SBIR-STTR Award

The overall goal of the Sensors Directorate is to be the "Eyes and Ears of the Warfighter". The development of sensing technology has focused primarily on the extension of the sense of sight, e.g., the use of radar, infrared, E/O and laser technologies; while relatively little effort has been invested in the extension of the sense of hearing. But merely adding acoustic sensor systems to exploit sound would only add to the information overload problem, with possibly little value-added, no matter how good the fundamental sensor technology is. This proposed effort would allow the Air Force to incorporate information from advanced airborne acoustic sensors into its ISR and weapon systems without aggravating the data overload problem. The key to this effort is successful automated sound recognition technology under widely varying conditions. A combination of learning machine techniques and physics-based adaptive environmental acoustics will be used to solve this problem. Technology developed in the field of underwater acoustics for submarine detection, and recent developments in air-acoustics for enhanced situational awareness in urban operations, are highly leveraged in this effort

The current situation in Iraq is making it extremely clear that the urban environment is a chaotic and dangerous battle space. Currently available technology cannot provide the level of real-time situational awareness needed by each individual soldier. DARPA has determined that Sparse Conformal Acoustic Network (SCAN) technology, or soldier-worn acoustic-array “vests,” is a potential solution to this problem. The primary goal of this SBIR is to develop and transition a sparse conformal acoustic network system (SCAN) to the US Army, a capability that will provide a revolutionary improvement in hearing for more complete situational awareness in urban operations. Phase I showed that gains of 20-40 dB over the unaided ear are feasible. The goal of this Phase II is to develop a limited-capability prototype SCAN system and demonstrate its capabilities in typical urban environments, which will set the stage for final system development and transition of SCAN in Phase III. This prototype will include sensor-nodes with unique high-gain arrays and special purpose digital boards for real-time, broadband, sparse, conformal array beamforming; user-nodes for special human computer interfacing for enhanced hearing; and the networking of these nodes to exploit the synergy of multiple arrays and users.

Keywords:
Urban Warfare, Microphone Arrays, Broadband Arrays, Sparse Arrays, Conformal Arrays, Ultrasound, Air-Acoustics, Atr