Compressive sensing for through-the-wall radar imaging

Abstract

Through-the-wall radar imaging (TWRI) is emerging as a viable technology for providing high-quality imagery of enclosed structures. TWRI makes use of electromagnetic waves to penetrate through building wall materials. Due to the “see” through ability, TWRI has attracted much attention in the last decade and has found a variety of important civilian and military applications. Signal processing algorithms have been devised to allow proper imaging and image recovery in the presence of high clutter, which is caused by front walls and multipath due to reflections from internal walls. Recently, research efforts have shifted toward effective and reliable imaging under constraints on aperture size, frequency, and acquisition time. In this respect, scene reconstructions are being pursued with reduced data volume and within the emerging compressive sensing (CS) framework. We present a review of the CS-based scene reconstruction techniques that address the unique challenges associated with fast and efficient imaging in urban operations. Specifically, we focus on ground-based imaging systems for indoor targets. We discuss CS-based wall mitigation, multipath exploitation, and change detection for imaging of stationary and moving targets inside enclosed structures.