Development of a real time radar acquisition system

The Geosonde radar system, developed for use in bore holes, includes a data acquisition system. Development is currently being conducted by the Radar Remote Sensing Group at the University of Cape Town and Stellenbosch University. This thesis describes the development of a real time operating system and an overall upgrade of basic interfaces to the Geosonde system. The current system employs the use of an embedded MS-DOS operating system and supports basic user control and data exporting over a serial line. The objectives of this thesis are to perform major upgrades on the system by introducing an XML based form of network control and NTP synchronization of the processing board. As a result, an investigation into the adequacy of MS-DOS as a target operating system, bearing in mind the intended upgrades, was carried out. Taking into consideration the failings of MS-DOS as far as the system requirements are concerned, an investigation into available real time executives was conducted and a decision based on the requirements was made. Embedded GNU/Linux was chosen as the target software platform. The software design of the application shows all the necessary design issues considered. The implementation phase of the thesis describes all the tools necessary to implement the embedded Linux system and all the components necessary to meet the needs of the Geosonde system. The network and serial interfaces were tested and shown to be fully functional. The XML based control in particular offers a more flexible and more platform independent solution than the serial interface.

Grantor dc:publisher.institution

Department of Electrical Engineering

Year dc:date.issued

2002

Author dc:creator

• Modise, Stephen Karabo

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Inggs, Michael

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/11427/7704

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/7704