Engineering Commons^™

Data Logging System For A Synthetic Aperture Radar Unit, Nicholas J. Testin, Philip Davis, Ian Dorell, Alexander Gillespie

KSU Journey Honors College Capstones and Theses

A small, existing radar unit lacked the ability to automatically store the data it was receiving, which made its use clunky and cumbersome. A system was constructed to allow an on-board microprocessor to track distance traveled, and automatically store the data output from the radar unit to a portable memory unit for later data processing. Distance traveled is determined using a specially designed mobile cart, which electronically converts the rotation of a wheel into an electrical signal while also providing stability for taking accurate radar measurements. The output data from the radar unit is stored as a properly-formatted sound file …

Scaled Synthetic Aperture Rader Development, Jason Garvey Schray

Master's Theses

Several previous Cal Poly thesis projects involve synthetic aperture radar (SAR), automatic target recognition (ATR), and tracking. SAR data was either accessed from a publicly available database or generated using complex computer modeling software. The motivation for this dual thesis project is to design and construct a scaled SAR system to support Cal Poly radar projects. Ideally this is a low-cost, high resolution SAR architecture that produces raw range Doppler data for any desired target area. To that end, a scaled SAR system was successfully designed, built, and tested. The current SAR system, however, does not perform azimuthal compression and …

Advanced Microwave Remote Sensing, David Long

BYU Research Development Office Research Networking Conference

New Techniques for reconstruction SIR/AVE optimized for ASCAR. Bayes estimator selection to optimally select between wind-only, and rain-only correction

Evaluating Features For Broad Species Based Classification Of Bird Observations Using Dual-Polarized Doppler Weather Radar, Sheila Werth

Masters Theses

Wind energy is one of the fastest-growing segments of the world energy market; however, wind energy facilities can have detrimental effects on wildlife, especially birds and bats. The ability to monitor vulnerable species in the vicinity of proposed wind sites could enable site selection that favors more vulnerable species, but current monitoring tools lack this classification capability. This work analyzes polarimetric and Doppler measurements of migrating birds for species based variation.

A novel two stage feature extraction technique was developed to enable comparison between birds. Stage one involves mapping time changing radar measurements to the birds behavioral state in time …

The Effects Of Antenna Coupling In A Mimo Radar System, Benjamin T. Arnold

Theses and Dissertations

A mathematical model for a multiple-input multiple-output radar system is presented. The model is used to track signals through the system in order to identify the impact of antenna array mutual coupling on radar system performance. Simulations using the model provide quantitative assessment of the performance degradation as a function of antenna coupling strength. Specifically, the results show that coupling can cause a target to appear at an angle notably different than its actual angle and can cause an increase in the side lobe level. A compensation technique is presented that completely removes these effects for practical levels of coupling. …

Applications In Low-Power Phased Array Weather Radars, Robert A. Palumbo Jr

Doctoral Dissertations

Low-cost X-band radars are an emerging technology that offer significant advantages over traditional systems for weather remote sensing applications. X-band radars provide enhanced angular resolution at a fraction of the aperture size compared to larger, lower frequency systems. Because of their low cost and small form factor, these radars can now be integrated into more research and commercial applications. This work presents research and development activities using a low-cost, X-band (9410 MHz) Phase-Tilt Radar. The phase-tilt design is a novel phased array architecture that allows for rapid electronic scanning in azimuth and mechanical tilting in elevation, as a compromise between …

Radar Imaging Of Stationary Indoor Targets Using Joint Low-Rank And Sparsity Constraints, Van Ha Tang, Abdesselam Bouzerdoum, Son Lam Phung, Fok Hing Chi Tivive

Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences - Papers: Part A

This paper introduces a joint low-rank and sparsity-based model to address the problem of wall-clutter mitigation in compressed through-the-wall radar imaging. The proposed model is motivated by two observations that wall reflections reside in a low-rank subspace, and target signals tend to be sparse. In the proposed approach, the task of segregating target returns from wall reflections is formulated as a joint low-rank and sparsity constrained optimization problem. Here, the low rank constraint is imposed on the wall component and the sparsity constraint is used to model the target component. An iterative soft thresholding algorithm is developed to estimate a …

Indoor Scene Reconstruction For Through-The-Wall Radar Imaging Using Low-Rank And Sparsity Constraints, Van H. Tang, Abdesselam Bouzerdoum, Son Lam Phung, Fok Hing Chi Tivive

Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences - Papers: Part A

This paper addresses the problem of indoor scene reconstruction in compressed sensing through-the-wall radar imaging. The proposed method is motivated by two observations that wall reflections reside in a low-rank subspace and the imaged scene tends to be sparse. The task of mitigating the wall reflections and reconstructing an image of the scene behind-the-wall is cast as a joint low-rank and sparsity constrained optimization problem, where a low-rank matrix captures the wall returns and a sparse matrix represents the formed image. An iterative algorithm is developed to estimate the low-rank matrix and the sparse scene vector from a reduced measurement …

Multi-Carrier Radar For Target Detection And Communications, John David Ellinger

Browse all Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation considers the optimization of radar performance within the structure imposed by a coded Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) format required to achieve an acceptable communication link. The dual goal of achieving both satisfactory radar and communication performance raises challenges that can be substantively addressed by combining phase coding and modulation techniques to provide the temporal and spectral structure necessary to implement simultaneous radar and communication operations. In particular, the specific techniques, as introduced within this dissertation, of using the Multi-Frequency Complementary Phase Coded (MCPC) sequences, as prescribed by Levanon and Mozeson, for simultaneous radar and wireless communication operations …

Performance Prediction Of Constrained Waveform Design For Adaptive Radar, Aaron M. Jones

Browse all Theses and Dissertations

Today's radars face an ever increasingly complex operational environment, intensified by the numerous types of mission/modes, number and type of targets, non-homogenous clutter and active interferers in the scene. Thus, the ability to adapt ones transmit waveform, to optimally suit the needs for a particular radar tasking and environment, becomes mandatory. This requirement brings with it a host of challenges to implement including the basic decision of what to transmit. In this dissertation, we discuss six original contributions, including the development of performance prediction models for constrained radar waveforms, that aid in the decision making process of an adaptive radar …

Modular Multi-Signal Tracking Pulse Descriptor Word (Pdw) Generator With Field Programmable Gate Array (Fpga) Implementation, Justin Darrell Pelan

Browse all Theses and Dissertations

As signal spectra become dense, the task of tracking and identifying radars becomes increasingly cumbersome. The variety of radars in modern theaters of war compound the task due to simultaneous operation. Real-time processing of large data sets prove difficult for sequential systems, and the parallelism of Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs) becomes an attractive option. To mitigate the increasing complexity of this task, this design proposes an FPGA architecture to produce pulse descriptor words (PDW) for up to eight independent radio frequency signals that can be used in near-real-time processing. Focusing on digital hardware techniques and modular design allow for …