CAREER: Exploring Dynamic Antenna Arrays for New Radar Sensing Modalities

微波无线系统的不断改进对于维持雷达、遥感和通信等许多应用的新发展以及更广泛的科学和社会进步至关重要。然而，改进射频和微波无线功能的能力受到当前以平台为中心的模型的限制，必须通过开发新的单个系统来实现能力改进。这种改进通常必须在不增加系统尺寸、重量和功率的情况下实现，因为增加发射能量、信号增益或空间分集将导致更大的尺寸、孔径或功率，如果不能同时增加这三者的话。本研究旨在通过研究动态分布式天线阵列中的新技术来打破以平台为中心的范式，其中分布式天线阵列中的单个元素使用时间和空间动态来显着增强系统功能。这种动态阵列将改进雷达系统，提高卫星对地球和大气的感知能力，改善军用雷达的目标识别能力，并提高自动驾驶车辆的安全性。此外，本项目将实施一项教育计划，教授天线阵理论的新视角和新的天线阵设计概念。该推广计划将在大学和中学阶段对代表性不足的工程学生群体进行教育，以帮助扩大密歇根州中部的STEM教育。本研究的目的是探索利用分布式天线阵列的时空动态，为雷达和遥感创造新的模式。特别是，本研究将通过探索在物理天线阵列动力学与波形动力学方面制定阵列概念的理论方法来推进知识，并将研究利用动态天线阵列的新传感模式。PI小组和其他小组最近的发展导致无人机和自动驾驶汽车等移动平台上传感器之间的连接急剧增加。这种连接性和移动性为真正的分布式传感能力奠定了基础，其中可以以创新的方式利用阵列元素的控制和运动的新维度。本研究将探讨如何制定、分析、实施和利用这种分布式阵列中的时空动态来创建新的遥感模式。具体而言，本项目的目标如下：1)获得在空间和频率上都是动态的天线阵列中的时空调制的系统理论。这将为一种新的天线阵列理论奠定基础，该理论结合了空间频域天线分析和时空动力学，从而开辟了通过阵列元素的动态运动实现控制的新维度。2)探索动态天线阵列为新型雷达和遥感测量提供的能力。这将导致雷达测量角度分辨率的数量级改进，并将使新的雷达测量成为可能。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Continual improvement of microwave wireless systems is critical to sustaining new developments in many applications like radar, remote sensing and communications, as well as advancements in broader science and society. However, the ability to improve radio frequency and microwave wireless functionality is inhibited by the platform-centric model in place today, where capability improvements must be achieved by developing new individual systems. Such improvements must often occur without increasing the size, weight, and power of the system, since increasing transmit energy, signal gain, or spatial diversity will result in larger size, aperture, or power, if not all three. This research seeks to break the platform-centric paradigm by investigating new techniques in dynamic distributed antenna arrays, where individual elements in a distributed antenna array use dynamics in time and space to significantly enhance the system functionality. Such dynamic arrays will lead to improvements of radar systems, enabling greater capabilities for sensing the earth and its atmosphere from satellites, improving target discrimination in military radar, and enabling greater safety on autonomous vehicles. In addition, the project will implement an educational plan for teaching new perspectives of antenna array theory and new antenna array design concepts. The outreach plan will educate under-represented student groups in engineering, both at the college and secondary levels, to help expand STEM education in central Michigan.The goal of this research is to explore the use of spatial and temporal dynamics of distributed antenna arrays to create new modalities for radar and remote sensing. In particular, this research will advance knowledge by exploring theoretical methods of formulating array concepts in terms of a physical antenna array dynamics with waveform dynamics, and will investigate new sensing modalities leveraging dynamic antenna arrays. Recent developments by the PI's group and others have led to dramatically increased connectivity between sensors on mobile platforms such as UAVs and autonomous vehicles. Such connectivity and mobility set the stage for truly distributed sensing capabilities, where a new dimension of control and motion of the array elements can be exploited in innovative ways. This research will explore how spatio-temporal dynamics in such distributed arrays can be formulated, analyzed, implemented, and utilized to create new remote sensing modalities. Specifically, the project has the following objectives: 1) Obtain a systematic theory of spatio-temporal modulation in antenna arrays whose elements are dynamic in space and frequency. This will develop the foundations of a new antenna array theory that incorporates spatial frequency domain antenna analysis and spatio-temporal dynamics to open a new dimension of control enabled by dynamic movement of the array elements. 2) Explore the capabilities enabled by dynamic antenna arrays for new radar and remote sensing measurements. This will lead to orders-of-magnitude improvements in the angular resolution of radar measurements, and will enable the creation of new radar measurements.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.