The Feasibility of Radio Direction Finding for Swarm Localization

Abstract

The US Army Research Laboratory (ARL) is investigating technologies to assist in swarm localization. One promising technology is radio direction finding (RDF). RDF has been used since World War I and has many applications both in the military and private sectors, but compact commercial systems suitable for deployment on small swarm agents do not exist. This has led ARL to begin development of a custom RDF system using small, standalone, software-defined radios (SDRs). First, basic RDF theory is presented. Next, a laboratory experiment to evaluate RDF using a SDR is developed. Finally, experimental data are presented supporting the feasibility of RDF for swarm localization.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Sep 01, 2017
Accession Number
AD1040029

Entities

People

  • Michael L. Don

Organizations

  • United States Army Research Laboratory

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Advanced Electronics
  • Energy and Power Technologies
  • Ground and Sea Platforms
  • Weapons Technologies

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Accuracy
  • Acoustic Absorption
  • Aircrafts
  • Anechoic Chambers
  • Angle Of Arrival
  • Antenna Arrays
  • Direction Finding
  • Frequency
  • Global Positioning Systems
  • Measurement
  • Military Research
  • Navigation
  • Phase Measurement
  • Radar
  • Radio Equipment
  • Software Defined Radio
  • Unmanned Aerial Vehicles

Readers

  • Distributed Systems and Data Platform Development
  • Radio communications and signal processing.
  • Software Verification and Validation.

Technology Areas

  • AI & ML
  • AI & ML - Autonomous Systems
  • AI & ML - DoD AI Strategy
  • Autonomy
  • Autonomy - Autonomous System Control