Low Cost Navigation Radar Detector for Unamnned Maritime Vehicle Surface Contact Avoidance

Transiting littoral waters safely is particularly complex for a UUV or USV, especially during military operations in low visibility, since there may be a high density of commercial vessels, fishing vessels, ferries, utility/patrol vessels, and military vessels moving on independent paths. Safe transit of littoral waters by a UUV means, primarily, avoidance of hull-on-hull collisions with vessels of deep draft and, secondly, avoidance of hull-on-mast collisions with smaller surface vessels. To address this problem, TSC proposes the design of a passive navigation and surface contact avoidance aid that merges two innovative TSC technologies: the DMD intercept receiver and the angular resolution technique of a novel OMNI radar. The former is a highly-sensitive intercept receiver technique, originally developed for the NAVSEA (PMS 435) as a possible adjunct to the BLQ-10 ES system, while the latter is a DF technique designed as a low-cost non-scanning solution providing 360 deg angular measurement. Additionally, we offer an active OMNI Detect & Locate radar solution, to address contact avoidance (especially with small vessels that do not emit EM signals). The OMNI Radar will transmit very low power (≤ 1 W), to maintain the low detectability of the UAV/USV. AIS will be integrated with either approach.