A Thinking Sensor
Disruptive innovation of a radar that mimics part of the human brain
aiRadar has developed a series of Modular Software Defined mmWave Radars, the MMI series, that are software-configured in two ways: as conventional Active Electronically Scanned Array (AESA) radars, with Elevation Interferometry and Moving Target Indication (MTI) capability; or, as Ultra High-Resolution Synthetic Aperture Radars (SAR) with Interferometry, Digital
Surface Modeling and Moving Target Indication.
Early in the development of our radars, we made a decision to create an entirely new paradigm for advanced phased array radars with AESA. Typically, every new phased array radar has a specific application, which is very inflexible. We decided to create a flexible AESA radar architecture with a new Radar Programming Language with a syntax similar to “C”, which we called aiRPL. This aiRPL code would be compiled and executed on the radar itself, on a very flexible radar specific processor (which we called the aiRadar Processing Unit, or aiRPU). With a view to the emerging world of Artificial Intelligence, aiRadar designed the aiRPU in a way that it mimics the amygdala, that part of the human brain that automatically responds to
danger. The amygdala regulates autonomic decision-making and how instinctive and motivational behavior adapts to changes in the environment. It activates the fight-or-flight response.
The long-term vision of aiRadar is to lay down the foundations of a future radar where the radar itself regulates autonomic decision-making and adapts to changes in the sensed environment through ‘implicit associative learning’: a true Cognitive Adaptive Radar. aiRadar’s current advanced AESA Radars enable a Track-While-Scan capability to provide constant situational awareness over a broad sector, while simultaneously detecting and tracking individual targets, using traditional radar measurements (target range, bearing, strength, and radial velocity) with traditional Target-Tracking Kalman Filters.