Duke Project Aims to Give the Army a Clearer View of the Airwaves

Two men in a lab working on computers
RAPTORS will combine several emerging technologies, including Tingjun Chen’s work to develop on-hardware signal processing.

This is a summary of a story by Ken Kingery on Pratt School of Engineering.

Duke University will lead a $9 million, six-year Army-funded project to develop compact, energy-efficient systems that can detect, identify and locate electromagnetic signals in hostile environments such as battlefields.

The project, known as RAPTORS, is funded by the U.S. Army Combat Capabilities Development Command Army Research Office and brings together researchers from Duke, Northeastern University, Yale University and Raytheon to advance the military’s ability to understand and navigate increasingly crowded areas where overlapping radio waves and electronic signals compete for limited frequencies.

RAPTORS stands for Rapid Analog Processing for Tactical Observation and Opportunistic Radio Spectrum Access. It aims to deliver low-size, weight, power and cost technologies that can quickly detect spectrum activity while operating in challenging battlefield conditions.

Electromagnetic waves carry communications and sensing signals used by radios, cell phones, WiFi networks, satellite communications, and radar systems. Understanding who is using the spectrum, where signals originate, and how they are used is critical to maintaining communications, controlling unmanned systems, and detecting potential threats.

“We want to be able to scan a large 3D space quickly across a wide frequency range, identify spectrum occupancy, and understand where they are coming from and what they’re likely being used for,” said Tingjun Chen, the assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering who leads the project.

The technologies the project researchers will develop are expected to improve future Army spectral sensing and enhance situational awareness across the battlespace.

To learn more about the technologies, visit Pratt School of Engineering.