Acoustic Ground Sensors to Triangulate Bomb Impact in Support of Airfield Damage Assessment

Abstract

Airfield damage repair (ADR) is a critical function in restoring damaged airfields after an adversary attack. Before ADR can commence, airfield damage assessment (ADA)a labor- and time-intensive processmust be conducted. Maintaining airfields in wartime is especially difficult since runways are large, and the presence of unexploded ordnance or chemical weapons poses a safety hazard to ground personnel conducting the damage assessment. To accelerate the ADA process, a network of micro-electro-mechanical (MEM) sensors are used to capture the sound of the explosion and triangulate bomb impacts on the airfield autonomously and instantaneously. This autonomous process can be faster than current methods and can keep personnel safe by limiting them from surveying the airfield. We test several MEM sensors and evaluate localization accuracy, networking capability, simplicity of use, and cost to improve the process. Using a combination of MEM sensors, radio frequency transceivers, GPS modules, microcontrollers, and MATLAB code, we demonstrate that bomb impacts can be triangulated and displayed on an interface for supporting the ADA mission.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Jun 01, 2019
Accession Number
AD1080356

Entities

People

  • John O. Mutton

Organizations

  • Naval Postgraduate School

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Advanced Electronics
  • Autonomy
  • Electronic Warfare
  • Human Systems
  • Sensors
  • Weapons Technologies

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Air Force
  • Aircrafts
  • Angle Of Arrival
  • Application Software
  • Computer Programming
  • Computer Programs
  • Computers
  • Damage Assessment
  • Data Transmission
  • Global Positioning Systems
  • Humanitarian Assistance
  • Microelectromechanical Systems
  • Mobile Application Software
  • Munitions
  • Sensor Networks
  • Unexploded Ammunition
  • Unmanned Aerial Vehicles

Readers

  • Aviation Safety and Air Traffic Management
  • Integrated Circuit Design and Technology.
  • Military/Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD) Technology

Technology Areas

  • Microelectronics
  • Microelectronics - Microelectromechanical Systems
  • Space