Publications
Time domain processing of frequency domain GPR signatures for buried land mine detection
April 1, 2002
Conference Paper
Published in:
SPIE, Vol. 4742, Part One, Detection and Remediation Technologies for Mines and Minelike Targets VII, 1-5 April 2002, pp. 339-348.
Summary
This paper investigates the feasibility of detecting plastic antipersonnel land mines buried in lossy, dispersive, rough soils using a stepped-frequency ultra wideband (WB) ground-penetrating radar (GPR). Realistic land mine scenarios were modeled using a two-dimensional (2D) finite difference firequency domain (FDFD) technique. Assuming normal incidence plane wave excitation, the scattered fields were generated over a large frequency bandwidth (.5 to 5 GHz) for a variety of mine-like shapes, different soil types, and multiple receiver locations. The simulation results showed that for a ground penetration sensor located just above the soil surface, the strong reflection signals received from the rough ground surface obscured the buried target's fiquency response signal. The simulated GPR WB frequency response data at each receiver location was transformed to the time domain using the fast fourier transform. Time domain processing permits high resolution measurement of target features that are invariant to the ground roughness and also that are dependent on the soil characteristics as well as the burial depth and size of the mine, Specifically, two or more characteristic timing peaks are observed in the simulation results suggesting that the ultra-wideband spectral radar response may yield particular advantages not exploited by currently employed detection systems. It is also shown that by using time-gating to remove the strong ground reflection signals, the target signals are selectively enhanced (as expected), but more surprisingly, the target frequency response signature is almost completely recovered.
Summary
This paper investigates the feasibility of detecting plastic antipersonnel land mines buried in lossy, dispersive, rough soils using a stepped-frequency ultra wideband (WB) ground-penetrating radar (GPR). Realistic land mine scenarios were modeled using a two-dimensional (2D) finite difference firequency domain (FDFD) technique. Assuming normal incidence plane wave excitation, the scattered...
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COTS fusion tracker evaluation
February 15, 2002
Project Report
Published in:
MIT Lincoln Laboratory Report ATC-302
Summary
Lincoln Laboratory was tasked by the FAA to measure the performance of a representative sample of current commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) fusion trackers. This effort included cataloging the companies that have available ATC fusion trackers, acquiring executable tracker images from as many as possible of these trackers, running the commercial tracker code on the test sets, and evaluating the performance achieved. This report presents an overall review of the state-of-the-art of fusion tracker as applied to the FAA surveillance problem. Average statistics of performance, as well as performance in special situations, are included. In each case, the performance of fusion is compared against the performance of single sensor and mosaic tracking. Thus, the advantages and disadvantages of fusion will be evident. The statistics may also permit the generation of a fusion tracker specification should the FAA decide to procure one as part of a future automation system.
Summary
Lincoln Laboratory was tasked by the FAA to measure the performance of a representative sample of current commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) fusion trackers. This effort included cataloging the companies that have available ATC fusion trackers, acquiring executable tracker images from as many as possible of these trackers, running the commercial tracker...
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New products for the NEXRAD ORPG to support FAA critical systems
February 9, 2002
Conference Paper
Published in:
19th Int. Conf. on Interactive Processing Systems for Meteorology, Oceanography and Hydrology, 9-13 February 2002.
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Summary
A number of Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) critical systems rely on products from the NEXRAD (WSR-88D) suite of algorithms. These systems include MIAWS (Medium Intensity Airport Weather System), ITWS (Integrated Terminal Weather System), CIWS (Corridor Integrated Weather System), and WARP (Weather and Radar Processing). With the advent of the NEXRAD Open Radar Product Generator (ORPG), a six-month build cycle has been established for the incorporation of new or improved algorithms. This build cycle provides the mechanism for the integration of new products into the algorithm suite tailored to the needs of these FAA systems now and into the future. Figure 1 is useful for visualizing the MIT/LL ORPGnet. Four of the ORPGnet systems are located at MIT/LL headquartered in Lexington, MA. These four systems form the core of the development center where algorithms are developed for and implemented into the ORPG environment. Part of the development process includes examination of algorithm products created from past weather. A number of utilities are available for playback of various versions of NEXRAD Archive II base data: from tape or disk files in standard or LDM formats. Additionally, MIT/LL operates the CIWS demonstation project for the FAA. The ORPG clones at the development center have access to base data from 26 NEXRAD radars from the Midwest to the East Coast of the United States ingested for CIWS. The FAA has tasked the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Lincoln Laboratory (MIT/LL) with developing algorithms for the ORPG to address their systems' needs. Many of these algorithms will also prove useful to other users of NEXRAD products such as the National Weather Service and the Department of Defense. MIT/LL has created a network of ten ORPGs, or an ORPGnet, to use for the purpose of developing, testing, and implementing new algorithms targeted to specific builds. The benefits of the ORPGnet will be discussed in more detail later in this paper. MIT/LL has provided improvements to existing algorithms or developed new algorithms for the first three build cycles of the ORPG (Istok et al., 2002; Smalley and Bennett, 2002). Development of more algorithms is currently in progress for upcoming build cycles. In addition to describing ORPGnet, this paper will focus on its use in the development of a new Data Quality Assurance (DQA) algorithm, an improved High Resolution VIL (HRVIL) algorithm, and progress on the development of the enhanced Echo Tops (EET) algorithm; as well as the symbiotic relationship of these algorithms to the FAA critical systems.
Summary
A number of Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) critical systems rely on products from the NEXRAD (WSR-88D) suite of algorithms. These systems include MIAWS (Medium Intensity Airport Weather System), ITWS (Integrated Terminal Weather System), CIWS (Corridor Integrated Weather System), and WARP (Weather and Radar Processing). With the advent of the NEXRAD...
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Contributions to the AIAA Guidance, Navigation & Control Conference
January 23, 2002
Project Report
Published in:
MIT Lincoln Laboratory Report NASA-A-5
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Summary
This report contains six papers presented by the Lincoln Laboratory Air Traffic Control Systems Group at the American Institute of Aeronautics & Astronautics (AIAA) Guidance, Navigation and Control (GNC) conference on 6-9 August 2001 in Montreal, Canada. The work reported was sponsored by the NASA Advanced Air Transportation Technologies (AATT) program and the FAA Free Flight Phase 1 (FFPl) program. The papers are based on studies completed at Lincoln Laboratory in collaboration with staff at NASA Ames Research Center. These papers were presented in the Air Traffic Automation Session of the conference and fall into three major areas: Traffic Analysis & Benefits Studies, Weather/Automation Integration, and Surface Surveillance. In the first area, a paper by Andrews & Robinson presents an analysis of the efficiency of runway operations at Dallas/l%. Worth using a tool called PARO, and a paper by Welch, Andrews, & Robinson presents delay benefit results for the Final Approach Spacing Tool (FAST). In the second area, a paper by Campbell, et al. describes a new weather distribution system for the Center/TRACON Automation System (CTAS) that allows ingestion of multiple weather sources, and a paper by van de Venne, Lloyd, & Hogaboom describes the use of the NOAA Eta model as a backup wind data source for CTAS. Also in this area, a paper by Murphy & Campbell presents initial steps towards integrating weather-impacted routes into FAST. In the third area, a paper by Welch, Bussolari, and Atkins presents an initial operational concept for using surface surveillance to reduce taxi delays.
Summary
This report contains six papers presented by the Lincoln Laboratory Air Traffic Control Systems Group at the American Institute of Aeronautics & Astronautics (AIAA) Guidance, Navigation and Control (GNC) conference on 6-9 August 2001 in Montreal, Canada. The work reported was sponsored by the NASA Advanced Air Transportation Technologies (AATT)...
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Geiger-mode avalanche photodiodes for three-dimensional imaging
January 1, 2002
Journal Article
Published in:
Lincoln Laboratory Journal, Vol. 13, No. 2, 2002, pp. 335-350.
Summary
We discuss the properties of Geiger-mode avalanche photodiodes (APDs) and their use in developing an imaging laser radar (ladar). This type of photodetector gives a fast electrical pulse in response to the detection of even a single photon, allowing for sub-nsec-precision photon-flight-time measurement. We present ongoing work at Lincoln Laboratory on three-dimensional (3D) imaging with arrays of these diodes, and the integration of the arrays with fast complementary metal-oxide semiconductor (CMOS) digital timing circuits.
Summary
We discuss the properties of Geiger-mode avalanche photodiodes (APDs) and their use in developing an imaging laser radar (ladar). This type of photodetector gives a fast electrical pulse in response to the detection of even a single photon, allowing for sub-nsec-precision photon-flight-time measurement. We present ongoing work at Lincoln Laboratory...
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Silicon-on-insulator-based single-chip image sensors: low-voltage scientific imaging
January 1, 2002
Conference Paper
Published in:
Experimental Astronomy, Vol. 14, No. 2, 2002, pp. 91-98.
Summary
A low-voltage (
Summary
A low-voltage (
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The physical origin of the land-ocean contrast in lightning activity
January 1, 2002
Journal Article
Published in:
Comptes Rendus Physique, Vol. 3, No. 10, 2002, pp. 1277-1292.
Summary
New tests and older ideas are explored to understand the origin of the pronounced contrast in lightning between land and sea. The behavior of islands as miniature continents with variable area supports the traditional thermal hypothesis over the aerosol hypothesis for lightning control. The substantial land-ocean contrast in updraft strength is supported globally by TRMM (Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission) radar comparisons of mixed phase radar reflectivity. The land-ocean updraft contrast is grossly inconsistent with the land ocean contrast in CAPE (Convective Available Potential Energy), from the standpoint of parcel theory. This inconsistency is resolved by the scaling of buoyant parcel size with cloud base height, as suggested by earlier investigators. Strongly electrified continental convection is then favored by a larger surface Bowen ratio, and by larger, more strongly buoyant boundary layer parcels which more efficiently transform CAPE to kinetic energy of the updraft in the moist stage of conditional instability.
Summary
New tests and older ideas are explored to understand the origin of the pronounced contrast in lightning between land and sea. The behavior of islands as miniature continents with variable area supports the traditional thermal hypothesis over the aerosol hypothesis for lightning control. The substantial land-ocean contrast in updraft strength...
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Discrete optimization using decision-directed learning for distributed networked computing
January 1, 2002
Conference Paper
Published in:
36th Asilomar Conf. on Signals, Systems and Computers, Vol. 2, 3-6 November 2002, pp. 1189-1196.
Summary
Decision-directed learning (DDL) is an iterative discrete approach to finding a feasible solution for large-scale combinatorial optimization problems. DDL is capable of efficiently formulating a solution to network scheduling problems that involve load limiting device utilization, selecting parallel configurations for software applications and host hardware using a minimum set of resources, and meeting time-to-result performance requirements in a dynamic network environment. This paper quantifies the algorithms that constitute DDL and compares its performance to other popular combinatorial self-directed real-time networked resource configuration for dynamically building a mission specific signal-processor for real-time distributed and parallel applications.
Summary
Decision-directed learning (DDL) is an iterative discrete approach to finding a feasible solution for large-scale combinatorial optimization problems. DDL is capable of efficiently formulating a solution to network scheduling problems that involve load limiting device utilization, selecting parallel configurations for software applications and host hardware using a minimum set of...
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The effect of personality type on the usage of a multimedia engineering education system
January 1, 2002
Journal Article
Published in:
32nd Annual ASEE/IEEE Frontiers in Education Conf., 6-9 November 2002, pp. T3A-7 - T3A-12.
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Summary
Multimedia education has quickly entered our classrooms and offices providing tutorials and lessons on many different topics. The assumption that most people interact with these multimedia systems in similar ways can easily be made, but are these assumptions valid? What factors determine whether students will embrace computer-based multimedia-augmented learning? One factor may be the student's personality type. This paper explores the reasons why some students may enjoy learning using computer-based educational delivery systems while others may have absolutely no enthusiasm for this type of learning and how that enthusiasm may relate to the students' personality types.
Summary
Multimedia education has quickly entered our classrooms and offices providing tutorials and lessons on many different topics. The assumption that most people interact with these multimedia systems in similar ways can easily be made, but are these assumptions valid? What factors determine whether students will embrace computer-based multimedia-augmented learning? One...
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PVL: An Object Oriented Software Library for Parallel Signal Processing (Abstract)
January 1, 2002
Conference Paper
Published in:
CLUSTER '01, 2001 IEEE Int. Conf. on Cluster Computing, 8-11 October 2001, p. 74.
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Summary
Real-time signal processing consumes the majority of the world's computing power Increasingly, programmable parallel microprocessors are used to address a wide variety of signal processing applications (e.g. scientific, video, wireless, medical, communication, encoding, radar, sonar and imaging). In programmable systems the major challenge is no longer hardware but software. Specifically, the key technical hurdle lies in mapping (i.e., placement and routing) of an algorithm onto a parallel computer in a general manner that preserves software portability. We have developed the Parallel Vector Library (PVL) to allow signal processing algorithms to be written using high level Matlab like constructs that are independent of the underlying parallel mapping. Programs written using PVL can be ported to a wide range of parallel computers without sacrificing performance. Furthermore, the mapping concepts in PVL provide the infrastructure for enabling new capabilities such as fault tolerance, dynamic scheduling and self-optimization. This presentation discusses PVL with particular emphasis on quantitative comparisons with standard parallel signal programming practices.
Summary
Real-time signal processing consumes the majority of the world's computing power Increasingly, programmable parallel microprocessors are used to address a wide variety of signal processing applications (e.g. scientific, video, wireless, medical, communication, encoding, radar, sonar and imaging). In programmable systems the major challenge is no longer hardware but software. Specifically...
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