IDS – Ingegneria Dei Sistemi S.p.A. is headquartered in Pisa (Italy) with offices in five countries (Italy, UK, Brazil, Canada and Australia) and around 500 employees worldwide with experience and expertise in the most sophisticated technologies. IDS's roots date back to 1980. Today, IDS is a world-leading provider of high-tech solutions in selected niche defense and civil market sectors. Its Quality System is certified ISO 9001:2008. IDS provide unrivalled solutions across defense and civil markets in the Naval, Aeronautical, Air Navigation and Radar sectors. It is structured into four Divisions and associated RD laboratories. Naval Division: Supports and advises navies, ship designers and combat system integrators in optimizing the electromagnetic design of naval platforms thanks to consultancy and integrated systems designed to maximize EMC, minimize EMI, reduce radiation hazards and minimize ship signatures. Aeronautical Division: Provides the aerospace market with both high engineering consultancy capabilities and products leveraging long-standing operating excellence in the field of aeronautics. IDS Aeronautical offerings span cost-effective services (such as Electromagnetic Engineering, Flight Control System (FCS) Design) to advanced technological products (such as Electromagnetic Analysis Tools, Measurement Systems). Air Navigation Division: A broad range of scalable and interoperable integrated solutions for the Air Navigation market. 20 years of experience in the field and over 150 committed resources make IDS the ideal partner to face the complex transition from Aeronautical Information Services (AIS) to the global Aeronautical Information Management (AIM) environment. Georadar Division: Designs and provides tailor-made products and services for subsurface investigation, object detection behind walls and monitoring of structure and terrain movements and vibrations. 30+ years of experience make IDS one of the major providers of Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR), Interferometric Radar and Through the Wall Radar technologies.

Role in Project

IDS GeoRadar division has developed, by exploiting core company know-how in Radar System analysis and design and Applied Electromagnetics to create innovative Radar Systems for applications in remote, non-destructive fields of investigation such as:

• civil and structural engineering
• geology, geophysics and the environment
• archeology and cultural heritage
• public security and law enforcement

The GeoRadar Division mission is to adapt the essence of the advanced technologies used in Space and Defence radar systems to compact, portable systems, bringing benefits to users operating in these fields of application. IDS GeoRadar products are being successfully commercialised in Italy and in more than 30 international markets. With respect to the proposal, IDS will focus on the development of the underground GPR.

Relative Expertise

IDS Georadar Division has contributed to projects addressing the design of a Ground Penetrating Radar suitable for operating underground. Specifically, the Orfeus projects addressed the development of a bore head GPR for he use onboard a horizontal directional drilling (HDD) equipment. Currently IDS is also involved in the FP7 Nettun project, with the task of designing a GPR for the cutting head of a Tunnel Boring Machine (TBM). It is clear that all the experiences gained during those researches are a solid ground for the current proposal.

Relevant Projects

• Project “ORFEUS Optimised Radar to Find Every Utility in the Street” – within the European Community 6th Framework Program in Global Change and Ecosystem thematic priority. This project addressed the requirement for advanced technologies for locating, maintaining and rehabilitating buried infrastructures. Specifically it fulfilled the requirement for locating buried assets. The project has led to practical solutions that can be implemented cost-effectively to provide a capability to locate buried infrastructure with accuracy and reliability. This has reduced the need for excavations in the highway, thus minimising direct and indirect costs, reducing the incidence of pollution and enhancing safety
• Project “GALAHAD Advanced Remote Monitoring Techniques for Glaciers, Avalanches and Landslides Hazard Mitigation Study” within the European Community 6th Framework Program in Global Change and Ecosystem thematic priority. This project addressed to landslides, avalanches and glaciers-related hazard mitigation, through the development of advanced monitoring techniques and the improvement of forecasting methods and tools. GALAHAD aimed at developing new solutions for terrestrial remote monitoring of landslides, avalanches and glaciers related hazards. The final objective is to retrieve, through the use of the developed technologies, field parameters that can be used in prediction algorithms for the early warning in emergency management, the long-term forecasting and the pre-disaster planning, in order to mitigate the natural risk effects.
• Project “NeTTUN New Technologies for Tunnelling and Underground Works” within the European Community 7th Framework Program in Advanced underground technologies for intelligent mining and for inspection, maintenance and excavation Theme, which focuses on the design and integration of a novel ground prediction system; essentially, this integrates radar, a seismic sub-system and a data fusion system. IDS has wide experience in the design and development of Ground Penetrating Radars that comes from more than 20 years in the business. Specifically, IDS owns the competencies and the expertise to design, manufacture and integrate the NeTTUN radar, covering both hardware and software dedicated development;
• Project “ORFEUS2 Optimised Radar to Find Every Utility in the Street” – within the European Community 7th Framework Program in Demonstration and exploitation of most promising prototypes and tools derived from European research activities Theme. This project aims at implementing to a commercial stage the prototype HDD bore-head radar technology developed under the project ORFEUS.