UAV-Hosted UltraShort Pulse Ground Penetrating Radar

A ground penetrating radar (GPR) with advanced processing techniques is proposed for unmanned aerial vehicle mounting. The radar will have two modes of functioning: (A) detection mode, and (B) imaging mode. Precise position accuracy is required for a gridwork of multiple probings and GPS P-Code can provide sub-meter location accuracy. The system design will take advantage of recent developments in antennas, receivers and parallel processors. The receivers planned are bulk acousto-optic devices and two-dimensional CCD arrays which enable autocorrelation of the received signals preserving the waveshape of the same. Whereas previous approaches have been affected by clutter, the proposed design will be based on a BSEI patent for signal crafting and optimization of impulse radar (issuing 1995), which is a design for obviating clutter. A key feature of this clutter obviating approach is that the pulse is matched to the target or class of targets. Object recognition is achieved by wavelet processing of the return and pattern matching. Three methods will be explored for increasing range. During Phase I a prototype test GPR configuration will be designed and laboratory tests of the energy crafting approach conducted. In Phase II a prototype will be designed, fabricated and tested.