Expert System for Advanced Digital-RF Receiver

HYPRES proposes to develop an expert system to automate operation of its advanced digital-RF receivers (ADRs). In Phase I, we established the feasibility of automating ADRs by developing the necessary algorithms for two broad classes of superconductor chips that represent all seven ADRs delivered to date: ADCs with digital decimation filters (DDFs) and ADCs with deserializers. During Phase I, we also developed an expert system architecture, involving additional hardware components and software. Building on this work, the goal in Phase II is to build and integrate the expert system components, install on an ADR unit, first at HYPRES and then in a Government laboratory selected by ONR, and demonstrate that it can operate without human interaction. Functions, such as initial cool-down, periodic calibration, detection of malfunction and basic troubleshooting, will be automated. In Phase III, a set of such units will undergo operational testing in the field.