This potentially has some very interesting ramifications . If you Google “ Echodyne ,” you ’ ll find that a lot of stories have been written about using metamaterials to create either ( pick your generation ’ s pop-culture reference ) Harry Potter invisibility cloaks or Klingon Bird-of-Prey cloaking devices . Someday , in theory , metamaterials could be created that simply absorb light , rendering objects made from them effectively invisible .
But in the here and now , metamaterials also can be used to affect how radio waves behave . And because of that , Echodyne has been able to use metamaterials to create radars that perform like state-of-the-art phased array radars , but with a fraction of the size , weight , energy requirement – and cost .
There are all sorts of boundary-pushing potential applications for this kind of technology , said Jeff Finan .
One of them is self-driving cars , which will need very effective , lightweight radars if they are to become a safe part of everyday traffic , he said .
But there are also a lot of potential applications involving flying things – drones especially .
Last year , Echodyne successfully field-tested a radar about the size and weight of a tablet computer that provided real-time images clear enough to allow the unmanned test vehicle to avoid oncoming aerial traffic . The goal is to free drones from having to be operated in line-of-sight environments – that is , in situations where the operator can and must visually track the unmanned vehicle .
Doing that will open up a whole host of potential uses , Finan said . There ’ s Amazon ’ s much-talked-about proposal to create a fleet of autonomous package-delivery drones , for example .
There are also potential security applications or military uses – ISIS , for example , has been using small off-theshelf commercial drones to carry and drop grenades and other small bombs . Echodyne ’ s radar could be used to guide anti-drone drones to stop them .
Plus there are other potentially lucrative – if less dramatic – uses : drones with precise , light-weight radar could help farmers identify which plants in their field aren ’ t getting enough water , or might be infested with insects . Spraying a handful of plants with pesticides – rather than an entire field – would be better for the environment , and cheaper for the farmer .
And then there are potential uses to make railroads safer , Finan said . Using drones to do constant safety inspections on rail lines could prevent those
accidents – and the savings from preventing just one train derailment could pay for an entire fleet of drones .
One of the uses Echodyne wanted to study was whether their metamaterial radar antennae could be used to improve terrain mapping . The problem , said Finan , is that Echodyne is a very small company . Back in 2016 , it had barely 20 employees . ( Today the workforce has expanded to more than 60 .)
So the company teamed with University of Washington associate engineering professor Matt Reynolds , applied for a JCATI grant , and received $ 99,889 in funding for the project , which determined that : A ) the technology would be affordable and effective , and B ) there ’ s a market to be served , primarily government agencies that need updated terrain maps .
30 NORTHWEST AEROSPACE NEWS