Ultra-wideband Sensor Web

Period of Performance: 07/01/2002 - 02/01/2003


Phase 1 STTR

Recipient Firm

Cynetics Corp.
P.O. Box 2422 (2603 S. Highway 79)
Rapid City, SD 57709
Principal Investigator

Research Institution

South Dakota School of Mines and Technology
501 East Saint Joseph Street
Rapid City, SD 57701
Institution POC


Cynetics Corporation proposes to determine the feasibility of using ultra-wideband (UWB) sensors which combine both communications and radar in a single waveform. The Principal Investigator for the proposed research has already converted a UWB radar into a one-megabit per second communications system. That effort lead to an understanding of certain critical issues in implementing UWB systems. Cynetics will use this understanding of these critical issues to generate a UWB system methodology that preserves the good features of UWB systems while dealing with their inherent difficulties in a way that will not generate an increasingly complex system. The Cynetics UWB system is expected to have excellent immunity to UWB pulse distortions. The proposed technology, if proven feasible, will enable self-calibrating sensor webs which can determine the presence of intruders and vehicles, and their positions. The same technology will allow asset tracking, which can be applied to logistics, but also to warehousing and asset tracking in the commercial sector. This represents a very large market.