Project number
17071
Organization
Raytheon Missile Systems
Academic year
2017-2018
Project goal: To design, build and test a standoff noninvasive system to detect people hidden in vehicles. The system uses an ultra-wideband radar sensor to detect the minute movements of the human chest caused by breathing or a beating heart. The radar sensor operates at a frequency of 6–10 GHz with a 60-degree with a sixty-degree arc and a maximum sensing distance of 9 meters. The returned signal is processed by an on-sensor advanced reduced instruction set computer machine processor with Doppler signal-processing algorithms. These processed signals are sent to a microcontroller that looks at the base band amplitudes to determine respiratory or heartbeat spikes that would indicate human presence. Once processing is completed, the number of detected presences is shown on a touch screen display. The touchscreen display also allows users to control the system, which is water-resistant, portable, easy to train on and use, and capable of working on cars, pickup trucks and sports utility vehicles.