SBIR-STTR Award

We propose to develop a state of the art vehicle and personnel location and tracking system for operation in densely forested terrain without exposing ground troops to compromise. This goal will be accomplished with an array of miniature acoustic sensors dispersed from an unmanned aerial vehicle, which hang from the trees and use power generated from solar cell arrays embedded in the retarding parachutes to detect, classify, track and transmit this information to command centers. The objective is to develop criteria for design of a solar charging parachute, and secondarily to adapt SenTech's existing 40 mm diameter acoustic-seismic transducer to this application. This sensor is fired from a standard 40 mm grenade launcher on a ballistic trajectory of hundreds of yards, extends microphones on outrigger legs, and operates after hard impact with the ground. This sensor assembly consists of a 5 element microphone array, magnetic heading module, radio transmitter, and embedded processor employing algorithms that estimate the bearing and angular rate of moving targets as well as classifying the target type based on acoustic spectra or seismic signal characteristics. The sensor detects vehicles and personnel. Any area that must be monitored for foot and vehicle traffic benefits from use of this sensor. Possible applications include surveillance of airports and border surveillance.