SBIR-STTR Award

Agile RF Systems in partnership with the University of Oklahoma (OU) propose to develop and test an impulse radar (IR) based on a new, low cost, commercially available chipset. This chipset was originally developed and is used in medical radar devices. The radar incorporates an Ultra-Wideband (UWB) array antenna with correlation-sampling electronic scanning in the time-domain, to achieve a scalable single target tracking (STT) radar sensor for the ocean environment. The UWB waveform is expected to provide multipath mitigation benefits commonly encountered in these environments. The IR meets size objectives for the payload of a customized unmanned surface vehicle (USV) platform being deployed, and has the capability of multi-static, distributed target detection and localization of targets. During Phase I, the team will use the facility at OU to perform requirement analysis, feasibility analysis, hardware/software component design, and lab prototyping. The benefits are (1) Spectrum efficiency and counter-interference capability, (2) Low-probability of intercept (LPI), covert and secure operation, (3) Low-cost and low Size, Weight and Power. The proposed effort benefits from ongoing research at OU where a fleet of custom developed USV's have demonstrated wide area networking and sensing in the Gulf of Mexico through the Distributed Autonomous Meteorological Station development.

Agile RF Systems in partnership with the University of Oklahoma (OU) propose to continue development of the new impulse radar (IR) in this Phase II project using an innovative radar chipset and a low-cost, active sector array antenna solution. During the Phase I project, we successfully demonstrated that the operation range extension and small target detections over water can be achieved using appropriate radar sampling control, RF front-end optimization, and a novel UWB array antenna design. We also demonstrated the feasibility of clutter mitigation and multi-sensor triangulation method through system simulations. The Phase II project will achieve TRL 6 for the scalable single target tracking (IR-STT) radar sensor by testing in a relevant open water environment. The benefits are (1) Spectrum efficiency and counter-interference capability, (2) Low-probability of intercept (LPI), covert and secure operation, (3) Low-cost and low Size, Weight and Power, and (4) Capability of rapid electronic antenna scanning. We will continue to use basic USV platforms at OU for experiments and will collaborate closely with Liquid Robotics as our key transfer partner during Phase II R&D, and work toward the goal of integrating the radar sensor to the USV system product and commercializing the novel radar sensor and target localization solution in military and civilian applications.