QUASAR FEDERAL SYSTEMS, INC. — Department of Defense SBIR Phase I: N172-116

Description

Technology advances have produced a class of unmanned vehicles (UVs) that operate in air, on the ground, and underwater. These platforms are ideal for remote sensing because they are small, lightweight, fast, and covert. There is ongoing interest in integrating SIGINT sensor packages onto these platforms.<br>One disadvantage to these small platforms is that they are easily buffeted about by environmental conditions (waves, wind, etc.), and this presents a challenge to low frequency electromagnetic (EM) sensors. This motion-induced signal becomes clutter, or noise, in the data, which overwhelms signals of interest.<br>There is a need for high sensitivity, low frequency magnetic sensors for long range SIGINT on UVs. These sensors must have motion isolation and large dynamic range to sense small long-range signals atop large motion-induced signals. <br>QUASAR Federal Systems (QFS) is a world leader in advanced electromagnetic sensing. That expertise includes a patent for an integrated, 3-axis, fluxgate/induction sensor. QFS also has extensive experience integrating sensors on both airborne and underwater platforms, and we have implemented multiple motion cancellation techniques into sensor systems we have developed. Here, QFS proposes a lightweight, low power, low magnetic signature, 3-axis fluxgate for UV platforms with active (and possibly passive) motion cancellation.