Fire Prevention: Anti Sniper

July 3 2010 11 289 2

The portable system, which is being developed at Vanderbilde University by order of the American defense agency DARPA, conceptually represents nothing new. It is a so-called passive acoustic system, which, by the difference in the sound of the shot that reaches its microphones, reveals its position in space.

The RedOwl system works on this principle, which we talked about in the article “Before the first shot”. However, the developers intend for the first time to make such a system portable, individual for each soldier, and to combine an array of such field systems into a single network that exchanges information and is connected with GPS navigators. And this is already - a completely different level of modern weapons.

It is reported that in each such system 4 microphones mounted on the helmet will be used, and for communication via radio waves they will be combined into a network built on the basis of ZigBee technology. The network will allow the detection system to rely on data obtained not by a single sensor, but by a whole mass, which will not only expand the search area, but also make the result of work much more accurate.

"If you simply mount the microphones on the helmet, they will be close to each other, and detection accuracy will not be high enough," explains the head of the development team Akos Ledeci (Akos Ledeczi), "However, the interchange of information between network nodes makes the system as a whole much more efficient taking into account the data coming from different soldiers, taking into account their mutual location and orientation in space. Enough data from two soldiers to find out the direction of the shot with an accuracy of more than a degree, which means (for normal conditions) to localize the sniper with an accuracy of several meters. ”

Through the Bluetooth connection, the system communicates with the soldier’s pocket computer, into which satellite images and maps of the combat area are preloaded, so that the place where the sniper has hid will be immediately displayed on the screen. Of course, the system has signal analysis algorithms that make it possible to distinguish the sound characteristic of a shot from a powerful sniper rifle, among the mass of other noises that are inevitable on the battlefield — first of all, to distinguish them from automatic shots.

The main problem that the developers are still facing is the need to clearly monitor the position of all the soldiers whose systems are integrated into a single network. Accuracy, which is available through GPS, is not enough, and in some conditions - for example, in the city - it also becomes not so reliable. The engineers had to equip each soldier with a tiny radio receiver with an analyzer, which, evaluating the interfering signals from the radio beacons on the battlefield, allows a much more accurate understanding of the position of the soldier.

This principle is the implementation of the new Pentagon concept, aimed at creating sensor systems for the battlefield, organized on the principle of "smart dust" (smart-dust). That is - a lot of cheap and miniature "nodes", self-organizing into a single network, in general, much more efficient and reliable than some complex systems.

Indeed, modern sniper detection systems cost from 10 to 50 thousand US dollars, whereas, according to developers, each node in the proposed network system will cost about a thousand.

However, any speaker systems suffer from one major drawback: they can only detect a sniper after he has fired. Meanwhile, there is another approach, which sometimes can even make it possible to neutralize an arrow before it strikes - at the reflected light of its optics. Read about it: “The Hunt for the Hunter”.