12 research outputs found
Track-Initiated Beam Spoiling for Improved Tracking with Digital Phased-Array Radars
Radar systems have become highly dynamic with the advancements in all-digital radar architectures. All-digital radar architectures introduce the potential for dynamic beamforming. This thesis will detail the fundamentals that are the foundation of radar signal processing (RSP) and modeling a digital phased array radar. This thesis will detail the techniques used for digital beamspoiling. The intentional beamspoiling is intended to improve the trackers’ ability to track a target continuously. When a high-speed target falls out of a beam due to a maneuver, the radar will spoil the transmit beam illuminating a wider scene. The wider illuminated scene allows for a higher likelihood of accurately detecting the target, allowing the tracker to track the target continuously. This thesis will discuss the theory and application of the trackers used in the simulation. With the beamspoiling and trackers, this thesis will analyze the ability of an all-digital phased array to track a target utilizing dynamic beamforming to improve the tracking performance. Finally, it will detail the improvement of the trackers’ ability to track when utilizing beamspoiling for specific situations, allowing the radar to track targets for a more extended time. The results varied based on the amount a transmit beam was spoiled due to the loss in SNR that naturally occurs from the decrease in power density
Maritime Moving Target Detection, Tracking and Geocoding Using Range-Compressed Airborne Radar Data
Eine regelmäßige und großflächige überwachung des Schiffsverkehrs gewinnt zunehmend an Bedeutung, vor allem auch um maritime Gefahrenlagen und illegale Aktivitäten rechtzeitig zu erkennen. Heutzutage werden dafür überwiegend das automatische Identifikationssystem (AIS) und stationäre Radarstationen an den Küsten eingesetzt. Luft- und weltraumgestützte Radarsensoren, die unabhängig vom Wetter und Tageslicht Daten liefern, können die vorgenannten Systeme sehr gut ergänzen. So können sie beispielsweise Schiffe detektieren, die nicht mit AIS-Transpondern ausgestattet sind oder die sich außerhalb der Reichweite der stationären AIS- und Radarstationen befinden. Luftgestützte Radarsensoren ermöglichen eine quasi-kontinuierliche Beobachtung von räumlich begrenzten Gebieten. Im Gegensatz dazu bieten weltraumgestützte Radare eine große räumliche Abdeckung, haben aber den Nachteil einer geringeren temporalen Abdeckung.
In dieser Dissertation wird ein umfassendes Konzept für die Verarbeitung von Radardaten für die Schiffsverkehr-überwachung mit luftgestützten Radarsensoren vorgestellt. Die Hauptkomponenten dieses Konzepts sind die Detektion, das Tracking, die Geokodierung, die Bildgebung und die Fusion mit AIS-Daten. Im Rahmen der Dissertation wurden neuartige Algorithmen für die ersten drei Komponenten entwickelt. Die Algorithmen sind so aufgebaut, dass sie sich prinzipiell für zukünftige Echtzeitanwendungen eignen, die eine Verarbeitung an Bord der Radarplattform erfordern. Darüber hinaus eignen sich die Algorithmen auch für beliebige, nicht-lineare Flugpfade der Radarplattform. Sie sind auch robust gegenüber Lagewinkeländerungen, die während der Datenerfassung aufgrund von Luftturbulenzen jederzeit auftreten können.
Die für die Untersuchungen verwendeten Daten sind ausschließlich entfernungskomprimierte Radardaten. Da das Signal-Rausch-Verhältnis von Flugzeugradar-Daten im Allgemeinen sehr hoch ist, benötigen die neuentwickelten Algorithmen keine vollständig fokussierten Radarbilder. Dies reduziert die Gesamtverarbeitungszeit erheblich und ebnet den Weg für zukünftige Echtzeitanwendungen.
Der entwickelte neuartige Schiffsdetektor arbeitet direkt im Entfernungs-Doppler-Bereich mit sehr kurzen kohärenten Verarbeitungsintervallen (CPIs) der entfernungskomprimierten Radardaten. Aufgrund der sehr kurzen CPIs werden die detektierten Ziele im Dopplerbereich fokussiert abgebildet. Wenn sich die Schiffe zusätzlich mit einer bestimmten Radialgeschwindigkeit bewegen, werden ihre Signale aus dem Clutter-Bereich hinausgeschoben. Dies erhöht das Verhältnis von Signal- zu Clutter-Energie und verbessert somit die Detektierbarkeit. Die Genauigkeit der Detektion hängt stark von der Qualität der von der Meeresoberfläche rückgestreuten Radardaten ab, die für die Schätzung der Clutter-Statistik verwendet werden. Diese wird benötigt, um einen Detektions-Schwellenwert für eine konstante Fehlalarmrate (CFAR) abzuleiten und die Anzahl der Fehlalarme niedrig zu halten. Daher umfasst der vorgeschlagene Detektor auch eine neuartige Methode zur automatischen Extraktion von Trainingsdaten für die Statistikschätzung sowie geeignete Ozean-Clutter-Modelle.
Da es sich bei Schiffen um ausgedehnte Ziele handelt, die in hochauflösenden Radardaten mehr als eine Auflösungszelle belegen, werden nach der Detektion mehrere von einem Ziel stammende Pixel zu einem physischen Objekten zusammengefasst, das dann in aufeinanderfolgenden CPIs mit Hilfe eines Bewegungsmodells und eines neuen Mehrzielverfolgungs-Algorithmus (Multi-Target Tracking) getrackt wird. Während des Trackings werden falsche Zielspuren und Geisterzielspuren automatisch erkannt und durch ein leistungsfähiges datenbankbasiertes Track-Management-System terminiert.
Die Zielspuren im Entfernungs-Doppler-Bereich werden geokodiert bzw. auf den Boden projiziert, nachdem die Einfallswinkel (DOA) aller Track-Punkte geschätzt wurden. Es werden verschiedene Methoden zur Schätzung der DOA-Winkel für ausgedehnte Ziele vorgeschlagen und anhand von echten Radardaten, die Signale von echten Schiffen beinhalten, bewertet
Autonomous agents for multi-function radar resource management
The multifunction radar, aided by advances in electronically steered phased array technology, is capable
of supporting numerous, differing and potentially conflicting tasks. However, the full potential of the
radar system is only realised through its ability to automatically manage and configure the finite resource
it has available. This thesis details the novel application of agent systems to this multifunction radar
resource management problem. Agent systems are computational societies where the synergy of local
interactions between agents produces emergent, global desirable behaviour.
In this thesis the measures and models which can be used to allocate radar resource is explored; this
choice of objective function is crucial as it determines which attribute is allocated resource and consequently
constitutes a description of the problem to be solved. A variety of task specific and information
theoretic measures are derived and compared. It is shown that by utilising as wide a variety of measures
and models as possible the radar’s multifunction capability is enhanced.
An agent based radar resource manager is developed using the JADE Framework which is used
to apply the sequential first price auction and continuous double auctions to the multifunction radar
resource management problem. The application of the sequential first price auction leads to the development
of the Sequential First Price Auction Resource Management algorithm from which numerous
novel conclusions on radar resource management algorithm design are drawn. The application of the
continuous double auction leads to the development of the Continuous Double Auction Parameter Selection
(CDAPS) algorithm. The CDAPS algorithm improves the current state of the art by producing
an improved allocation with low computational burden. The algorithm is shown to give worthwhile
improvements in task performance over a conventional rule based approach for the tracking and surveillance
functions as well as exhibiting graceful degradation and adaptation to a dynamic environment
Proceedings of the Second International Mobile Satellite Conference (IMSC 1990)
Presented here are the proceedings of the Second International Mobile Satellite Conference (IMSC), held June 17-20, 1990 in Ottawa, Canada. Topics covered include future mobile satellite communications concepts, aeronautical applications, modulation and coding, propagation and experimental systems, mobile terminal equipment, network architecture and control, regulatory and policy considerations, vehicle antennas, and speech compression
Mitigation of nonlinear receiver effects in modern radar: advanced signal processing techniques
This thesis presents a study into nonlinearities in the radar receiver and investigates
advanced digital signal processing (DSP) techniques capable of mitigating the resultant
deleterious effects. The need for these mitigation techniques has become more prevalent
as the use of commercial radar sensors has increased rapidly over the last decade. While
advancements in low-cost radio frequency (RF) technologies have made mass-produced
radar systems more feasible, they also pose a significant risk to the functionality of the
sensor. One of the major compromises when employing low-cost commercial off-theshelf
(COTS) components in the radar receiver is system linearity. This linearity trade-off
leaves the radar susceptible to interfering signals as the RF receiver can now be driven
into the weakly nonlinear regime. Radars are not designed to operate in the nonlinear
regime as distortion is observed in the radar output if they do. If radars are to maintain
operational performance in an RF environment that is becoming increasingly crowded,
novel techniques that allow the sensor to operate in the nonlinear regime must be developed.
Advanced DSP techniques offer a low-cost low-impact solution to the nonlinear
receiver problem in modern radar. While there is very little work published on this topic
in the radar literature, inspiration can be taken from the related field of communications
where techniques have been successfully employed.
It is clear from the communications literature that for any mitigation algorithm to be
successful, the mechanisms driving the nonlinear distortion in the receiver must be understood
in great detail. Therefore, a behavioural modelling technique capable of capturing
both the nonlinear amplitude and phase effects in the radar receiver is presented before
any mitigation techniques are studied. Two distinct groups of mitigation algorithms
are then developed specifically for radar systems with their performance tested in the
medium pulse repetition frequency (MPRF) mode of operation. The first of these is the
look-up table (LUT) approach which has the benefit of being mode independent and computationally
inexpensive to implement. The limitations of this communications-based
technique are discussed with particular emphasis placed on its performance against receiver
nonlinearities that exhibit complex nonlinear memory effects. The second group
of mitigation algorithms to be developed is the forward modelling technique. While this
novel technique is both mode dependent and computationally intensive to implement,
it has a unique formalisation that allows it to be extended to include nonlinear memory
effects in a well-defined manner. The performance of this forward modelling technique
is analysed and discussed in detail.
It was shown in this study that nonlinearities generated in the radar receiver can be
successfully mitigated using advanced DSP techniques. For this to be the case however,
the behaviour of the RF receiver must be characterised to a high degree of accuracy both
in the linear and weakly nonlinear regimes. In the case where nonlinear memory effects
are significant in the radar receiver, it was shown that memoryless mitigation techniques
can become decorrelated drastically reducing their effectiveness. Importantly however, it
was demonstrated that the LUT and forward modelling techniques can both be extended
to compensate for complex nonlinear memory effects generated in the RF receiver. It was
also found that the forward modelling technique dealt with the nonlinear memory effects
in a far more robust manner than the LUT approach leading to a superior mitigation
performance in the memory rich case
Aeronautical engineering: A cumulative index to a continuing bibliography
This bibliography is a cumulative index to the abstracts contained in NASA SP-7037 (197) through NASA SP-7037 (208) of Aeronautical Engineering: A Continuing Bibliography. NASA SP-7037 and its supplements have been compiled through the cooperative efforts of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). This cumulative index includes subject, personal author, corporate source, foreign technology, contract, report number, and accession number indexes