Dr. Renu Tripathi Receives Grant to Develop Laser Radar

Dr. Renu Tripathi, DSU associate professor of physics and engineering, has been awarded a $192,000 grant from the Army Research Office for the development of a long range, high resolution laser detection and ranging (LADAR) system.

LADAR technology development is extremely important for many critical defense applications such as surveillance, autonomous guidance and hazard avoidance. The technology has widespread commercial, military and space applications, which include reverse engineering, process control, autonomous landing and other areas.

Dr. Tripathi is working with Yury Markushin, a DSU optics Ph.D. candidate from Russia. The two have already developed a previous LADAR system and are working now to create an improved multifunction system with polarization imaging capability by employing a photon counting and correlation technique.

“The difference with this LADAR system is it will be more sensitive and more distance will be built into it,” said Dr. Tripathi, who is also a scientist with University's Optical Science Center for Applied Research.

For the last five years, Dr. Tripathi’s laboratory has conducted basic research on developing new ideas and concepts that have been used in the previous LADAR system and will be applied in the new project on which she is embarking.

In addition to developing this key technology, the project will create unique opportunities for DSU students to participate in laser radar research, receive hands-on-training in system design and develop a knowledge base in this critical technology.