Emerging Technologies

Emerging Technologies #19

Dolphins Inspire A New Bomb-Detecting System

Table of Contents

Section 1 – Executive Summary

Section 2 – Related News & Articles

Article 1.Dolphin-inspired radar could help detect roadside bombs

Article 2.Dolphins inspire a new bomb-detecting system

Article 3.New Radar System Inspired by Dolphins to Detect Hidden Surveillance and Explosive Devices

Section 1 –Executive Summary

Dolphins Inspire A New Bomb-Detecting System

  • Inspired by the way dolphins hunt using bubble nets, scientists at the University of Southampton, in collaboration with University College London and Cobham Technical Services, have developed a new kind of radar that can detect hidden surveillance equipment and explosives.
  • The twin inverted pulse radar (TWIPR) is able to distinguish true 'targets', such as certain types of electronic circuits that may be used in explosive or espionage devices, from 'clutter' (other metallic items like pipes, drinks cans, nails for example) that may be mistaken for a genuine target by traditional radar and metal detectors.
  • The new system has been developed by a team led by Professor Tim Leighton from the University's Institute of Sound and Vibration Research and is based on his unique sonar concept called twin inverted pulse sonar (TWIPS). TWIPS exploits the natural abilities of dolphins to process their sonar signals to distinguish between targets and clutter in bubbly water. Some dolphins have been observed to blow 'bubble nets' around schools of fish, which force the fish to cluster together, and their sonar would not work if they could not distinguish the fish from the bubbles.
  • The technique uses a signal consisting of two pulses in quick succession, one identical to the other, but phase inverted. Professor Leighton, along with Professor Paul White and students Dan Finfer and Gim Hwa Chua, showed that TWIPS could enhance linear scatter from the target, while simultaneously suppressing nonlinear scattering from oceanic bubbles.
  • It is hoped that once fully developed, the technology could not only locate things such as explosives, but that it could also be used to monitor the whereabouts of people in hazardous environments who are wearing tags that TWIPR can detect.

Section 2–Related News & Articles

Article 1.Dolphin-inspired radar could help detect roadside bombs

Source:

  • British engineers have taken inspiration from dolphins for a new type of radar that could help detect roadside bombs more easily. The device sends out two pulses instead of one, mimicking how dolphins pinpoint their prey.
  • The twin inverted pulse radar (TWIPR) can distinguish between the electronics at the heart of an explosive and other "clutter" such as pipes or nails. Experts said the system "showed promise".
  • The radar device has been developed by a team led by Prof Tim Leighton, of the University of Southampton, and scientists from University College, London.

Strong Signal

  • Prof Leighton took his inspiration from the way dolphins are able to process their sonar signals to pinpoint prey in bubbly water.Some dolphins blow bubble nets around schools of fish to force them to cluster together.
  • Their sonar would not work if they could not distinguish the fish from the bubbles.He wanted to see if the same technique would work with radio waves, and so developed a system that also sent out pulses in pairs.
  • Traditional radar typically sends out just one pulse.The device his team came up with was just 2cm in size and cost less than £1 to put together.The second pulse has the reverse polarity of the first.
  • Any technology that increases the probability of detecting IEDs [improvised explosive device] or buried earthquake victims while reducing false alarms will undoubtedly save lives”. This means that if it hits an electronic device, it turns the pulse into a positive, which in turn gives off a very strong signal.
  • In tests the team applied the radar pulses to an antenna typical of the circuitry used in explosive devices, which was surrounded by "clutter" metals.
  • The antenna showed up 100,000 times more powerfully than the other metal "clutter".

Animal super-senses

  • Such a device could also be extremely helpful in finding surveillance device as well as bombs, the team said.It could even help locate people buried after an avalanche or earthquake by detecting their mobile phones.
  • "Such technology could also be extended to other radiations, such as magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and light detection and ranging (Lidar)... offering the possibility of early fire detection systems," said Prof Leighton.
  • Gary Kemp, programme director at technology consultancy Cambridge Consultants, said that the system "shows promise".
  • He said: "We continue to take inspiration from the many animal super-senses found in nature, whether from the sophisticated echolocation techniques used by bats and cetaceans or the remarkable chemical detection ability of dogs and bees.
  • "Any technology that increases the probability of detecting IEDs [improvised explosive device] or buried earthquake victims while reducing false alarms will undoubtedly save lives," he added.

Article 2.Dolphins inspire a new bomb-detecting system

Source:

  • Chances are, you know that dolphins use sonar to locate and stun prey underwater. You might also know that they create "bubble nets," in which they trap fish inside a ring of air bubbles that they blow while swimming in a circle. With all those distracting bubbles suspended in the water, though, their sonar needs to work in a special way in order to pick out the fish. Scientists have copied that sonar system, to create a type of radar that could differentiate between ordinary objects and things like explosive devices.
  • Prof. Tim Leighton, of the University of Southampton in the UK, led the research. His team started out by developing a dolphin-inspired system known as twin inverted pulse sonar, or TWIPS, which we covered in 2010.
  • In this system, two sonar pulses are sent out in quick succession. Those pulses are identical to one another, except for the fact that they're phase-inverted. When those pulses hit a solid target, it scatters the reflected sound in a linear pattern. Bubbles, on the other hand, produce non-linear scattering. By suppressing the non-linear return signals, TWIPS is therefore able to locate underwater targets amidst bubbles.
  • The team then decided to see if the same thing would work using electromagnetic waves, as opposed to the sound pulses used in sonar. It did work, the result being what is called twin inverted pulse radar, or TWIPR. In this case, however, the target produces non-linear scattering, while the "clutter" signals are linear.
  • The researchers successfully used TWIPR to pick out a tiny dipole antenna with a diode across its feedpoint (the sort of electronics often found in bombs or covert communications devices), which was located amidst an aluminum plate and a rusty bench clamp.
  • It is hoped that once fully developed, the technology could not only locate things such as explosives, but that it could also be used to monitor the whereabouts of people in hazardous environments who are wearing tags that TWIPR can detect.

Article 3.New Radar System Inspired by Dolphins to Detect Hidden Surveillance and Explosive Devices

Source:

  • Inspired by the way dolphins hunt using bubble nets, scientists at the University of Southampton, in collaboration with University College London and Cobham Technical Services, have developed a new kind of radar that can detect hidden surveillance equipment and explosives.
  • The twin inverted pulse radar (TWIPR) is able to distinguish true 'targets', such as certain types of electronic circuits that may be used in explosive or espionage devices, from 'clutter' (other metallic items like pipes, drinks cans, nails for example) that may be mistaken for a genuine target by traditional radar and metal detectors.
  • The new system has been developed by a team led by Professor Tim Leighton from the University's Institute of Sound and Vibration Research and is based on his unique sonar concept called twin inverted pulse sonar (TWIPS). TWIPS exploits the natural abilities of dolphins to process their sonar signals to distinguish between targets and clutter in bubbly water. Some dolphins have been observed to blow 'bubble nets' around schools of fish, which force the fish to cluster together, and their sonar would not work if they could not distinguish the fish from the bubbles.
  • The technique uses a signal consisting of two pulses in quick succession, one identical to the other, but phase inverted. Professor Leighton, along with Professor Paul White and students Dan Finfer and Gim Hwa Chua, showed that TWIPS could enhance linear scatter from the target, while simultaneously suppressing nonlinear scattering from oceanic bubbles.
  • Professor Leighton's team proposed that the TWIPS method could be applied to electromagnetic waves and that the same technique would work with radar. They teamed up with Professor Hugh Griffiths and Dr Kenneth Tong of University College London and Dr David Daniels of Cobham Technical Services to test the proposal, by applying TWIPR radar pulses to a 'target' (a dipole antenna with a diode across its feedpoint -- typical of circuitry in devices associated with covert communications, espionage or explosives) to distinguish it from 'clutter' (represented by an aluminium plate and a rusty bench clamp). In the test, the tiny target showed up 100,000 times more powerfully than the clutter signal from an aluminium plate measuring 34 cm by 40 cm.
  • The study, 'Radar clutter suppression and target discrimination using twin inverted pulses' is published in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society A.
  • Professor Leighton says: "As with TWIPS, the TWIPR method distinguishes linear scatterers from nonlinear ones. However, in scenarios for which TWIPS was designed, the clutter scatters nonlinearly and the target linearly -- while in situations using TWIPR, these properties are reversed.
  • "For instance, certain electronic components can scatter radar signals nonlinearly if driven by a sufficiently strong radar signal, in contrast to naturally occurring objects which tend to scatter linearly."
  • Given that the diode target measured 6 cm in length, weighed 2.8 g, costs less than one Euro and requires no batteries, it allows the manufacture of small, lightweight and inexpensive location and identification tags for animals, infrastructure (pipelines, conduits for example) and for humans entering hazardous areas, particularly where they might be underground or buried.. These tags can easily be tuned to scatter-specific resonances to provide a unique identifier to a TWIPR pulse, what Professor Leighton calls 'the TWIPR fingerprint'.
  • Buried catastrophe victims not carrying such tags might still be located by TWIPR, as it can carry the bandwidth to search for mobile phone resonances, offering the possibility of locating victims from their mobile phones, even when the phones are turned off or the batteries have no charge remaining..
  • Professor Leighton adds: "In addition to the applications discussed above, such technology could be extended to other radiations, such as magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and light detection and ranging (LIDAR), which, for example, scatters nonlinearly from combustion products, offering the possibility of early fire detection systems."