ACOUSTIC GROUND SENSORS TO TRIANGULATE BOMB IMPACT IN SUPPORT OF AIRFIELD DAMAGE ASSESSMENT

Airfield damage repair (ADR) is a critical function in restoring damaged airfields after an adversary attack. Before ADR can commence, airfield damage assessment (ADA)—a labor- and time-intensive process—must be conducted. Maintaining airfields in wartime is especially difficult since runways are large, and the presence of unexploded ordnance or chemical weapons poses a safety hazard to ground personnel conducting the damage assessment. To accelerate the ADA process, a network of micro-electro-mechanical (MEM) sensors are used to capture the sound of the explosion and triangulate bomb impacts on the airfield autonomously and instantaneously. This autonomous process can be faster than current methods and can keep personnel safe by limiting them from surveying the airfield. We test several MEM sensors and evaluate localization accuracy, networking capability, simplicity of use, and cost to improve the process. Using a combination of MEM sensors, radio frequency transceivers, GPS modules, microcontrollers, and MATLAB code, we demonstrate that bomb impacts can be triangulated and displayed on an interface for supporting the ADA mission.http://archive.org/details/acousticgroundse1094562813Outstanding ThesisCaptain, United States Marine CorpsApproved for public release; distribution is unlimited