Electrical and Electronics Commons^™

Detecting The Presence Of Electronic Devices In Smart Homes Using Harmonic Radar, Beatrice Perez, Gregory Mazzaro, Timothy J. Pierson, David Kotz

Dartmouth Scholarship

Data about users is collected constantly by phones, cameras, Internet websites, and others. The advent of so-called ‘Smart Things' now enable ever-more sensitive data to be collected inside that most private of spaces: the home. The first step in helping users regain control of their information (inside their home) is to alert them to the presence of potentially unwanted electronics. In this paper, we present a system that could help homeowners (or home dwellers) find electronic devices in their living space. Specifically, we demonstrate the use of harmonic radars (sometimes called nonlinear junction detectors), which have also been used in …

Design Of An Ultra-Wideband Frequency-Modulated Continuous Wave Short Range Radar System For Extending Independent Living, Toai-Chi Nguyen

Master's Theses

Falls in the disabled and elderly people have been a cause of concern as they can be immobilized by the fall and have no way to contact others and seek assistance. The proposed frequency modulated continuous wave (FMCW) short range radar (SRR) system, which uses ultra-wideband (UWB) signals can provide immediate assistance by monitoring and detecting fall events. The unique characteristics of this system allow for a frequency-based modulation system to carry out triangulation and sense the location of the fall through the usage of a continuous chirp signal that linearly sweeps frequency. This project focuses on the development, design …

Interferometry In Fmcw Radars, Assid Nait, Theodore Grosch

The Kennesaw Journal of Undergraduate Research

interferometry is used in many fields using all frequencies of the electromagnetic spectrum and sound waves. In this study, data was collected from an FMCW radar is used at multiple heights above a flat surface on which sat a single retroreflector. These data were post-processed to discover the signal obtained from the target and then the phase form the radar at multiple locations was compared. Using the known geometry and measured phase, we find the interferometry is possible using a freerunning radar under certain geometric conditions.

Coffee Can Radar System, Dale Coker

Honors Theses

A Radio Detection and Ranging (“radar”) system detects a target and accurately determines its range and velocity using radio frequency (RF) waves. In the presence of a target, these RF waves are reflected, received, and processed. Until recently, radar systems have been too expensive to implement as undergraduate research projects, primarily because of the cost of the associated RF components. Recently, MIT has developed a low-cost radar system as part of an open-source course. Therefore, one objective of this project is to design and construct a radar system based on the MIT design. A further objective is to develop a …

The Umass Experimental X-Band Radar (Umaxx): An Upgrade Of The Casa Ma-1 To Support Cross-Polarization Measurements, Jezabel Vilardell Sanchez

Masters Theses

Ground-based radars are instruments commonly used to surveil the precipitation climate of the surrounding areas. Weather events are characterized by collecting backscatter data and analyzing computed products such as the Reflectivity Factor, the Doppler Velocity, the Spectrum Width, the Differential Reflectivity, the Co-polar Correlation Coefficient and the Differential Propagation Phase. The ability of the radar to transmit different polarization waves, such as horizontal and vertical polarization, allow for further analysis of the weather given the capability to perform co-polar and cross-polar measurements. The Linear Depolarization Ratio is another computed product based on the difference in power between the co-polarized and …

Safe Pass, Alycia Riese, Julia Hariharan, Greg Synek, Jonathan Hall

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

The purpose of this project is to design a sensor to be mounted on Class IV and higher vehicles to detect on-coming traffic. If traffic has been detected, the system is to warn drivers behind the stopped vehicle that passing is unsafe. The vehicle detection is to be implemented using a LiDAR detection method along with signal processing. A wireless transceiver is to transmit from the front radar module to the rear warning indicator module when the conditions are unsafe for passing. The project goals are to increase road safety and maintain traffic flow. The report details the challenges due …

Software Defined Radar For Vital Sign Detection, Chandler J. Bauder, James Bates, Steven Engel, James S. Tucker, Fangzhou Liu

Chancellor’s Honors Program Projects

No abstract provided.

Kasi: A Ka-Band And S-Band Cross-Track Interferometer, Gerard Ruiz Carregal

Masters Theses

A dual-frequency system is needed to better understand natural processes that constitute the environment and seasonal cycles of the Earth. A system working at two different wavelengths acquiring data simultaneously will give a valuable dataset since the conditions on the ground will be exactly the same. Hence, elements such as wind, soil moisture or any other changes on the ground will not interfere in the mea- surements. This thesis explains how an S-band radar was built and tested. Moreover, the experiments done with a Ka-band radar used as a scatterometer are explained as well as the data processing and analysis. …

Topography Measurements Using An Airborne Ka-Band Fmcw Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar, Kan Fu

Doctoral Dissertations

Radar interferometry at millimeter-wave frequencies has the ability of topography measurement of different types of terrain, such as water surfaces and tree canopies. A Ka-band interferometric radar was mounted on an airborne platform, and flown over the Connecticut river region in western Massachusetts near Amherst on June 11, 2012. More than 20 Gigabytes of raw data was recorded. This dissertation outline presents the results of the data processing, which includes (1) the estimation and removal of the embedded high frequency phase error in the raw data; (2) the synthetic aperture processing; (3) the interferometric processing. The digital elevation model (DEM) …

Scaled Synthetic Aperture Rader Development, Jason Garvey Schray

Master's Theses

Several previous Cal Poly thesis projects involve synthetic aperture radar (SAR), automatic target recognition (ATR), and tracking. SAR data was either accessed from a publicly available database or generated using complex computer modeling software. The motivation for this dual thesis project is to design and construct a scaled SAR system to support Cal Poly radar projects. Ideally this is a low-cost, high resolution SAR architecture that produces raw range Doppler data for any desired target area. To that end, a scaled SAR system was successfully designed, built, and tested. The current SAR system, however, does not perform azimuthal compression and …

Scaled Synthetic Aperture Radar System Development, Ryan K. Green

Master's Theses

Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) systems generate two dimensional images of a target area using RF energy as opposed to light waves used by cameras. When cloud cover or other optical obstructions prevent camera imaging over a target area, SAR can be substituted to generate high resolution images. Linear frequency modulated signals are transmitted and received while a moving imaging platform traverses a target area to develop high resolution images through modern digital signal processing (DSP) techniques. The motivation for this joint thesis project is to design and construct a scaled SAR system to support Cal Poly radar projects. Objectives include …

Optimization Methods For Active And Passive Localization, Nil Garcia

Dissertations

Active and passive localization employing widely distributed sensors is a problem of interest in various fields. In active localization, such as in MIMO radar, transmitters emit signals that are reflected by the targets and collected by the receive sensors, whereas, in passive localization the sensors collect the signals emitted by the sources themselves. This dissertation studies optimization methods for high precision active and passive localization.

In the case of active localization, multiple transmit elements illuminate the targets from different directions. The signals emitted by the transmitters may differ in power and bandwidth. Such resources are often limited and distributed uniformly …

Novel Classification Of Slow Movement Objects In Urban Traffic Environments Using Wideband Pulse Doppler Radar, Berta Rodriguez Hervas

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Every year thousands of people are involved in traffic accidents, some of which are fatal. An important percentage of these fatalities are caused by human error, which could be prevented by increasing the awareness of drivers and the autonomy of vehicles. Since driver assistance systems have the potential to positively impact tens of millions of people, the purpose of this research is to study the micro-Doppler characteristics of vulnerable urban traffic components, i.e. pedestrians and bicyclists, based on information obtained from radar backscatter, and to develop a classification technique that allows automatic target recognition with a vehicle integrated system. For …

Ofdm Coupled Compressive Sensing Algorithm For Stepped Frequency Ground Penetrating Radar, Mohamed Metwally

Graduate College Dissertations and Theses

Dating back to as far as 1940, the US road and bridge infrastructure system has garnered quite the status for strategically connecting together half a continent. As monumental as the infrastructure's status, is its rate of deterioration, with the average bridge age coming at a disconcerting 50 years. Aside from visual inspection, a battery of non-destructive tests were developed to conduct structural fault assessment and detect laminations, in order to preemptively take preventive measures.

The mainstream commercially favored test is the impulse time domain ground penetrating radar (GPR). An extremely short, high voltage pulse is used to visualize cross-sections of …

Target Localization In Passive And Active Systems : Performance Bonds, Vlad Mihai Chiriac

Dissertations

The main goal of this dissertation is to improve the understanding and to develop ways to predict the performance of localization techniques as a function of signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) and of system parameters. To this end, lower bounds on the maximum likelihood estimator (MLE) performance are studied. The Cramer-Rao lower bound (CRLB) for coherent passive localization of a near-field source is derived. It is shown through the Cramer-Rao bound that, the coherent localization systems can provide high accuracies in localization, to the order of carrier frequency of the observed signal. High accuracies come to a price of having a highly …

Synchronous Communication System For Saw Sensors Interrogation, Maxim Troshin

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

During past two decades a variety of SAW based wireless sensors were invented and research is still in progress. As different frequencies, varied bandwidths, coding techniques and constantly changing post processing algorithms are being implemented, there is a constant need for a universal and adjustable synchronous communication system able to interrogate new generations of SAW sensors. This thesis presents the design of a multiple FPGA based communication system with an operational frequency range of 450MHz-2.2GHz capable of producing user programmed modulated signal. The synchronous receiver is designed to have interchangeable chip, replacement of which would allow adjustment of the receiver’s …

A Laser Radar Employing Linearly Chirped Pulses From A Mode-Locked Laser For Long Range, Unambiguous, Sub-Millimeter Resolution Ranging And Velocimetry, Mohammad Umar Piracha

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Light detection and ranging (lidar) is used for various applications such as remote sensing, altimetry and imaging. In this talk, a linearly chirped pulse source is introduced that generates wavelength-swept pulses exhibiting ~6 nm optical bandwidth with > 20 km coherence length. The chirped pulses are used in an interferometric lidar setup to perform distance measurements with sub-millimeter resolution (using pulses that are a few meters long), at target distances > 10 km, with at least 25 dB signal-to-noise ratio at the receiver. A pulse repetition rate of 20 MHz provides fast update rates, while chirped pulse amplification allows easy amplification of …

A Radar Interrogator For Wireless Passive Temperature Sensing, Jeffrey Charles Lambert

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In this thesis I explore radio detection and ranging (RADAR) and software defined radio (SDR) in the context of wireless passive sensor interrogation. A RADAR topology is selected based upon preliminary measurements using ordinary laboratory instrumentation and then used for construction of a prototype X-band wireless measurement system using commercial, off-theshelf (COTS) components. This research explores the feasibility of wireless passive sensor interrogation through practical application of SDR and RADAR techniques to the interrogation of a wireless passive resonator signal. This work serves as a foundation for further research on sensor interrogation through establishment of critical system parameters in the …

Design And Development Of A Ka-Band Interferometer For Cryospheric Applications, Harish K. Vedantham

Masters Theses 1911 - February 2014

Topographic maps of the earth are essential to geographic and earth science studies. In particular, mapping and estimating physical parameters of the earth’s water and ice cover are critical to global climate studies. Among these, snow, ocean and fresh water topography, snow wetness and water equivalent are of immediate interest to the scientific community.

Challenges in the instrument development and deployment posed by these required measurements are twofold. Firstly, these measurements are required to have global coverage, yet maintain stringent spatial resolution and accuracy margins. Secondly, snow topography measurement requires minimal electromagnetic wave penetration through snow, hence requiring the use …

Some Contributions On Mimo Radar, Nikolaus Lehmann

Dissertations

Motivated by recent advances in Multiple Input Multiple Output (MIMO) wireless communications, this dissertation aims at exploring the potential of MIMO approaches in the radar context. In communications, MIMO systems combat the fading effects of the multi-path channel with spatial diversity. Further, the scattering environment can be used by such systems to achieve spatial multiplexing. In radar, a complex target consisting of several scatterers takes the place of the multi-path channel of the communication problem. A target's radar cross section (RCS), which determines the amount of returned power, greatly varies with the considered aspect. Those variations significantly impair the detection …

Hurricane Wind Retrieval Algorithm Development For An Airborne Conical Scanning Scatterometer, Santhosh Vasudevan

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Reliable ocean wind vector measurements can be obtained using active microwave remote sensing (scatterometry) techniques. With the increase in the number of severe hurricanes making landfall in the United States, there is increased emphasis on operational monitoring of hurricane winds from aircraft. This thesis presents a data processing algorithm to provide real-time hurricane wind vector retrievals (wind speed and direction) from conically scanning airborne microwave scatterometer measurements of ocean surface backscatter. The algorithm is developed to best suit the specifications for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Hurricane Research Division's airborne scatterometer – Integrated Wind and Rain Airborne Profiler …

Comparison Of Adaptive Radar Algorithms : Transformed Smi, Eigencanceler, And Smi, Chaitanya H. Kathiari

Theses

Advanced airborne radars must perform target detection in the presence of interference and heavy clutter. In many applications, the practical usefulness of adaptive arrays is limited by their convergence rate. In this paper, we first analyze the performance of the SMI method. Then, two other methods, the transformed SMI and the eigencanceler, both based on the principle component inversion (PCI) technique, are described and analyzed by simulation. It is shown by simulation based comparison that the transformed SMI and the Eigencanceler outperform the SMI method. It is also shown that the transformed SMI and the eigencanceler has higher convergence rate …

Classification Of Ultra High Range Resolution Radar Using Decision Boundary Analysis, Christopher L. Eisenbies

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis examines the discrimination of targets with Ultra High Range Resolution (UHRR) radar data. Using these measured signals from frontal aspect angles of four aircraft classes, the baseline performance of the Adaptive Gaussian Classifier (AGC) is tested with respect to aligning exemplars to templates. Alignment plays a crucial role in the AGC's classification performance which can degrade by 11% for a target class. The AGC is compared to non-parametric classifiers, but no statistically significant degradation of performance is found. Data separability is analyzed by hounding the Bayes error. The data is well separated in a statistical sense. A feature …