Low cost radar and sonar using Open Source hardware and software

The full range of radar types and innovations can be complex and difficult to prototype, especially for institutions that wish to perform a wide range of experiments for low financial cost. Radar and sonar system development can benefit from digital technology that is powerful for research purposes, easy to use, and inexpensive. The purpose of this thesis was the development of a sonar application using the Universal Software Radio Peripheral and the GNU Radio software framework. These are Open Source tools created for the software-defined radio community. These tools provide a powerful yet flexible means to experiment with a wide range of radio frequency applications, using a minimal amount of relatively cheap hardware. In this thesis, these tools were modified from their original telecommunications purpose, to produce a sonar system that could eventually be scaled to a prototype radar system using the same device and software framework.

Grantor dc:publisher.institution

Department of Electrical Engineering

Year dc:date.issued

2008

Author dc:creator

• Williams, Lance Patrick

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Inggs, Michael

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/11427/5081

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/5081