Full polarimetric beam‐forming algorithm for through‐the‐wall radar imaging

Abstract

Development of an imaging algorithm that accurately models the wave propagation physical process has become an important topic in through‐the‐wall radar imaging (TWRI). In this paper, a full polarimetric beam‐forming algorithm for through‐the‐wall radar imaging for a general multilayer wall case is presented and applied to various 2D and 3D simulated and measured scenarios. Polarimetric TWRI not only enhances the target characterization but also mitigates the wall ringing effect in cross polarizations. The far field layered medium Green's function is incorporated in the proposed TWRI algorithm for the quad‐polarization of the target returns, namely, VV, HV, VH and HH. Due to the incorporation of the layered medium Green's function, the imaging algorithm not only takes into account the wall reflection, bending, and delay effects but also accounts for the complex scattering mechanism due to the presence of the wall. Numerical and experimental results show that the proposed full polarimetric beam former can provide high quality focused images in various wall‐target scenarios, in particular, when the technique is combined with a wall parameter estimation technique.