Apr 11, 2008 5:09 pm US/Mountain
CSU Researches Develop Improved Radar For Troops
FORT COLLINS, Colo. (CBS4) ―
New research at Colorado State University could help American troops get a view of the enemy they can't get right now. Researchers are doing it by improving radar.
One of the big challenges for soldiers fighting in urban areas like Baghdad is that the radar equipment they use to locate the enemy doesn't work well with all the buildings and cars and other things that mix up the radar signals. The defense department hired a CSU professor to lead the effort to give soldiers a better urban radar.
Professor Edwin Chong said the group developed new technology that can identify enemy targets 10 times better than the radar the troops use now. The researchers' animation shows the possibility of a web of radar sites that could give a clear picture of a hostile environment.
The new radar technology uses radar sending out a variety of signal types which are processed by a computer. Chong says the improvements go beyond simply spotting the enemy.
"There are other experiments we've done as well that improve the performance of tracking a target; where a target is moving and you try to track it over time" Chong said. "We can show dramatic improvements in the performance of doing that task as well"
It is technology the research team has invented. The next step would be to develop the actual radars which Chong says could be small portable units with a battery and some sort of sticky tape on them all connected wirelessly. Soldiers working in an area could stick the radars on buildings and instantly start to get a better picture of the dangers they face.
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