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

下一代雷达系统将在快速变化的目标场景参数、对更高分辨率的需求以及资源有限的网络环境下运行。该项目的目标是建立新型极低成本波形设计和处理框架的理论基础和开发程序，以满足未来雷达系统的基本要求--所有这些都是为了提高适应性、敏捷性和可靠性。该项目通过不同的理论透镜研究感兴趣的雷达波形设计和处理问题。同时，将理论成果转化为更实用的车辆技术和频谱共享领域。因此，该项目预计将对雷达的理论和实践产生重大影响，并与国家和全球需求直接相关。例如，该项目有助于国防和安全工作：在雷达应用中，目标检测/估计任务依赖于基于收集的数据的推理。短时间内可靠的探测波形设计和推理能力决定了我们在目标确定方面的信心和敏捷性，从而对防御指挥或领导做出自信有效决策的能力起着关键作用。该项目通过将实用的设计和解决问题的技术纳入教育课程，为学生在21世纪的工程做好准备。雷达的波形设计和处理在实现适应性、灵活性和可靠性方面起着至关重要的作用：通过合理地设计探测信号和处理方案，雷达的性能得到了显著改善。出现的设计问题可能涉及各种质量度量(包括检测、估计和信息论标准)，而且还涉及所使用的信号必须属于有限信号集的实际条件。这种设计指标和信号约束的多样性为波形优化方面的许多有趣的研究工作奠定了基础。此外，下一代雷达的波形设计和处理是一个非常感兴趣的话题，因为最近在各种雷达应用中对增加天线/传感器的数量的需求不断增长(因此需要在设计和处理阶段增加灵活性)。相比之下，我们目前的方法在以敏捷和可靠的方式处理设计指标和实际信号约束方面并不完全足够。鉴于最近的技术进步，拟议的工作试图通过研究和开发满足现代雷达实践新的要求的极低成本的新型波形设计和处理框架来克服传统方法的局限性。拟议的研究涉及波形设计和处理问题：(I)信号约束通常使问题变得难以解决，(Ii)健壮性，重点关注系统损伤和最坏情况，以及(Iii)共存，这被认为是增强雷达和通信用户获得无线电频谱的关键组成部分。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。

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.