Modular human-operated radar framework

Carstens, Wilhelm L

Modular human-operated radar framework

Thesis / Dissertation

2024

Publisher

University of Cape Town

Department

Department of Electrical Engineering

Faculty

Faculty of Engineering and the Built Environment

Abstract

This study investigates the development of operator-facing radar systems with contemporary internet technologies, such as the Internet of Things (IoT) and cloud services. The viability of modular designs allowing a high degree of adaptability is emphasised, given the inherent capabilities of IoT application-level protocols. The use of other internet technologies and services focus on the increased functionality, commonality, and flexibility they provide to modern integrated radar systems. The investigation starts with an overview of operator-facing radar systems, detailing their current and near-future application, broad design considerations, common architectures and web resources available for their development. In evaluating various IoT protocols from literature, the MQTT protocol is selected and then experimentally analysed against pure transport protocols on consumer hardware, characterising their usage. Then, using these technologies, a common framework is designed and developed, alongside a browser-based Human-Machine Interface (HMI) that allows for general usability and performance testing. These tests reveal the implementation to be adequate for many high-level uses, but at some expense to overall data latency and load, necessitating specific consideration where used. Furthermore, IoT protocols allow for distributed radar systems and highly adaptive single-flow signal chains without employing conventional server infrastructure. Although the conceptual framework is not well suited for all radar uses, it does offer a versatile solution for various high-level applications, with future developments in IoT protocols showing particular promise.