Phased Array Antenna Systems - wireless sensing and monitoring in challenging envivornments
My name is Anastasia Lavrenko, and I am developing innovative microwave sensing and monitoring solutions for most challenging applications. One example is a nonlinear radar-based system for real-life tracking of flying insects. Another, is using microwave signals to detect and locate miniaturised medical robots inside human tissue.
Background
My background is in Radio System engineering, and for a number of years my focus has been largely on the signal processing aspects of wireless systems. I have been lucky to work for two years as a postdoctoral researcher in New Zealand developing a localization system using miniature microwave tags for real-time tracking of insects with drones. This was a highly interdisciplinary project that included solving diverse problems spanning from microwave design to radar sensor development and drone swarming control. This experience has significantly broadened my research horizons and opened to me a hitherto hidden world of entomology and biodiversity conservation.
Since then my main research focus has been on microwave sensing, radio localization and tracking. I love that through my work I get to connect to and learn from such extremely diverse areas as biology, healthcare, agriculture, and industrial engineering. My research challenges me every day to learn new skills and find solutions to most unexpected problems, and that’s what makes it so exciting!
How does your research create impact for society?
Societal challenges that the developed technology can help solving are diverse and widely distributed. It is well-known that terrestrial invertebrates (e.g., insects, slugs, snails) are globally declining, with the most conservative estimates placing the decline rate at 10% per decade. Maintaining invertebrate biodiversity is integral to the functioning and resilience of ecosystems, e.g. as pollinators, food source, for biological control of pests, decomposers, and for medicinal and scientific value. It has far-reaching implications for human well-being and the health of the planet. The availability of biological information about the species’ ecology, such as its home range, dispersal characteristics, and feeding behaviours, is critical for the success of conservation measures to support the preservation of threatened species. However, for most species of terrestrial invertebrates this information is unavailable due to the lack of systems capable of real-time tracking of such small animals. Passive nonlinear tags are one of the very few means by which it can be achieved. The goal of my research is developing affordable, reliable and scalable tracking system that can be used by biologists to study the ecology of small invertebrates.
Healthcare is another area of potential application for nonlinear microwave sensing. The emergence of miniaturized medical robots capable of performing targeted therapeutic procedures in deep-seated anatomical regions presents an alternative to conventional medical treatments. However, it remains a significant challenge to accurately locate the miniaturized robots in the complex environments of living organisms. Taking advantage of the short wavelength and noninvasive nature, nonlinear microwave sensing holds promise in detecting small foreign objects embedded in tissue. However, the limiting factor is the trade-off between the penetration depth and the wavelength of the microwave signals. We are currently working on developing novel strategies for the localization of miniaturized medical robots using microwaves.
Further high-impact applications include maritime search and rescue (SAR) and buried infrastructure detection. According to the European Maritime Safety Agency, more than 2650 ships needed SAR assistance in 2015–2022, 29% of which were related to casualties. By eliminating strong clutter produced by the water-air boundary, nonlinear monitoring systems offer unique benefits for SAR at sea potentially enabling faster and more reliable location of victims and overboard assets. As for buried infrastructure detection, an ability to accurately locate buried pipes and cables has a great impact on the costs and duration of service works. Commonly available location technologies are often unreliable and none are currently capable of detecting plastic structures underground. Developed technology can solve this issue and provide city councils, construction companies, resource suppliers (water, gas, petroleum) and civil engineering research with so-needed solutions.
In the years to come
I have recently received an NWO VENI grant to lay the foundations for the development of innovative wireless sensing and monitoring solutions that address most challenging environments. My long-term vision is creating an R&D cluster centred at UT that would bring together research community, companies and end-users to address the needs of society and industry for microwave radio sensing and localization.
Education
I am passionate about training new generations of electrical, and particularly wireless, engineers. I contribute to the Bachelor education by teaching in the Electronics and Wireless Transmission courses of the EE bachelor programme as well as the Fields and Waves course of the AT bachelor programme. I have also designed and teach a Master-level course Wireless Communication Systems for the EE Master programme, and I am a part of the teaching team in the Advanced Communication and Radar Sensing Master course.
Collaborations
In my work, I collaborate with many partners including University of Canterbury in New Zealand, University of Simon Frazer and University of New Brunswick in Canada, Delft University, Netherlands Institute of Ecology, and TNO.
