Optimisation of radar search patterns in localised clutter and terrain masking under direction-specific scan update rates constraints

Abstract

Cognitive radars are systems capable of optimising emission and processing by exploiting knowledge about environment and operational scenario. Those improvements are achieved by controlling new degrees of freedom offered by modern radar technology. In particular, active phased-array radars can perform two-dimensional beam-steering and beamforming. Those new capabilities allow adaptation of radar search patterns to localised constraints. The authors present an improvement from their previous set cover approximation for radar search pattern time-budget minimisation, accounting for localised constraints of terrain masking and direction-specific scan update rates. The addition of those constraints, however, does not modify the underlying mathematical structure of the problem, which can be solved using integer programming methods.