Waveform Design and Processing for Next-Generation Radar Systems - Adaptivity, Agility, and Reliability

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Next-generation radar systems will operate in the face of fast-changing target scene parameters, demands for higher resolution and networked environments with limited resources. The goal of this project is to establish the theoretical foundations as well as the development procedures for novel extremely low-cost waveform design and processing frameworks that address the fundamental requirements of future radar systems - all in the pursuit of enhanced adaptivity, agility, and reliability. The project investigates radar waveform design and processing problems of interest through different theoretical lenses. At the same time, it translates the theoretical outcomes into more practical domains of vehicular technology and spectrum sharing. The project is thus expected to have a significant impact on the theory and practice of radar, and is of direct relevance to national and global needs. For instance, the project contributes to national defense and security efforts: in radar applications, the task of target detection/estimation relies on inference based on the collected data. The power of reliable probing waveform design and inference in a short period of time determines the level of confidence and agility we have in target determination, and as a result plays a key role in the ability of defense command or leadership to make confident and effective decisions. The project involves preparing students for engineering in the 21st century through the incorporation of practical design and problem-solving techniques into the education curriculum. Waveform design and processing for radar has a crucial role in fulfilling the promises of adaptivity, agility, and reliability: the radar performance is shown to be considerably improved by a judicious design of the probing signals and processing schemes. The arising design problems may deal with various measures of quality (including detection, estimation, and information-theoretic criteria), and moreover, the practical condition that the employed signals must belong to a limited signal set. Such diversity of design metrics and signal constraints lays the foundation for many interesting research works in waveform optimization. Additionally, waveform design and processing for next-generation radars is a topic of great interest due to the recent growing demands in increasing the number of antennas/sensors in various radar applications (thus requiring an increased agility in design and processing stages). In contrast, our current approaches are not fully adequate in handling design metrics and practical signal constraints in an agile and reliable manner. In light of such recent technological advances, the proposed work seeks to overcome the limitations of the traditional methods by studying and developing novel extremely low-cost waveform design and processing frameworks that address the emerging requirements of modern radar practice. The proposed research spans waveform design and processing problems: (i) with signal constraints that typically make the problems intractable, (ii) for robustness with a focus on system impairments and worst-case scenarios, as well as (iii) for co-existence which is deemed to be a key component in enhanced access to radio spectrum for both radar and communication users.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.