Fully Adaptive Radar: From Theory to Implementation

The presentation will introduce fully adaptive, sometimes called cognitive, processing for radar systems. The emphasis will be on how the emerging theories can be taken and applied in practice. Essentially, an attempt to answer the question “How does one build a fully adaptive radar?” will be made. The meaning of cognition, from an engineering perspective, will be discussed and a case made as to why future radar system will have to use concepts from cognitive theory to truly close the loop between the transmitter and receiver. From this base position techniques by which cognitive-like algorithms can be developed to form fully adaptive radars will be discussed. A mathematically rigorous, generalized fully adaptive framework will be introduced and examples of its use in experimental tests given. Further examples will be provided highlighting how cognition can be, and in some cases already is, used in radar processing. The tutorial will close with remarks on how the radar engineering community can move forwards with fully adaptive processing as a new part of its design toolkit.