|
|
 |
|
Research Activity
My research activities focus on problems of statistical
signal processing with particular attention to radar applications.
The main past and present research themes can
be grouped as follows:
|
 |
| |
|
|
| The performance of ground-based surveillance radars
strongly depends on the presence of undesired objects, clutter in
the radar jargon. For many years, in radars with low resolution
capabilities, the clutter echoes were considered as having a Gaussian
probability density function. In modern radar systems operating
at low grazing angle or with high resolution, the statistics of
the clutter have been observed to deviate from Gaussianity. The
disturbance is spiky and the spikes are detected and processed by
the tracking algorithms. The understanding of clutter behavior and
the modeling of the non-Gaussian clutter, both in the spectrum and
in the distribution, are problems of fundamental interest in the
radar community for successful radar design and performance prediction.
To design signal processing algorithms that exploit the amplitude
and correlation knowledge of sea and ground clutter, a preliminary
statistical analysis is necessary under different operational conditions. |
|
Modern radar systems generally operate in non-homogeneous and non-stationary
clutter environment. In this condition the clutter is non-Gaussian.
While the radar detection against Gaussian disturbance has been
largely investigated in the past, the coherent detection of target
against a background of non-Gaussian distributed clutter is a problem
that has gained importance in the radar community only in the last
decade. Then, according to the adopted disturbance model, optimum
and sub-optimum detectors have to be designed and their performance
has to be analyzed against a non-Gaussian background. |
|
In most of modern radar systems, the target direction of arrival
(DOA) is estimated by the monopulse technique, which in principle
can work with just a single pulse, but when multiple targets are
present in the range-azimuth cell under test, the monopulse system
provides an erroneous DOA measure, somewhere in the direction of
the "power centroid" of all the targets. The research concerns the
problem of detecting and estimating multiple radar targets present
in the same range-azimuth resolution cell of a surveillance radar
system with a mechanically rotating antenna. |
|
Electronic countermeasure (ECM) techniques against tracking radar
are often enhanced by using radio frequency digital memory (DRFM).
The DRFM is a device in which high-speed sampling digital memory
is used for storage and recreation of radio frequency signals in
order to deceive hostile radar systems. In a DRFM system, the input
RF signal is generally first down-shifted in frequency and then
sampled with a high-speed analog-to-digital converter (ADC). The
samples are stored in memory and they can be manipulated in ampli-tude,
frequency and phase to generate a wide range of jam-ming signals.
The stored samples are later recalled, processed by the digital-to-analog
converter (DAC), up con-verted and transmitted back to the victim
radar. The research concerns the problem of detecting and classifying
a radar target against deception jamming signals in presence of
colored Gaussian noise. |
|
Dolphins have a rich vocal repertoire that has been categorized
into three classes: 1) broadband, short-duration clicks, called
sonar clicks, used in echolocation for orientation, perception,
and navigation; 2) wideband pulsed sounds, called burst pulses,
used in social contexts and 3) narrowband frequency-modulated whistles
also used in social contexts. The carried out research has been
devoted to the analysis and modeling of echolocation signals and
whistles emitted by the Tursiops Truncatus (bottlenose dolphin)
living in the Tuscany Archipelago Park in both audio and ultrasonic
bands.
|
| |
| Scientific
co-operations |
 |
| |
| Dr. Barry J. Billingsley |
Massachusetts
Institute of Technology, Lincoln Laboratory, Lexington, Massachusetts,
USA |
|
| Prof. Alfonso Farina |
SELEX
- Sistemi Integrati, Rome, Italy |
|
| Prof. Georgios B. Giannakis |
Department of Electrical
and Computer Engineering, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis,
MN, USA |
Homepage |
| Dr. Peter H. Lee |
TRW, Space & Technology
Division, Space & Electronics Group, Redondo Beach, CA, USA |
Homepage |
| Prof. Pierfrancesco Lombardo |
Department
“INFOCOM”, Università di Roma “La Sapienza”, Roma, Italia |
|
| Dr. Maurizio Murroni |
University of Cagliari,
Cagliari, Italy |
Homepage |
| Dr. Muralidhar Rangaswamy |
Air
Force Research Laboratory, Rome, USA |
|
| Dr. Kevin J. Sangston |
Electromagnetics Application
Lab, Georgia Tech Research Institute, Atlanta, GA, USA |
|
| Prof. Tong G. Zhou |
School
of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology,
Atlanta, GA, USA |
Homepage |
| Prof. Simon Haykin |
McMaster
University, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada |
|
|
