Radar For Through Object Viewing
Design Team 4: Ali Aqel, Michael Volz, Garrett Warnell, Scott Warren, Michael Weingarten
Sponsor: Naval Research Laboratory
Facilitator: Dr. Terence Brown
Disasters are inevitable and often result in the need to search for victims. This effort can
often be hampered due to damaged infrastructure. A device that can “see” through walls provides the
ability to detect injured people and animals and quickly bring them to medical attention. Such a device will
need to be low cost, portable, and easy to repair. The focus of the design team was to build the first stage of
this device.
Design
Components
In order to make the radar easier
to test and maintain it was
decided to break the device into
components.
Radar
The radar enclosure contains all
of the microwave modules used
to perform the actions needed by
the radar.
Objective
Develop a low cost, modular, and
flexible radar system that will
be used to investigate selfinterference cancellation.
Processing
The processing enclosure
contains the embedded
processor and acquisition
hardware used to process the
signal coming from the radar.
Requirements
The primary requirements are:
•Expandability
•Ease of Target Detection
•Low Cost
Antenna
The antennas are used to
transmit and receive the signals
that are used to determine target
distance information.
Approach
The design approach for this
project was to create a system
which revolves around robustness,
flexibility, and ease of modification
with future expansion capabilities.
The team divided into three critical
departments: power systems, radar
hardware, and software. Each
department was responsible for
development of their systems and
integration with the other systems.
Computer
The computer is used to display
the information coming back
from our system.
Interconnections
Results
Team 4’s final design is able to detect targets at various distances with
obstructions while remaining within budget. The user interface can be seen
below.
Low-noise custom cables were
used to connect the above
components for minimal signal
loss.
Budget
System Block Diagram
Category
RF Equipment
Cost
$550.41
Acknowledgments
Donated RF Equipment*
The team would like to thank:
• Vilhelm Gregers-Hansen (NRL)
• Dr. Terence Brown (MSU)
facilitator
• Dr. Gregory L. Charvat (MIT
Lincoln Lab)
Enclosures
$48.85
Discrete Components
$49.27
Connectors/Adaptors
$289.66
The lower right chart displays peaks corresponding to targets. The two peaks Total Construction Cost
represent two targets at 5 meters and 7 meters from the radar.
$11,774.00
$927.16