Speaker
Description
This project investigates the use of Software Defined Radio (SDR) for Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) to detect shallowly buried objects, and evaluates its performance against a commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) GPR system. It marks the first engineering collaboration between Weber State University and the 309th Software Engineering Group (SWEG) at Hill Air Force Base (HAFB).
Traditional GPR systems typically employ separate transmitting and receiving antennas on handheld devices or vehicle-mounted platforms. Recent research has shown that small rotor-based unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) paired with inexpensive sensors can reduce cost, effort, and time in GPR surveys. However, achieving high resolution typically requires bulky, expensive, and power-intensive systems that are unsuitable for UAV payloads. SDR presents a promising alternative by offering compact, low-cost, and reconfigurable radar capabilities.
The primary objective of this project is to assess the viability of an SDR-based GPR (SD-GPR) as a potential replacement for conventional systems in detecting shallowly buried targets. The SD-GPR is implemented using GNU Radio Companion (GRC) for real-time signal processing, programmed as a Stepped Frequency Continuous Wave (SFCW) radar. Measurements are collected in a controlled test environment with known buried targets, while simulations and post-processing in Python are used to generate and analyze GPR B-scans.
| Talk Length | 15 Minutes |
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