SBIR-STTR Award

There is current Air Force need to research, develop and implement direction-finding algorithms that are capable of precise localization of sources with unknown bandwidth, polarization and center frequencies. Variety of broadband sources having different polarizations, bandwidths, SNR-levels and coherence properties appear in many current and future COMINT applications, including ESM. Most published research on wideband DOA estimation routinely assumes single polarization and equal bandwidths with common center frequencies. However, in field scenarios, polarization effects cause errors in the receive process in systems designed under the single polarization assumption, and the frequency/BW parameters may also be unknown in practice. In this proposal, Gitam Technologies in collaboration with WGS Systems propose develop and implement the promising algorithms and verify performance with simulation. The Phase-I objective is to prepare a definitive trade-off study of the capabilities and limitations of the algorithms that will help us pinpoint the best algorithmic choices. Additionally, the necessary hardware architecture to supports the requirements of platform and signal bandwidth scalability has to be specified. To effectively address these requirements, hardware solutions that leverage high-performance, general purpose computing for adaptive and decision based processing, along with hardware acceleration of fundamental elements of the processing in FPGAs will be examined.

Benefit:
The successful completion of this research will result in the development of a robust source localization algorithms and associated architecture capable of being integrated on an operational airborne platform. This capability will be of great interest to current and future military systems that require highly accurate source localization capabilities especially in remote unreachable regions. We expect there are two approaches to commercializing the development of this technology. First, there is the direct military application of source localization algorithms and architectures suitable for the Air Force and the other services. We plan to first develop the technology to maturity under Phase I and Phase II SBIR efforts. Once this has been done, we plan to market the technology to military programs, emergency service providers, and large systems integrators who build systems that require a rapid wideband source localization capability. The marketing presentation will make use of the algorithms and performance trade-off analysis conducted under these SBIR efforts. A part of this strategy is to have the matured capability inserted in a simulation exercise, such as those performed at Joint Forces Command, so that the potential of the proposed study can be demonstrated to many of the decision-makers that witness these exercises. The second approach to commercializing this technology is to apply it to other applications in the military world or in the civilian marketplace. Potential civilian applications include localization of mobile CDMA devices for Emergency-911, smart antennas or other applications, drug enforcement, and border patrol where wideband sources need to be tracked using passive means. Military applications include surveillance and estimation of wideband emitter characteristics that is becoming increasingly important due to the proliferation of spread spectrum devices and Low Probability of Intercept (LPI) radars. WGS is a developer of DF and other collection technologies and products. Techniques and algorithms developed under this effort will be used to support future product development of wideband and advanced DF and geolocation systems. This will include subsystems that support both small scale Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) systems up to larger manned platforms. Additional, the techniques developed under this phase I effort will also support manpack and mobile-based platforms, such as HMMMV’s.

Keywords:
Wideband Sources, Polarized Antennas, Polarization Diversity, Music Method, Doa Estimation, Aoa Estimation, Direction Estimation, Angles Of Arrival