquina e processadores potentes para executar softwares em tempo real, e devem ser comprovadamente confiáveis e seguros. Por esta razão, a verificação, validação e teste (VVT) de veículos autónomos está a ganhar interesse e atenção entre a comunidade científica e tem havido uma série de esforços significativos neste campo. A VVT ajuda os desenvolvedores e testadores a determinar quaisquer falhas ocultas, aumentando a confiança dos sistemas na segurança, proteção, análise funcional e na capacidade de integrar protótipos autónomos em redes rodoviárias existentes. Outras partes interessadas, como a alta administração, autoridades públicas e o público também são cruciais para concluir o processo de VTT. Como os veículos autónomos exigem centenas de milhões de quilómetros de testes conduzidos em vias públicas antes da certificação do veículo, as simulações estão a desempenhar cada vez mais um papel fundamental, pois permitem que as ferramentas de simulação testem virtualmente milhões de cenários da vida real, aumentando a segurança e reduzindo custos, tempo e necessidade de testes físicos em estrada. Neste estudo, é realizada uma revisão da literatura para classificar abordagens para a VVT e uma ferramenta de simulação existente é usada para implementar um sistema de direção autónoma. O sistema é caracterizado do ponto de vista do seu desempenho em alguns cenários críticos de autoestrad

Small business innovation research. Abstracts of completed 1987 phase 1 projects

Non-proprietary summaries of Phase 1 Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) projects supported by NASA in the 1987 program year are given. Work in the areas of aeronautical propulsion, aerodynamics, acoustics, aircraft systems, materials and structures, teleoperators and robotics, computer sciences, information systems, spacecraft systems, spacecraft power supplies, spacecraft propulsion, bioastronautics, satellite communication, and space processing are covered

Measurement Based Channel Characterization and Modeling for Vehicle-to-Vehicle Communications

Vehicle-to-Vehicle (V2V) communication is a challenging but fast growing technology that has potential to enhance traffic safety and efficiency. It can also provide environmental benefits in terms of reduced fuel consumption. The effectiveness and reliability of these applications highly depends on the quality of the V2V communication link, which rely upon the properties of the propagation channel. Therefore, understanding the properties of the propagation channel becomes extremely important. This thesis aims to fill some gaps of knowledge in V2V channel research by addressing four different topics. The first topic is channel characterization of some important safety critical scenarios (papers I and II). Second, is the accuracy or validation study of existing channel models for these safety critical scenarios (papers III and IV). Third, is about channel modeling (paper V) and, the fourth topic is the impact of antenna placement on vehicles and the possible diversity gains. This thesis consists of an introduction and six papers: Paper I presents a double directional analysis of vehicular channels based on channel measurement data. Using SAGE, a high-resolution algorithm for parameter estimation, we estimate channel parameters to identify underlying propagation mechanisms. It is found that, single-bounce reflections from static objects are dominating propagation mechanisms in the absence of line-of-sight (LOS). Directional spread is observed to be high, which encourages the use of diversity-based methods. Paper II presents results for V2V channel characterization based on channel measurements conducted for merging lanes on highway, and four-way street intersection scenarios. It is found that the merging lane scenario has the worst propagation condition due to lack of scatterers. Signal reception is possible only with the present LOS component given that the antenna has a good gain in the direction of LOS. Thus designing an antenna that has an omni-directional gain, or using multiple antennas that radiate towards different directions become more important for such safety critical scenarios. Paper III presents the results of an accuracy study of a deterministic ray tracing channel model for vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) communication, that is compared against channel measurement data. It is found that the results from measurement and simulation show a good agreement especially in LOS situations where as in NLOS situations the simulations are accurate as far as existing physical phenomena of wave propagation are captured by the implemented algorithm. Paper IV presents the results of a validation study of a stochastic NLOS pathloss and fading model named VirtualSource11p for V2V communication in urban street intersections. The reference model is validated with the help of independent channel measurement data. It is found that the model is flexible and fits well to most of the measurements with a few exceptions, and we propose minor modifications to the model for increased accuracy. Paper V presents a shadow fading model targeting system simulations based on channel measurements. The model parameters are extracted from measurement data, which is separated into three categories; line-of-sight (LOS), LOS obstructed by vehicles (OLOS), and LOS blocked by buildings (NLOS), with the help of video information recorded during the measurements. It is found that vehicles obstructing the LOS induce an additional attenuation in the received signal power. The results from system level vehicular ad hoc network (VANET) simulations are also presented, showing that the LOS obstruction affects the packet reception probability and this can not be ignored. Paper VI investigates the impact of antenna placement based on channel measurements performed with four omni-directional antennas mounted on the roof, bumper, windscreen and left-side mirror of the transmitter and receiver cars. We use diversity combining methods to evaluate the performance differences for all possible single-input single-output (SIMO), multiple-input single-output (MISO) and multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) link combinations. This investigation suggests that a pair of antennas with complementary properties, e.g., a roof mounted antenna together with a bumper antenna is a good solution for obtaining the best reception performance, in most of the propagation environments. In summary, this thesis describes the channel behavior for safety-critical scenarios by statistical means and models it so that the system performance can be assessed in a realistic manner. In addition to that the influence of different antenna arrangements has also been studied to exploit the spatial diversity and to mitigate the shadowing effects. The presented work can thus enable more efficient design of future V2V communication systems