All-Directions Through-the-Wall Radar Imaging Using a Small Number of Moving Transceivers

Abstract

Through-the-wall radar imaging systems are utilized for mapping buildings' interiors and detecting static and moving objects hidden behind the walls. The current techniques rely on large linear antenna arrays with directional radiation pattern for obtaining high cross-range resolution, and their imaging capability is limited by the low array processing gain and field of view. This paper introduces a new technique for through-the-wall radar imaging in which the linear array is replaced by a dense 2-D synthetic array formed by an ad hoc network of moving transceivers with omnidirectional antennas. Applying this method enables imaging of building interiors from outside or inside with 360° field of view. As receivers move, the direct and reflected signals from a stationary transmitter are sampled at different positions within the roaming domain, and by combining such signal samples using an appropriate beam-forming technique, a large and dense array is synthesized to provide an accurate radar map of the buildings' interiors and hidden objects in all directions. To increase the system dynamic range, the direct signals between the transmitter (Tx) and receiver (Rx) antennas are reduced, utilizing orthogonal polarizations for Tx and Rx. To improve the range resolution and reduce the background noise, a new method based on the generalized pencil of function method is proposed. This method can accurately detect the locations of the reflecting points within the image which, in combination with the standard back-projection focusing, provides high-quality radar images. A finite-element method for a simple building structure and ray tracing for a large 3-D building structure are used to evaluate the performance of the proposed method.