PHYSICAL SCIENCES INC. — Department of Defense STTR Phase I: A21C-T012

Description

The US Army and other DOD forces occasionally need to breach reinforced concrete structures. There are several existing methods to assess the structural properties and predict reinforcement but each of these methods has specific deficiencies (e.g. to loud, too large, too inconsistent). Ground penetrating radar is a promising technology for non-destructive concrete substructure characterization but currently requires significant training to operate the devices and properly interpret the results. To address the US Army need for an easy and rapid evaluation tool, Physical Sciences Inc. (PSI) proposes to develop the Radar for Accelerated Breaching of Concrete Structures (RABCS). This device will use a deployable multi-static radar antenna and machine learning techniques to make a single 3D scan of a concrete volume then algorithmically locate, classify, and display actionable information. PSI will leverage over a decade of R&D in wideband deployable antennas, combined with our University of Texas partner’s work in medical multi-static radar imaging, to design a system that meets US Army requirements. During the Phase I program, PSI will design and fabricate a prototype system and test it against real concrete structural samples. Future work will integrate the electronics with the antenna and update the design for operational environments.