SBIR Phase I: Digital Imaging Radar for Autonomy Infrastructure

小型企业创新研究(SBIR)第一阶段项目的广泛影响/商业潜力为下一代无线基础设施的统一安全感知和通信奠定了基础。为了确保可扩展的商用无人机使用和自动驾驶的安全，需要一个传感器基础设施来检测、跟踪和识别城市环境中快速移动的车辆。为国防应用而开发的现有商用雷达不能大规模部署新兴的民用作战环境。AURA的数字成像雷达解决了困扰现有雷达的问题，并为这一关键基础设施需求提供了解决方案。商业机会包括基础设施、安全和自动化，提供机场和工业场所周围的情景感知，以及用于无人驾驶交通管理和联网自动驾驶车辆的下一代无线基础设施。该技术有可能通过集成到车辆中来实现新的服务，以实现车辆安全和自动驾驶。这项小型企业创新研究(SBIR)第一阶段项目为新型数字成像雷达开发了一个实时系统设计和仿真平台。AURA已经开发了一种全数字成像雷达技术，用于自动驾驶车辆和无人驾驶交通管理的智能基础设施。与依赖调频连续波(FMCW)波形或相位调制(PM)的传统雷达不同，Aura利用标准的5G组件技术开发时频MIMO雷达技术。AURA的技术提供了具有低峰均功率比(PAPR)的灵活、安全的波形，解决了由于干扰、干扰和能源效率而带来的操作挑战。这种数字雷达商业化的关键挑战是宽带数据转换器和实时基带处理带来的系统复杂性。第一阶段项目的目标是完成低复杂度、实时的系统设计，并在现实的信道环境中验证所提出的技术的性能。将在第一阶段项目中完成的科学任务包括用于端到端仿真平台的实时实施的低复杂性系统设计架构以及用于性能表征的现实通道模型。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

The broader impact/commercial potential of this Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I project is a foundation for unified secure sensing and communication for next generation wireless infrastructure. To ensure the safety and security of scalable commercial drone usage and autonomous driving, a sensor infrastructure is needed to detect, track, and identify fast moving vehicles in urban environments. Existing commercial radars developed for defense applications do not scale for the massive deployment of emerging civilian operation environments. Aura’s digital imaging radar addresses problems that plague the existing radars and offers a solution for this critical infrastructure need. Commercial opportunities include infrastructure security and automation providing situational awareness around airports and industrial sites and next generation wireless infrastructure for unmanned traffic management and connected autonomous vehicles. The technology has the potential to enable new services by integration into vehicles for vehicle safety and autonomous driving.This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I project develops a real-time system design and simulation platform for novel digital imaging radar. Aura has developed an all digital imaging radar technology for smart infrastructure for autonomous vehicles and unmanned traffic management. Unlike conventional radars relying on Frequency Modulated Continuous Wave (FMCW) waveform or phase modulation (PM), Aura develops time- frequency MIMO radar technology leveraging standard 5G component technology. Aura’s technology provides agile and secure waveform with low peak-to-average power ratio (PAPR), addressing the operational challenges due to interference, jamming, and energy efficiency. Key challenges for commercialization of this digital radar are system complexity due to wideband data converters and real-time baseband processing. The goals of Phase I project are to complete low-complexity, real-time system design and to validate the performance of the proposed technology in realistic channel environments. Scientific tasks that will be completed in Phase I project include a low complexity system design architecture for real-time implementation of the end-to-end simulation platform with a realistic channel model for performance characterization.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.