Engineering Commons^™

Experimental Validation Of A Numerical Forward Model For Tunnel Detection Using Cross-Borehole Radar, Arvin Farid, Jose A. Martinez-Lorenzo, Akram N. Alshawabkeh, Carey M. Rappaport

Civil Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

The goal of this research is to develop an experimentally validated twodimensional (2D) finite difference frequency domain (FDFD) numerical forward model to study the potential of radar-based tunnel detection. Tunnel detection has become a subject of interest to the nation due to the use of tunnels by illegal immigrants, smugglers, prisoners, assailants, and terrorists. These concerns call for research to nondestructively detect, localize, and monitor tunnels. Nondestructive detection requires robust image reconstruction and inverse models, which in turn need robust forward models. Cross-Well Radar (CWR) modality is used for experimentation to avoid soil-air interface roughness. CWR is not a versatile …

Multi-View Through-The-Wall Radar Imaging Using Compressed Sensing, Jie Yang, Abdesselam Bouzerdoum, Moeness G. Amin

Professor Salim Bouzerdoum

This paper considers the problem of Through-the-Wall Radar Imaging (TWRI) from multiple views using Compressed Sensing (CS). The scene reconstruction problem is reformulated in terms of finding a sparse representation of the target locations, consistent with the observations. In contrast to the common approach of first applying image formation to each view and then fusing the single-view images, observations from the different views are combined together into a composite measurement vector and a new dictionary is constructed accordingly. A sparse image representation of the scene is then obtained from the composite measurement vector and the new dictionary using 1 -norm …

Accuracy Of Biomass And Structure Estimates From Radar And Lidar, Razi Uddin Ahmed

Open Access Dissertations

A better understanding of ecosystem processes requires accurate estimates of forest biomass and structure on global scales. Recently, there have been demonstrations of the ability of remote sensing instruments, such as radar and lidar, for the estimation of forest parameters from spaceborne platforms in a consistent manner. These advances can be exploited for global forest biomass accounting and structure characterization, leading to a better understanding of the global carbon cycle. The popular techniques for estimation of forest parameters from radar instruments in particular, use backscatter intensity, interferometry and polarimetric interferometry. This dissertation analyzes the accuracy of biomass and structure estimates …

Slope Stability Monitoring Using Remote Sensing Techniques, Omar Alberto Conte Robles

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

During the past six years the Arkansas State Highway and Transportation Department (AHTD) has spent over nine million dollars repairing slope failures that have occurred in the state of Arkansas. Specifically, higher than average precipitation in 2004 and 2008 led to large quantities of slides, all of which were repaired. Two highways, within the state of Arkansas, with known historical movements along or across the highways are being monitored using traditional surveying techniques and advanced remote sensing techniques. These slides, both of which are located in fill slopes. One a 500-foot long slide located north of Chester, Arkansas, within the …

Synthetic Aperture Radar Tool And Libraries: A Framework For Geo-Referenced Data Processing And Algorithm Prototyping, Nathan R. Crookston

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

Creating a system for Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) image formation can be a huge undertaking as it requires knowledge of several disparate domains. Researchers may be prevented from applying interesting techniques in a particular domain due to hurdles in working with those areas outside their area of interest. This paper presents the SyntheTic Aperture Radar Tool and Libraries (STARTAL) framework for SAR processing that simplifies adding new data formats and prototyping algorithms.

STARTAL provides a user interface for viewing the full data region on ground geometry, selecting sub-regions to process, and viewing processed results. Many common, difficult tasks are provided …

A Compressive Radar System With Chaos Based Fm Signals Generated Using The Bernoulli Map, Charan Teja Enugula

Electrical Engineering Theses

Matched filters are used in radar systems to identify echo signals embedded in noise. By using matched filters, range and Doppler information about the target can be extracted from the reflected signal. The use of matched filters in high frequency radars has the effect of increasing the cost and complexity of these systems. For that reason, the radar research community is looking at a new technique called compressive sensing or compressive sampling. This technique works by exploiting signal sparsity and has the potential to eliminate the use of matched filters and high frequency analog-to-digital converters. In this research, it is …

Cross-Well Radar I: Experimental Simulation Of Cross-Well Tomography And Validation, Arvin Farid, Akram N. Alshawabkeh, Carey M. Rappaport

Akram N. Alshawabkeh

This paper explains and evaluates the potential and limitations of conducting Cross-Well Radar (CWR) in sandy soils. Implementing the experiment and data collection in the absence of any scattering object, and in the presence of an acrylic plate (a representative of dielectric objects, such as DNAPL (dense non-aqueous phase liquid) pools, etc.), as a contrasting object in a water-saturated soil is also studied. To be able to image the signature of any object, more than one pair of receiving and transmitting antennas are required. The paper describes a method to achieve repeatable, reliable, and reproducible laboratory results for different transmitter-receiver …

Experimental Validation Of A Numerical Forward Model For Tunnel Detection Using Cross-Borehole Radar, Arvin Farid, Jose A. Martinez-Lorenzo, Akram N. Alshawabkeh, Carey M. Rappaport

Akram N. Alshawabkeh

The goal of this research is to develop an experimentally validated twodimensional (2D) finite difference frequency domain (FDFD) numerical forward model to study the potential of radar-based tunnel detection. Tunnel detection has become a subject of interest to the nation due to the use of tunnels by illegal immigrants, smugglers, prisoners, assailants, and terrorists. These concerns call for research to nondestructively detect, localize, and monitor tunnels. Nondestructive detection requires robust image reconstruction and inverse models, which in turn need robust forward models. Cross-Well Radar (CWR) modality is used for experimentation to avoid soil-air interface roughness. CWR is not a versatile …

Tunnel Detection Using Cross Borehole Radar, Clay Kurison, Arvin M. Farid, Akram N. Alshawabkeh, Carey M. Rappaport

Akram N. Alshawabkeh

Shallow tunnels present both military and homeland security threats. Smugglers with intentions of avoiding border security have turned tunnels into transit routes for trafficking weapons, people, drugs and other illegal materials. Shallow tunnels are also used by prisoners to escape prisons. While drug and human trafficking have long been border concerns, the threat of international terrorism has transformed the effort to detect tunnels into a national security priority. Imminent threats include assailants entering military fortifications by burrowing under buildings, detonation of high grade explosives from foundations of high security facilities, and high level prisoners escaping detention centers through tunnels. Real-time …

Experimental Validation Of A Numerical Forward Model For Tunnel Detection Using Cross-Borehole Radar, Arvin Farid, Jose A. Martinez-Lorenzo, Akram N. Alshawabkeh, Carey M. Rappaport

Jose Martinez-Lorenzo

The goal of this research is to develop an experimentally validated twodimensional (2D) finite difference frequency domain (FDFD) numerical forward model to study the potential of radar-based tunnel detection. Tunnel detection has become a subject of interest to the nation due to the use of tunnels by illegal immigrants, smugglers, prisoners, assailants, and terrorists. These concerns call for research to nondestructively detect, localize, and monitor tunnels. Nondestructive detection requires robust image reconstruction and inverse models, which in turn need robust forward models. Cross-Well Radar (CWR) modality is used for experimentation to avoid soil-air interface roughness. CWR is not a versatile …

Suicide Bomber Detection Using Millimeter-Wave Radar, Richard Sullivan, Morgan Galaznik, Jose Ángel Martinez-Lorenzo, Carey M. Rappaport

Jose Martinez-Lorenzo

Amidst the manifold threats currently afflicting public welfare, that of body-worn explosives is significant if not altogether paramount. Commonly referred to as ""suicide bombers,"" the bearers of body-worn, improvised explosive devices (IEDs) enter crowded public areas in order to detonate the IDE, inflicting lethal damage to themselves and surrounding individuals. Constructed of non-standard parts and veiled under layers of clothing, these body-worn IEDs go frequently undetected. The aim of this research is to examine the feasibility of using millimeter-wave (MMW) radar to detect body-worn IEDs at distances up to 50 meters. In order to achieve a beamwidth capable of illuminating …

Cross-Well Radar I: Experimental Simulation Of Cross-Well Tomography And Validation, Arvin Farid, Akram N. Alshawabkeh, Carey M. Rappaport

Carey Rappaport

This paper explains and evaluates the potential and limitations of conducting Cross-Well Radar (CWR) in sandy soils. Implementing the experiment and data collection in the absence of any scattering object, and in the presence of an acrylic plate (a representative of dielectric objects, such as DNAPL (dense non-aqueous phase liquid) pools, etc.), as a contrasting object in a water-saturated soil is also studied. To be able to image the signature of any object, more than one pair of receiving and transmitting antennas are required. The paper describes a method to achieve repeatable, reliable, and reproducible laboratory results for different transmitter-receiver …

Suicide Bomber Detection Using Millimeter-Wave Radar, Richard Sullivan, Morgan Galaznik, Jose Ángel Martinez-Lorenzo, Carey M. Rappaport

Carey Rappaport

Amidst the manifold threats currently afflicting public welfare, that of body-worn explosives is significant if not altogether paramount. Commonly referred to as ""suicide bombers,"" the bearers of body-worn, improvised explosive devices (IEDs) enter crowded public areas in order to detonate the IDE, inflicting lethal damage to themselves and surrounding individuals. Constructed of non-standard parts and veiled under layers of clothing, these body-worn IEDs go frequently undetected. The aim of this research is to examine the feasibility of using millimeter-wave (MMW) radar to detect body-worn IEDs at distances up to 50 meters. In order to achieve a beamwidth capable of illuminating …

Experimental Validation Of A Numerical Forward Model For Tunnel Detection Using Cross-Borehole Radar, Arvin Farid, Jose A. Martinez-Lorenzo, Akram N. Alshawabkeh, Carey M. Rappaport

Carey Rappaport

The goal of this research is to develop an experimentally validated twodimensional (2D) finite difference frequency domain (FDFD) numerical forward model to study the potential of radar-based tunnel detection. Tunnel detection has become a subject of interest to the nation due to the use of tunnels by illegal immigrants, smugglers, prisoners, assailants, and terrorists. These concerns call for research to nondestructively detect, localize, and monitor tunnels. Nondestructive detection requires robust image reconstruction and inverse models, which in turn need robust forward models. Cross-Well Radar (CWR) modality is used for experimentation to avoid soil-air interface roughness. CWR is not a versatile …

Computational Modeling And Analysis Of Radar Scattering By Metallic Body-Worn Explosive Devices Covered With Wrinkled Clothing, Amanda Angell, Carey Rappaport

Carey Rappaport

In this study, we address the problem of detecting bodyworn improvised explosive devices (IEDs) from a safe distance using radar. We have used a finite difference frequency domain (FDFD) model to simulate the radar signature of a typical scenario for body-worn IEDs, and have analyzed wrinkled clothing as a possible source of clutter. Our analysis shows distinct characteristics of the IED backscattered farfield signal, with no significant clutter added when the metallic IED is covered by wrinkled clothing.

Tunnel Detection Using Cross Borehole Radar, Clay Kurison, Arvin M. Farid, Akram N. Alshawabkeh, Carey M. Rappaport

Carey Rappaport

Shallow tunnels present both military and homeland security threats. Smugglers with intentions of avoiding border security have turned tunnels into transit routes for trafficking weapons, people, drugs and other illegal materials. Shallow tunnels are also used by prisoners to escape prisons. While drug and human trafficking have long been border concerns, the threat of international terrorism has transformed the effort to detect tunnels into a national security priority. Imminent threats include assailants entering military fortifications by burrowing under buildings, detonation of high grade explosives from foundations of high security facilities, and high level prisoners escaping detention centers through tunnels. Real-time …

Automatic Parameter Selection For Feature-Enhanced Radar Image Restoration, Moeness G Amin, Cher Hau Seng, Son Lam Phung, Abdesselam Bouzerdoum

Cher Hau Seng

In this paper, we propose a new technique for optimum parameter selection in non-quadratic radar image restoration. Although both the regularization hyper-parameter and the norm value are influential factors in the characteristics of the formed restoration, most existing optimization methods either require memory intensive computation or prior knowledge of the noise. Here, we present a contrast measure-based method for automated hyper-parameter selection. The proposed method is then extended to optimize the norm value used in non-quadratic image formation and restoration. The proposed method is evaluated on the MSTAR public target database and compared to the GCV method. Experimental results show …

Target Localization In Passive And Active Systems : Performance Bonds, Vlad Mihai Chiriac

Dissertations

The main goal of this dissertation is to improve the understanding and to develop ways to predict the performance of localization techniques as a function of signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) and of system parameters. To this end, lower bounds on the maximum likelihood estimator (MLE) performance are studied. The Cramer-Rao lower bound (CRLB) for coherent passive localization of a near-field source is derived. It is shown through the Cramer-Rao bound that, the coherent localization systems can provide high accuracies in localization, to the order of carrier frequency of the observed signal. High accuracies come to a price of having a highly …

Non-Destructive Assessment Of Rail Track Condition Using Ground Penetrating Radar, L J. Su, Buddhima Indraratna, C Rujikiatkamjorn

Cholachat Rujikiatkamjorn

Ground penetrating radar (GPR) can be used to locate interfaces and underground utilities, and evaluate ballast fouling conditions, moisture content and subgrade conditions depending on frequencies of antenna and data processing techniques. In Australia, trial testing on railway sections has been conducted by the railway industry. However, in these trials, testing is only conducted on actual tracks where the relationship between track conditions and the GPR response has not yet been established. In this paper, a full scale model rail track designed and constructed at the University of Wollongong is used to investigate factors that infl uence the GPR data …

Synchronous Communication System For Saw Sensors Interrogation, Maxim Troshin

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

During past two decades a variety of SAW based wireless sensors were invented and research is still in progress. As different frequencies, varied bandwidths, coding techniques and constantly changing post processing algorithms are being implemented, there is a constant need for a universal and adjustable synchronous communication system able to interrogate new generations of SAW sensors. This thesis presents the design of a multiple FPGA based communication system with an operational frequency range of 450MHz-2.2GHz capable of producing user programmed modulated signal. The synchronous receiver is designed to have interchangeable chip, replacement of which would allow adjustment of the receiver’s …

Segmentations Of Through-The-Wall Radar Images, C H. Seng, M G. Amin, F Ahmad, A Bouzerdoum

Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences - Papers: Part A

In this paper, we examine the use of image segmentation approaches for target detection in TWRI. The betweenclass variance thresholding, entropy-based segmentation, and Kmeans clustering are applied to segment target and clutter regions. Real 2D polarimetric images are used to demonstrate that simple histogram-based segmentation methods produce either comparable or improved performance over the Likelihood Ratio Tests (LRT) detector. Specifically, the results show that, for the cases considered, the entropy-based segmentation outperforms the other image segmentation methods and the LRT detector.

Determining The Vertical Profile Of Reflectivity Using Radar Observations At Long Range, Kate Snow, Alan Seed, George Takacs

Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences - Papers: Part A

The Vertical Profile of Reflectivity (VPR) plays an important role when estimating the rain rate at the surface and has been the subject of radar meteorology research for many years. The VPR can either be sampled directly from observations that are close to the radar where the impact of the convolution with the beam pattern can be ignored, or the parameters for a theoretical form for the VPR are estimated using the available observations or climatology. In either case, a significant difficulty arises when a rain band approaches the radar and quantitative precipitation estimates are required before any detailed observations …

Analysis Of Orthogonal Matching Pursuit Based Subsurface Imaging For Compressive Ground Penetrating Radars, Mehmet Ali̇ Çağri Tuncer, Ali̇ Cafer Gürbüz

Turkish Journal of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences

It is shown that compressive sensing (CS) theory can be used for subsurface imaging in stepped frequency ground penetrating radars (GPR), resulting in robust sparse images, using fewer measurements. Although the data acquisition time is decreased by CS, the computational complexity of the minimization based imaging algorithm is too costly, which makes the algorithm useless, especially for extensive discretization or 3D imaging. In this paper, a greedy alternative, orthogonal matching pursuit (OMP) is used for imaging subsurface and its performance under various conditions is compared to CS imaging method. Results show that OMP could reconstruct sparse signals robustly as well …

A Laser Radar Employing Linearly Chirped Pulses From A Mode-Locked Laser For Long Range, Unambiguous, Sub-Millimeter Resolution Ranging And Velocimetry, Mohammad Umar Piracha

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Light detection and ranging (lidar) is used for various applications such as remote sensing, altimetry and imaging. In this talk, a linearly chirped pulse source is introduced that generates wavelength-swept pulses exhibiting ~6 nm optical bandwidth with > 20 km coherence length. The chirped pulses are used in an interferometric lidar setup to perform distance measurements with sub-millimeter resolution (using pulses that are a few meters long), at target distances > 10 km, with at least 25 dB signal-to-noise ratio at the receiver. A pulse repetition rate of 20 MHz provides fast update rates, while chirped pulse amplification allows easy amplification of …

Frequency Modulated Continuous Wave Radar And Video Fusion For Simultaneous Localization And Mapping, Andrew Stephen Kondrath

Browse all Theses and Dissertations

There has been a push recently to develop technology to enable the use of UAVs in GPS-denied environments. As UAVs become smaller, there is a need to reduce the number and sizes of sensor systems on board. A video camera on a UAV can serve multiple purposes. It can return imagery for processing by human users. The highly accurate bearing information provided by video makes it a useful tool to be incorporated into a navigation and tracking system. Radars can provide information about the types of objects in a scene and can operate in adverse weather conditions. The range and …