The US Navy requires deployment of a 360 degree field-of-view system for unmanned surface vehicles (USV) that provides situational awareness under unfavorable operating conditions. Proposed herein is a Dual Mode Perception System (DMPS) that: (1) Is compliant with Navigation Rule 5, (2) Provides situational awareness to an operator at a remote location and to an on-board automated command and control system, (3) Provides high resolution three dimensional object detection in the water surface, utilizing a dual mode sensor, thus ensuring excellent range resolution and cross range resolution, (4) Provides 360 degree coverage in horizontal plane and approximately 22.5 degrees coverage in the elevation plane, (5) Detects objects such as buoys, vessels, navigation markers and debris in the water. (6) Covers nine meters to two nautical miles, (7) Detects navigation lights, colors, and shapes on other vessels, and (8) Operates under all weather and environmental conditions including ability to tolerate motion under sea state 3 conditions, sea spray, direct sunlight and green water impacts. The Epsilon Lambda Electronics DMPS for USV situational awareness will consist of unique, all weather, dual mode sensor hardware, plus imaging and tracking and homing software algorithms to provide input to the USV navigation control system.
Benefit: During Phase I task work, determination will be made for the ability of the proposed dual mode sensor concept to move forward for littoral waters screening application during Phase II. Phase II development will include high resolution, lightweight millimeter wave radar, an EO/IR sensor plus fused signal processing as part of the system for unmanned surface vessels. An initial avenue to commercialization is for the defense application intended by the US Navy in this solicitation for littoral waters sweep for unmanned vessels. In the commercial/industrial markets are similar applications involving obstacle detection in littoral waters. Manned watercraft operating in littoral waters often have search radar to scan other vessels, navigation aids or debris in the water. Users include commercial fishing and cargo vessels, private pleasure and cruising boats. The dual mode sensor has excellent commercialization potential because of the very large number of vessels that operate in US waters, coastal and inland. Update rate of the DMPS will be much faster than the classic mechanically scanned marine radar. Applications in DOD, DHS and commercial markets for the dual mode sensor that provides obstacle detection and situational awareness in a cost effective manner also exist for security applications, robotics, and automotive safety.
Keywords: Dual Mode Sensor, Dual Mode Sensor, Situational Awareness, USV, Navigation
