Plextek is a Cambridge based electronics design house, specialising in product and systems design for communications, automotive,
aerospace, defence and medical applications.
Following the dotcom bubble it found itself with a highly skilled
underutilised workforce. Following a brainstorming session the idea
for a revolutionary radar emerged. This was to be a low cost, battery operated,
portable, electronically scanned, FMCW Doppler radar capable of detecting humans and
vehicles at ranges up to 10km. The radar would be IP networkable and be
capable of being operated over wifi/wireless connections, it would also
be able to control other sensors such as CCTV camera's, infared imager's etc via
the network.
Since all of the required expertise was available in house the company
developed their first prototype. This proved to perform very well when
displaying the raw radar data, however turning this raw data into accurate
usable plots with accurate position and minimum false alarms proved to be more difficult.
The innovative low cost electronically scanned antenna, microwave front end and digital signal processing
produced many unique problems and spurious responses, and unlike conventional
radars which operate in the clear, moving tree's, animals, vehicle to
vehicle reflections etc could all produce many false targets and corrupt real target positions.
After Several unsuccessfull attempts Aonica was contracted to help. Our previous
experience in ATC SSR enabled us to develop the unique software algorithms
required to produce clean accurate plots with minimum false alarms. Aonica
also developed much of the Built in Test (BIT) software.
For more information on the Blighter family of radars contact Plextek Ltd
The PC based MMI display and control software was developed by Igence Ltd
