The rapid prototyping expertise of Wright Brothers Institute was brought to bear on an Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) initiative to advance Air Force patented technology from Technology Readiness Level 3 (TRL 3) to TRL 6 while providing a fully demonstrable system with multiple dual-use applications.
The assessment, technical development, testing and technology transfer process will be applied to continuous wave FDA (CW-FDA) radar, colloquially known as Knight Rider. The continuous wave nature of the Knight Rider system makes use of a simpler transmitter/receiver pair, which ultimately provides an autonomous scanning feature useful in many sensing scenarios and needs. The transmitter is even simpler - a single omnidirectional antenna with a simple-to-generate waveform.
WBI’s suggested implementation of the CW-FDA radar (Knight Rider) enables detection in both range and angle at a fraction of the cost of expensive pulse radar systems.
Initial market research indicates that this technology would be useful within unmanned systems and autonomous vehicles. In addition, safety, obstacle detection and avoidance systems could benefit from this type of technology. Building a lightweight, low-cost technology array suite will benefit Air Force UAS users; there is additional potential for making an impact in the commercial automotive industry.
The global military radar market is projected to grow from $11.02 billion in 2015 to $13.04 billion by 2020, representing a CAGR of 3.42%. Increased demand for surveillance and weapon guidance application is the major driver for this growth. (source: MarketsandMarkets)
The automotive radar market size is projected to grow from $2.27 billion in 2016 to $6.61 billion in 2021, a CAGR of 23.81%. Rising concerns regarding vehicle, driver, passenger, and pedestrian safety along with increased involvement of players across the ecosystem have fueled the growth of the automotive radar market globally. The growing trend of autonomous vehicles is also a major factor that has contributed to the growth of this market. The Knight Rider technology could be designed to operate at various positions on a vehicle and provide needed sensing capability to further enable autonomous vehicles. (source: MarketsandMarkets)
WBI kicked off this project in early September 2021, with the primary goal being to develop sufficiently mature prototypes of the Knight Rider concept such that test articles can be evaluated for performance, and feedback ascertained for design iteration and refinement efforts. The secondary goal of the project is to identify opportunities and action plans for commercialization and transition of the final materiel solution.