AULOS: Finmeccanica family of passive sensors

The name comes from an Ancient Greek wind instrument because AULOS is a passive radar family system developed by SELEX Sistemi Integrati (now Finmeccanica) that exploits electromagnetic energy already present in the environment such as FM frequency radio and DVB-T (digital video broadcast - terrestrial) emissions, and is completely environmentally friendly. The new green system is the result of many years of R&D, some undertaken in concert with the Terrestrial Armaments Department [1], [2], [3], [4]. It is a technologically advanced family of sensors developed entirely on the basis of a "soft radar" approach, involving signal sampling directly at carrier frequency using COTS (commercial off the shelf) devices for signal reception and digital processing. The resulting biband family offers great flexibility for potential use in a variety of operating conditions, along with enhanced target monitoring distance and position estimate performance.