SBIR-STTR Award

This proposed effort: Multi-pole Sub-Array Beam Forming (MP/SA).

Benefits:
Fratricide is a very serious problem on a battlefield. Acoustic sensors can be used to identify friend from foe if wind and vehicle generated noise can be suppressed, reduced and/or processed out. The AVNSS is not limited to military ground vehicles. On air platforms wind noise will be the dominant problem and the multi-transducer sub-array beamformer will provide significant noise reduction. The system can also be used in security applications where the surrounding man-made noise dominates such as power generation equipment, and/or air conditioning units.

Keywords:
Acoustic Acoustic Adaptive Adaptive Beamforming Beamforming Canceling Canceling Fratricide Fratricide FFT FFT Multi-pole Multi-pole Noise Noise

Noise is a critical factor in the detection range of an acoustic sensor. Noise is generated by internal and external sources. Internal noise is generated by the electronic components of the sensor and is insignificant in comparison to background noise entering the sensor generated by external sources. External background noise is generated by a whole host of environmental conditions to include man-made battlefield noises, noise generated by the vehicle on which the acoustic sensors are mounted, and wind (wind blowing across the transducer and wind causing leaves to rustle, etc.). This proposal addresses the problem of using acoustic sensors mounted on moving tactical vehicles to detect, track and classify hostile targets in the presence of high levels of natural and man-made noise that exist on the battlefield. A brassboard Vehicle Mounted Passive Target Detection System (VMPTDS) will be designed, fabricated and demonstrated, that will incorporate the latest concepts for the suppression and/or canceling of noise and the detection and classification of tactical targets.