Combined Task Force Meetings

1
The Roles of Laser Radar in Layered Sensing
Dr. Paul McManamon Chief Scientist, Sensors
Directorate Air Force Research Laboratory July ,
2007
2
Layered Sensing
Linked Sensors - The right sensor - The right
time - The right place
COM PVT
SBR
Global Access
SBIRS
HSI
Near SPACE
SensorWeb
U-2
Laser radar is often the right sensor - very rich
phenomenology
Regional, Persistent, High Altitude Surveillance
Tactical Strike
SensorWeb
Small UAV
micro UAV
UGS
3
Clean Sweep A First Small Step to Layered Sensing

• Develop an automated wide area search and
  high-confidence identification capability
• Against non-moving, non-emitting, time-sensitive,
  military vehicles
• Deployed in the open, along tree lines, and in
  light to moderate hide (e.g. tree cover,
  camouflage, urban)
• Example Preble County, Ohio (appropriate mix of
  natural and cultural areas)

• Pop 42,500
• Housing 17,186
• Area 425 mi2 (1105 km2)
• Width 18 mi (29 km)
• Height 24 mi (39 km)
• Farms 1050
• 197 kAcres (798 km2) - 72
• Forest 26 km2 - 2

4
Laser Radar Opportunities in Layered Sensing

• Quality ID
• At range
• Close up
• Many discriminates
• 3D, with multiple range returns
• Vib
• Polarization
• Color
• Others
• Gating through obscurants
• 3D mapping
• of a city

5
(No Transcript)
6
First Responder Opportunities

• Possible remote heart beat of a human
• 3D mapping of flood areas
• Identify areas of interest
• Identify change
• Possible location of people buried in rubble.

7
Continuous Surveillance
Visible, Night, and All Weather
Gotcha Radar SystemPersistent, High Altitude,
All-Wx Surveillance
Know everything all of the time

• Continuous Track (Civilian Vehicles Dismounts)
• High Resolution Imagery (Enable Target ID)
• Detect Hidden Targets (Inside Buildings)
• Behavior Analysis (Enable PBA)
• Forensic Backtracking

8
Multi-sensor Change Detection
Two Orders of Magnitude False Alarm
Reduction With Change Detection
HSI
VHF SAR
9
Performance Driven Sensing

• Traditionally automatic object recognition is
  developed years after a sensor is fielded
• ATR people want lots of flying data to jump start
  algorithm development
• Initial automated recognition software is a curve
  fit taken from a data collection
• Traditionally we collect a lot of data, then
  decide if it useful in recognizing an object
• We want to put ATR out front of sensor
  development
• Understand underlying phenomenology
• Develop required measurements to make a detection
  or ID decision
• Call for the next sensor to be developed
• Call for the next bit of data to be measured with
  a sensor suite

10
Sensor / Component Vision

• Affordable Sensors Near zero touch labor
• Scalable sensors for application reuse scaled
  performance
• Software Programmable Sensors
• Ultra-Low power consumption components / Sensors
• Miniature multi-function sensors for mini micro
  sized platforms
• Harsh Environment tolerant Sensors (Thermal,
  electromagnetic, radiation, EMP)
• Anti-tamper components
• Safe use of commercial devices made in China,
  India, or elsewhere
• Better physics of Failure knowledge

Small Close-In Sensors
Device Properties / Physics of failure
11
Affordable Conformal Apertures

• Rapid Random Access
• Sensing, countermeasures, and communications -
  requiring wideband
• Integration with receivers and transmitters
• Wide angle coverage
• Thin and repairable

12
The Optical Phased Array Vision

• Eliminate Gimbals
• Heavy
• Expensive
• Slow
• Solid state solution
• Fast
• Conformal
• Cheap
• New capabilities
• Focus / defocus
• Multiple beams
• Random access
• Steer Active Passive Sensors

13
AFRL Laser Radar Activities

• 2D Laser Radar
• 3D laser radar
• Scanning can cover more area
• Flash imaging can for fast movers (freeze motion)
  
• Vibration laser radar
• Can see vibrations to ID/Characterize a target or
  facilities
• Has a cyber or HPM attack stopped machinery?
• Synthetic Aperture Laser Radar
• High resolution at radar type ranges

Range not limited by size of optics
14
AFRL 2D Ladar Imager MWIR Sensor
Security Response Force
MX-20DLI

15
Flash Geometric Sensing SPI-3D Flash 3-D Ladar
Imaging

• Flash Imaging approach suitable for fast moving,
  dynamic platforms
• Ratiometric technique provides 3-D image on each
  pulse
• 10 nanosecond pulse freezes platform and target
• Suitable for gating through obscurants
• Useful for Track and ID of Moving Targets
• Ideal for Targeting Pod Applications
• Sub-Optimal for Wide area operations

16
Single Detector Scanning 3D Ladar Developments
E-BAIR-p
BAIR-1
TRL 4-5
E-BAIR
TRL 2-3
TAC E-BAIR
TRL 6-7
TRL 6-7
17
Scanned Geometric SensingPILAR/RAIDER 3-D System
Summary
RAIDER
MWIR
EO
Raytheon 22 MTS-B Turret
Sonoma 20.8 474 Turret
LADAR
PILAR
LADAR
MWIR
EO
FLIR Systems 15 StarSAFIRE III Turret
18
Geometric SensingALIRT 3-D Ladar Wide Area
Mapping
What if you could quickly Map an area the size of
a city at unprecedented resolution?

• Efficient mapping of large areas
• Ideal for Foliage Penetration

19
Vibration Measurement Campaign at White Sands
May 2002
T-72 Vibration Signature Through a Tree at 11 km
What if you could hear targets from long ranges?
View from Tank
52Km A/A Range
20
SAL Mission ID at RangeResolution of a SAR
with interpretability of an EO Sensor
Goal Bring ID Capability to Detection Ranges
Provide High Resolution Imaging Beyond the
Diffraction Limit
RF/EO WIDE AREA SEARCH Localize, Prioritize, Cue
REACQUISITION PROSECUTION
What if bomber crews or GLOBAL HAWK had ID
capability at operational ranges?
ONE STEP WITH ID AT RANGE

• SAL CAN PROVIDE IT
• Resolution of a High Performance SAR
• EO Like Images
• Fast Image Times on queued Targets
• Must be cued small field of view

21
Continuous Urban Surveillance

• Goals
• Cover city-sized areas (20km x 20 km) with 1 Hz
  updates
• Detect and track activity to the level of people
  (0.3 m resolution)

Urban obscurations dictate high-altitude,
overhead sensing
22
3-D Ladar Fingerprinting of Highlighted Targets

• Rapid Ladar Beamsteering
• Random-access spot imaging integrated with
  surveillance sensor
• DARPA APPLE program
• Coherently-combined laser transmitters for large
  aperture
• Required for high resolution

• 3-D Target Identification
• Laser radar spot imaging
• PILAR
• Flash 3-D
• SPI-3D
• High confidence geometric matching (DARPA E3D
  Program)
• Fine 3-D resolution
• Angle diversity

23
Tailored ISR / Layered Sensing

• The right sensor at the right time at the right
  place
• Netted sensors
• Performance based Sensing should highlight
  various laser radar roles
• Laser radar of various sizes and modalities
• 2D ladar
• Multiple 3D ladar modalities
• Synthetic Aperture Ladar
• Vibration ladar
• Continuous sensing
• Wide area coverage
• Change detection
• Watching all the time
• Rewind capability
• Visible. IR for night, and radar for all wx

Wide Area MWIR Staring - Random access ladar ID