TECHNOLOGY AREAS: Information Systems, Sensors, Electronics, Battlespace

ACQUISITION PROGRAM: PMA-265, F/A-18; PMA�290, Maritime Surveillance Aircraft

OBJECTIVE: Determine the electromagnetic (EM) scattering properties of small boats in littoral and deep ocean environments for detection, tracking, discrimination, and classification purposes.

DESCRIPTION: Attacks on the U. S. fleet by small boats in littoral environments is of great concern to the Navy. These boats may be in the presence of many other, similarly sized, but non-aggressive boats. This raises the threat level even more since it makes discrimination so much more difficult. For this reason, information on the scattering properties of such boats is highly desirable. A boat, however, is inseparable from the surrounding water; thus, any effort at electromagnetic (EM) modeling and simulation (EMMS) must involve a sizeable patch of the surrounding ocean. The challenge with the simulation is the numerical size of the problem and the difficulty of incorporating the effect of the sea.. Full-wave methods provide good fidelity but cannot handle realistic size targets. Asymptotic methods, on the other hand, are very efficient in handling real targets but lack the fidelity. Solution to this problem will involve development of a hybrid full-wave and asymptotic method along with hardware accelerated computing. Examples of such computing are the harnessing of the computational power of PC graphic cards and field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs).

PHASE I: Demonstrate the feasibility of proposed modeling technique and validate using small targets representative of realistic ones in the sea. Develop detailed conceptual designs for a hardware accelerated approach to this problem. Demonstrate the feasibility of the proposed approach and document speed-ups relative to state-of-the-art hardware as well as software-intensive acceleration techniques.

PHASE II: Based on the Phase I results, build a working prototype software utilizing hardware acceleration for modeling realistic size small maritime targets in sea. Document accuracy and fidelity by comparing against published simulated as well as measured data. Develop a Phase III transition plan.

PHASE III: Refine the prototype developed in Phase II either alone or in partnership with another company and build a full-scale product for simulating realistic scenarios of interest to Navy. Finalize the technology and transition to the fleet.

PRIVATE SECTOR COMMERCIAL POTENTIAL/DUAL-USE APPLICATIONS: The technology developed will find applications among commercial radar companies, antenna designers, and communications equipment manufacturers.

REFERENCES:
1. http://www.acceleware.com.

2. http://www.impulsec.com/.

3. H. ElGindy and Y. � L. Shue, "On Sparse Matrix-vector Multiplication with FPGA-based System," Proc. 10th Annual IEEE Symp. Field-Programmable Custom Computing Machines (FCCM�02).

4. M. deLorimier and A. DeHon, "Floating-Point Sparse Matrix-Vector Multiply for FPGAs," Proc. 2005 ACM/SIGDA 13th Intl. Symp. Field Programmable Gate Arrays, Monterey, CA.

5. http://www.appro.com/product/server_xtremex1_xeon.asp.

6. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supercomputer#Special-purpose_supercomputers.

7. Z. Zhao, L. Li, J. Smith and L. Carin, "Analysis of scattering from very large three-dimensional rough surfaces using MLFMM and ray-based analyses," IEEE Antennas Propagat. Mag., Vol. 47, No. 3, June 2006, pp. 20-30.

8. I. Moreau, "Study and simulation of sea clutter," IEEE Signal Processing Workshop on Higher-Order Statistics, 7-9 June 1993, pp.178�181.

9. R. F. Harrington, Time Harmonic Electromagnetic Fields, New York, Wiley-IEEE Press, 2001.

10. J. Jin, The Finite Element Method in Electromagnetics, Wiley-IEEE Press; 2nd Ed., May 2002.

11. F. Weinmann, "Ray Tracing with PO/PTD for RCS Modeling of Large Complex Objects," IEEE Trans. Antennas Propagat., vol. 54, no. 6, June 2006, pp. 1797-1806.

12. P.E. Hussar, V. Oliker, H.L. Riggins, E.M. Smith-Rowlan, W.R. Klocko, L. Prussner, An implementation of the UTD on facetized CAD platform models, IEEE Antennas Propagat. Mag., Vol. 42, No. 2, April 2000, pp. 100-106.

13. http://radar-www.nrl.navy.mil/5314/.

KEYWORDS: Littoral Environment; Ocean; Scattering; Graphic Cards; Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGA); Computational Electromagnetics (CEM)

** TOPIC AUTHOR (TPOC) **

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