Dolphin inspired new radar system

The TWIPR diode target

Scientists at the University of Southampton, in collaboration with University College London and Cobham Technical Services, have developed a new kind of radar that can detect hidden surveillance equipment and explosives. The TWIPR (twin inverted pulse radar) is able to distinguish true 'targets', such as certain types of electronic circuits that may be used in explosive or espionage devices, from 'clutter' that may be mistaken for a genuine target by traditional radar and metal detectors. 

The new system has been developed by a team led by Professor Tim Leighton from the University's Institute of Sound and Vibration Research and is based on his unique sonar concept called twin inverted pulse sonar (TWIPS). TWIPS exploits the natural abilities of dolphins t process their sonar signals to distiniguish between targets and clutter in bubbly water. Some dolphins have been observed to blow bubble nets around schools of fish, which force the fish to cluster together, and their sonar would not work if they not distinguish the fish from the bubbles. 

Professor Leighton's team proposed that the TWIPS method could be applied to electromagnetic waves and that the same technique would work with radar. They teamed up with Professor Hugh Griffiths and Dr Kenneth Tong of University College London and Dr David Daniels of Cobham technical services to test the proposal, by applying TWIPR radar pulses to a target to distinguish it from clutter. In the test the tiny target showed up 100,000 times more powerfully than the clutter signal from an aluminium plate measuring 34cm by 40 cm. 

This is a major discovery and it can help in a lots applications in addition with the ones we discussed above. It can be extended to other radiations such as magnetic resonance imaging and light detection and ranging etc.