Design and testing of a UAV-based, through-rubble vital sign detection RADAR using metaheuristic topology optimization

This thesis forms part of a larger effort at MIT Lincoln Laboratory to develop a micro-UAV based platform, capable of detecting survivors through rubble, under the funding of the New Technology Initiative (NTI) program. In support of this goal the thesis makes three distinct contributions. First, the operating environment of a disaster scenario is characterized. To do so, the electrical properties of different residential construction materials are determined and an analytical model for the behavior of a radar operating in this environment is developed. Second, preliminary efforts were made towards the miniaturization of the radar back-end by designing circuitry that generates the transmit waveform. Additionally an analog filter was developed to attenuate unwanted signals on the receive end. Lastly metaheuristic topology optimization was applied towards the design of antennas for the radar front-end. A novel, algorithmic extension to an established metaheuristic algorithm is demonstrated and tested. Additionally a new antenna parametrization based on Bezier curves is developed and evaluated against the established pixel-based parametrization.

Department dc:contributor.department

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science.

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2015

Author dc:creator

• Pantazis, George, M. Eng. Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Dina Katabi and Raoul Ouedraodo.

• Electrical Engineering and Computer Science.

Statement dc:rights

• MIT theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed, downloaded, or printed from this source but further reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/115460

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/115460