Intelligent Terrestrial EMI Emitter Locator for AFSCN Ground Stations based on AI Techniques

ABSTRACT:The ultimate goals of this proposed effort are to automate terrestrial EMI emitter localization and identification (including accessing legacy databases and websites for frequency and flight information and plotting on Google Earth), realizing significant manpower savings; dramatically shorten EMI response time; provide improved situational awareness; recommend unautomatable investigative and mitigation steps; provide capabilities for the system to evolve without our involvement; and offer increased support for adversarial scenarios, both real and during training. The Phase I research goals are to understand terrestrial EMI emitter localization and identification processes; elicit required investigative and mitigation knowledge; understand the steps, data sources, and other resources used; investigate integration requirements; elaborate the heuristics, algorithms, and techniques for automating terrestrial EMI investigation; analyze them as to their feasibility in several dimensions; develop the Phase II system design; and further prove the feasibility of the techniques through prototype development and testing with real (prerecorded) ALPS data. This work follows naturally on our MIDAS and RAPTOR systems for 22 SOPS, the latter involving EMI detection, classification, and identifying space-based emitters. Our proposal includes ISS, developers of ALPS, and DF&NN, developers of ABNet, a component interfaced to ALPS that detects and classifies AFSCN RTS EMI.BENEFIT:The most direct target for the results of this effort is, of course, the AFSCN itself, specifically 22 SOPS. We are already in the process of operationally fielding MIDAS, so we already understand the various processes required to transition Phase II SBIR software to an operational, supported system, and transitioning this proposed system can piggyback on the MIDAS transition. Similarly, our subcontractor ISS has fielded ALPS at 22 SOPS; like MIDAS, ALPS was another system that transitioned from an SBIR. This proposed project can leverage this as well. Finally, our current RAPTOR project is similarly planned to follow on MIDASs and ALPSs transition paths. This proposed efforts techniques are applicable to tracking down EMI with respect to any RF system, including more conventional radio communications and radar systems. Thus it would be useful to commercial radio communications services providers and all the military Services to track down sources of EMI; moreover, it would prove useful in the Electronic Warfare (EW) domain for detecting, classifying, and localizing jamming sources.