Army Research in Acoustic Sensing

Encoding for Auditory Representations (EARs) Workshop 22 AUG 2011

Dr. W. Devereux Palmer Program Manager, Electronics Division ARL Army Research Office [email protected]

Mr. Michael V. Scanlon Chief, Acoustic and EM Sensing ARL Sensors and Electronic Devices Directorate [email protected]

DISTRIBUTION STATEMENT A. Approved for public release; distribution is unlimited.

Army Introduction

• Mr. Michael Scanlon – Chief, Acoustic and EM Sensing Branch – Sensors and Electron Devices Directorate – US Army Research Laboratory • Sensors and Sensor Systems – Detection – Classification – Situational awareness • Dr. Dev Palmer – Program Manager, Electromagnetics, Microwaves, and Power – Electronics Division – Engineering Sciences Directorate – US Army Research Office • Basic Research – Phenomenology – Minimum energy, high fidelity components and circuit architectures – Solving the “cocktail party problem” DISTRIBUTION STATEMENT A. Approved for public release; distribution is unlimited.

ARL Role in Army S&T

Personnel

G-1

Medical

Medical Command MEDCOM

Materiel

Army Materiel Command AMC Research, Development and Engineering Command RDECOM

Infrastructure/ Environmental

U.S. Army Corps of Engineers USACE

Strategic Defense

Strategic Missile Defense Command SMDC Army Materiel Systems Analysis Agency AMSAA Aviation and Missile RDEC AMRDEC Armament RDEC ARDEC Army Research Laboratory ARL Communications and Electronics RDEC CERDEC Edgewood Chem-Bio Center ECBC Natick Soldier Center NSC Simulation & Training Technology Center STTC Tank Automotive RDEC TARDEC

ARL provides underpinning Science, Technology, and Analysis to the Army

DISTRIBUTION STATEMENT A. Approved for public release; distribution is unlimited.

US Army Research Laboratory

Associate Director for Plans & Programs Dr. Reed Skaggs Associate Director for Science & Technology Dr. Cary Chabalowski Associate Director for Laboratory Operations Ms. Teresa Kines Director Mr. John Miller Deputy Director for Basic Science & Director ARO Dr. David Skatrud Military Deputy COL Bobby Smith Sergeant Major Steve Hornbach Vehicle Technology Human Research & Engineering Survivability/ Lethality Analysis Computational & Information Sciences Sensors & Electron Devices Weapons & Materials Research Army Research Office Mathematical & Information Sciences Physical Sciences Engineering Sciences DISTRIBUTION STATEMENT A. Approved for public release; distribution is unlimited.

EMP Program Vision and Thrusts

Program Vision

Create the ultimate Army radio that will receive and demodulate any electromagnetic signal from any direction, modulate and transmit any electromagnetic signal in any direction, reconfigure to implement a variety of radio and sensor functions, adapt to the ambient environment, and respond to changing requirements and missions

Program Thrusts

Electromagnetics and Antennas RF Circuit Integration Power Efficiency and Control Photo Courtesy of U.S. Army SPC Chriss McCann DISTRIBUTION STATEMENT A. Approved for public release; distribution is unlimited.

EMP Basic Research Topics in Acoustics

• Investigation into the phenomenology underlying acoustic signals that are sparse in time and frequency • Minimum energy, high fidelity components and circuit architectures required to transduce, encode, store, and transmit acoustic signals • Statistical signal processing techniques for automatic separation, localization, and identification of multiple sources from a single stream of acoustical data • New concepts and circuit architectures for beamforming at acoustic frequencies of interest • Bio-inspired architectures addressing the above issues DISTRIBUTION STATEMENT A. Approved for public release; distribution is unlimited.

Biological Acoustic Direction Finding Systems are Remarkable

• The human voice is centered around 1 kHz – Wavelength in air of about one foot • Distance between human ears is around six inches – About half a wavelength at 1 kHz – Still can resolve source AZ and EL to within a few degrees • Equivalent to RF DF in the VHF band with a ~1.5 m aperture www.anytimecostumes.com • The parasitic fly –

Ormia’s Ormia Ochracea

can localize the song of the cricket host to within 2º in both azimuth and elevation – The cricket’s song is 4.6 to 5.2 kHz ears are only 0.5 mm apart • Precise directional resolution with such a tiny aperture vastly exceeds current state-of-the-art in both acoustics and electromagnetics Photo courtesy of Ron Miles, SUNY Binghamton DISTRIBUTION STATEMENT A. Approved for public release; distribution is unlimited.

Acoustic and EM Sensing Branch Research Interests

• Detect, localize & identify transient waveforms created by weapons & explosions • Develop advanced sensors and signal processing techniques to improve detection & classification • Investigate acoustic ground impedance & atmospheric effects & characterize impact on waveform structure • Study wind & flow noise reduction techniques • Investigate models to simulate waveform propagation to reduce data collection requirements; apply to classifier development • Develop techniques for tracking helicopters or other aircraft in 3D • Develop ground-based & elevated sensor platforms (aerostat & UAVs) • Acoustics provides persistent & enhanced situational awareness DISTRIBUTION STATEMENT A. Approved for public release; distribution is unlimited.

Physical Modeling

Acoustic Sensing Research Taxonomy

Numerical Simulation Propagation Channel Sound Source Wind / Flow Noise Signal generation Signal measurement Research topic Proposed solution Application Air & Ground Parameters Sensing Microphone Technology Classification Detection Direction-of -Arrival Localization Helicopters Tracking Support Vector Machine Markov Switching Vector Auto-Regression Sparse Representation Structure Monitoring Array Signal Processing Meteorological Correction Mortar, Rocket, Gunfire, IED Localization DISTRIBUTION STATEMENT A. Approved for public release; distribution is unlimited.