Pipeline Damage Prevention Radar

Main Objective

A proof of concept demonstration of airborne Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) will reliably detect excavation damage threats in areas where the pipeline routes may be obscured by dense brush, forest canopy, low cloud cover, smoke, fog, haze, precipitation or low light conditions. SAR is widely used by the DoD for threat detection. Pipeline damage prevention offers a new application where SAR reduces false positives, lessens repeat flight passes and reduces weather related aircraft downtime resulting in operations cost savings.

Public Abstract

Ball Aerospace manage a 14-month program for demonstration and evaluation of a dual-band airborne Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) to reliably detect excavation damage threats in areas where the pipeline routes may be obscured by dense brush, forest canopy, low cloud cover, smoke, fog, haze, precipitation or low light conditions. SAR is widely used by the DoD for threat detection, imaging and change detection from airborne platforms. Pipeline damage prevention offers a new application where SAR increases the likelihood of excavation threat detection and improves safety. The proposed development enables reduced false positives, fewer repeat flight passes and reduced weather related aircraft downtime resulting in operations cost savings. Flight testing will begin near the SAR vendor's facility in Utah to verify aircraft interfaces, installation processes, flight operations and to validate performance of SAR data processing algorithms optimized for detection and imaging of targets hidden beneath forest canopy. System demonstration flight testing will then be performed over foliage covered pipeline located in California using aircraft and personnel contributed by our operator partner Pacific Gas and Electric (PG&E). A final report will include a detailed assessment of excavation damage threat detection performance in addition to a plan for commercialization of the airborne SAR.

Quarterly Status Reports

First Quarterly Report Public Page.

PDPR_Quarterly_Rpt_1-PUBLIC_PAGE.pdf (91,707 bytes) [View] [Download/Save...]

2nd Quartery status report - Public Page

PDPRQuarterlyRpt2-PublicPage-r1.pdf (107,941 bytes) [View] [Download/Save...]

3rd Quarterly Status Report - Public Page

PDPRQuarterlyRptQ2_2016-PublicPage.pdf (117,204 bytes) [View] [Download/Save...]

4th Quarterly Status Report - Public Page

PDPRQuarterlyRptQ3_2016-PublicPage.pdf (109,081 bytes) [View] [Download/Save...]