Signal Exploitation, Geolocation, and Electronic Systems and Instrumentation

The Institute has been a leader in radio frequency (RF) signal exploitation and geolocation system development for more than four decades. SwRI provides advanced communications signals acquisition and recognition, direction finding (DF), and geolocation systems to government, military, and commercial clients in the United States and around the world. Solutions are provided by a technical staff supported by an aggressive internal research program and specialized laboratories and field testing facilities. Applications include land-based, shipboard, submarine, airborne, vehicular, and man-transportable systems.

Worldwide tracking via satellite remains an Institute strength. Specialized antennas, developed by SwRI engineers and installed at the Institute, are used to monitor specific satellite orbits.

The Institute's leadership in shipboard direction finding continues with the development and limited production of the AN/SSQ-120 Transportable Radio Direction Finder System for the U.S. Navy's Ticonderoga class cruisers. Other shipboard DF equipment being provided to the Navy include the DF Antenna Groups (OE-326/SRS-1) being installed on Arleigh Burke Class destroyers and Wasp Class amphibious assault ships, and the MBS-506A DF System being installed on Cyclone Class patrol craft. The Institute has provided intercept and DF systems for all 16 frigates in the Canadian Navy (AN/SRD-502 and 503). These systems are being upgraded with improved electronics and operator control functions and displays in preparation for an Institute-led development of a netted shipboard DF radiolocation system capability for the Canadian Navy. Recent technology developments related to shipboard DF and radiolocation include advanced antenna designs, improvements in computer-based electromagnetic modeling of ship superstructures, accelerated calibration techniques, self-calibration DF algorithms, and integration of commercial, off-the-shelf based hardware solutions.

SwRI continues to provide land-based DF and radiolocation systems to U.S. and foreign governments for military and civilian law enforcement applications. These systems can automatically intercept and recognize sophisticated communications modulations and perform accurate DF as required. The Institute is pioneering new DF and radiolocation techniques to meet market requirements in the globally expanding telecommunications industry. Technical expertise in radiolocation, acquired over the past four decades in projects for Department of Defense and law enforcement clients, is being applied for commercial clients to locate wireless mobile 9-1-1 callers. The Institute is collaborating with a manufacturer of personal communications systems/cellular infrastructure to locate the source of wireless 9-1-1 mobile calls within 125 meters, as required by the Federal Communications Commission effective October 1, 2001. Adjacent buildings and the cell-site towers' metal superstructures have electromagnetic characteristics similar to naval ship environments, where SwRI engineers have successfully developed radio surveillance and location systems using Numerical Electromagnetics Code modeling and scale-model testing. In addition to antenna array modeling, SwRI is working with the wireless manufacturer to estimate locations based on data acquired from multiple cell sites. This requires an extension of angle-of-arrival triangulation and time-difference-of-arrival hyperbolic fixing techniques that SwRI scientists have incorporated into previous designs.

An improved version of the SwRI-developed Situational Awareness Beacon with Reply, SABER™, has been developed under contract to the U.S. Navy's Space and Naval Warfare Systems Command. The SABER™ V0.1 model provides improved situational awareness data, including a friendly identification capability, to the Navy's command and control units and to the individual war fighter. In the V0.1 version, brevity code messaging allows the war fighter to automatically transmit "pre-stored" messages back to the command unit to indicate status or request specific assistance. SABER™ systems have been installed and evaluated on a variety of military platforms in both simulated war fighting exercises and in actual overseas deployments. Platforms typically tracked with SABER™ include high mobility multipurpose wheeled vehicles, landing craft air cushions, tanks, armored personnel carriers, helicopters, aircraft, and ships.

Institute scientists engaged in oil and gas reservoir characterization are building high-resolution velocity-density models of the formations surrounding a well and using those models to estimate the seismic response of the formation at different frequencies. Examination of the frequency dependence of the seismic velocities helps researchers estimate intrinsic attenuation in the reservoir. The procedure is being used in well control and crosswell studies at Buena Vista Hills field near Bakersfield, California. Tools such as time-frequency analysis of full waveform data and well log resolution enhancement help in data analysis and model generation.

Global positioning system (GPS)-based worldwide tracking with communication through low-earth-orbit and geosynchronous satellites is a high-technology area that continues to grow at the Institute. Shown here is SILO™ (Signal Intercept from Low Orbit), a program developed initially under SwRI internal research and subsequently supported by various military and government agencies. Satellite communication data received at the Institute are plotted on digital geographic maps to show precise geolocation track information on a worldwide basis.

Institute-developed magnetic resonance (MR) instrumentation is being used to control the quality of consumer products for a major manufacturer. The SwRI sensors have reduced product moisture variation by a factor of 5-to-1 over previously used instruments. Other research has provided the ability to use MR in rapid, noninvasive, nondestructive quality measurements of many packaged foods.

New MR techniques have been developed for more accurate assessment of fluids and structures in porous materials. In a project for NASA, MR is being used to investigate flow condition effects on the melting or dissolving of solids in liquids. Electron paramagnetic resonance is being applied to the early detection of potential failure sites in nonmetallic components.

1998 Annual Report SwRI Home