SA-TWG Webinar: Low Frequency Communications and Distributed Processing for Autonomous Systems
Date: 16 October 2023
Time: 11:00 AM ET (New York Time)
Speaker(s): Dr. Brian Sadler
Abstract
Autonomous teams of unmanned ground and air vehicles rely on networking and distributed processing to collaborate as they jointly localize, explore, map, and learn in sometimes difficult and adverse conditions. Co-designed intelligent wireless networks are needed for these autonomous mobile agents for applications including disaster response, logistics and transportation, supplementing cellular networks, and agricultural and environmental monitoring.
In this talk we survey recent progress on wireless networking and distributed processing for autonomous systems using a low frequency portion of the electromagnetic spectrum, here defined as roughly 25 to 100 MHz with corresponding wavelengths of 3 to 12 meters. This research is motivated by the desire to support autonomous systems operating in dense and cluttered environments by harnessing low frequency propagation, where meters long wavelengths yield significantly reduced scattering and enhanced penetration of obstacles and structures. This differs considerably from higher frequency propagation, requiring different low frequency propagation models than those widely employed for other bands. Progress in use of low frequency for autonomous systems has resulted from combined advances in low frequency propagation modeling, networking, antennas and electromagnetics, geolocation, multi-antenna array distributed beamforming, and mobile collaborative processing. These are leading to new tools and methods, especially in physically complex indoor/outdoor, dense urban, and other challenging scenarios.
Biography
Brian Sadler is the Senior Research Scientist for Intelligent Systems at the Army Research Laboratory (ARL). He has been an IEEE Distinguished Lecturer for the Signal Processing and Communications Societies and an editor for a variety of publications including the IEEE Journal on Selected Areas in Communications, IEEE Transactions on Robotics, and the IEEE Transactions on Signal Processing. His research interests include multi-agent intelligent systems, networking, signal processing, and learning. He is an ARL Fellow, IEEE Life Fellow, and received the Presidential Rank Award in 2021.
