February 2012 You will hear about ultra wide band technology that can image objects buried underground and can "see" through walls.

1. This work was performed under the auspices of the
U.S. Department of Energy by Lawrence Livermore
National Laboratory under contract DE-AC52-
07NA27344.
Lawrence Livermore National Security, LLC
Christine Paulson
UWB Systems Engineer

2.  Search and Rescue
• Find victims trapped in collapsed structures
 Construction
• Detect electrical wires, pipes, and concealed
structures in walls, concrete and soil
 SWAT team
• Detect people and motion behind closed
doors, and determine who is armed and who is
a hostage
 Military
• Detect buried mines and hidden threats
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory LLNL-PRES-528611
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© DC Comics

3.  UWB signal characteristics enable
penetration of most walls, concrete, and soil
 Detection of motion or
distinct objects as small as a few
centimeters in size
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4.  Precise range resolution (~cm)
 Material penetration
 Low-power
 Small form factor
 Low-circuit complexity compared
to other radar technologies
 Safe for use with humans and
other electronic systems
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 Cannot see through a solid sheet
of metal
 Not ideal for long range
applications (> 50 feet)

5.  Very small, low power, low
cost, minimal computation
 Intrusion sensor, stud finder,
auto backup sensor, medical
triage sensor
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6.  Rich information content
 Larger size, more power,
more complex, embedded or
offline computation
 Subsurface imaging, projectile
tracking, person tracking,
hostage vs. hostile, buried
landmine detection
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7.  Radar Camera Project
• 48 element array
• 15 – 25 foot range
• FPGA based processor
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Raw data
(real time)
Basic
algorithm
(20 fps)
Advanced
algorithm
(4 fps)

8. Buried landmines
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Study of detecting
wires of various
gauges
Rebar
Subsurface asphalt damage

9. Soil
Sample
Loss/ft
(dB)
Depth
(ft)
Sand 2 8
Gravel 4 7
Clay 10 5
Top soil 16 5
Dry soil 14 5
Chicago 34 2
50/50 9 5
Metal Plastic (PE)
3” plastic pipe buried at 1.3 feet
3” plastic pipe buried at 2.6 feet
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory LLNL-PRES-528611 9

10.  Breadbox sized metallic
object buried at 3, 6, and
9 feet deep
 iRadar array mounted on
vehicle platform
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1.0m
1.6m
2.8m
3 feet
6 feet
9 feet

11.  HERMES bridge deck inspection
 LANDMARC landmine detection
 PERES high precision roadway scanning
 JIEDDO buried threat detection system
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12.  iRadar integrated with Lidar, video, GPS and airborne radar
 Human occupancy
detected using
emplaced iRadar
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory LLNL-PRES-528611
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13.  However, design space governed by real-world
technology tradeoffs
• Frequency selection: penetration depth vs. imaging resolution
• Power: range and material penetration vs. battery life
• Complexity: imaging capability and speed vs. computational
horsepower
 iRadar capabilities continue to improve with rapid
semiconductor industry advancements
• Increasingly wide-bandwidth, high-sensitivity radars
• High-throughput embedded signal processors
• Continuing algorithm research and development
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory LLNL-PRES-528611
© DC Comics

14. Charity Follett
follett2@llnl.gov
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory LLNL-PRES-528611
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