An ultra wideband radar for micro air vehicle applications

The development and widespread use of micro air vehicles (MAVs) in the battlefield environment has been effectively constrained by the limitations in the MAV sensor suite. Furthermore, the extreme size, weight and power constraints imposed on the on-board electronics for such platforms have made it very difficult to utilize more conventional and commercially available technologies for this application. This paper discusses the development of an extremely small, micro-power, radar system utilizing ultra wideband (UWB) technology which addresses MAV mission requirements for collision avoidance and precision altimetry in support of autonomous vehicle operation.