Millimeter Wave Imaging Radar (MIR) for Identification of Human in Degraded Visual Environments

Army mobility can be significantly affected in Degraded Visual Environments (DVE). In desert terrain, clouds of sand and dust can obscure visibility behind a lead vehicle in a convoy, resulting in a higher risk of vehicular collisions with potential consequences of personnel injuries and loss of transported material. DVE can hide the approach of enemy combatants. Trex Enterprises Corporation proposes to develop a Millimeter Wave Imaging Radar (MIR) capable of seeing a human at 30m in DVE with recognizable multiple pixels image. The proposeDegraded Visual Environments, Millimeter Wave Imaging, Automotive Radar, Machine Learning, Artificial Intelligenced MIR is based on the proven architecture that Trex developed for its FOD Finder products already deployed in commercial and military airfields to detect runway debris at distance. Like the FOD Finder radar, MIR will be constructed with all COTS components, including MMW 76-81GHz radar transceiver chips developed by Texas Instruments Inc., and implemented in a flat panel PCB configuration to provide robustness, compactness, and reduced SWaP-C (12ö x 12ö x 4ö, 15 lbs, 100 watts, and $5K/unit in quantity production). A single radar unit will cover 120 degrees in azimuth (AZ) and 6.5 degrees in elevation (EL) field of view using digital beam forming by a multiple element MIMO (Multiple-Input and Multiple-Output) and large aperture frequency scanned linear patch array antennas. The system will detect moving and static human targets with recognizable multi-pixel images at 30 fps by advanced digital processing. Two radar units can be configured for either coherently combining MMW signals to increase the system AZ resolution to about 13 cm per pixel or expand its EL FOV by tilting units. Under the proposed Phase-I Base Effort, we will develop MIR system conceptual design to incorporate modification for short range imaging and the end-to-end simulation of the proposed MIR system. In the Option Effort, we will complete the design of MIR prototype that will be confirmed by the demonstration of human body detection in DVEs with Trex FOD Finder radar. Finally, for the Phase II effort, MIR prototype will be built and used for field demonstration of real time detecting a human in DVEs. In addition, Trex will engage KungFu.AI team, who in the past few years worked closely with Trex on Artificial Intelligence (AI) aided FOD detection, to implement AI processing to improve imagery, interpret detections, and supply alarms. Ā Ā