Performance Analysis of Deep Learning-Based Detection/Classification for SAR Ground Targets with the Synthetic Dataset

Abstract

Based on the recently developed deep learning technology, many studies have been conducted on deep learning networks that simultaneously detect and classify targets of interest in synthetic aperture radar(SAR) images. Although numerous research results have been derived mainly with the open SAR ship datasets, there is a lack of work carried out on the deep learning network aimed at detecting and classifying SAR ground targets and trained with the synthetic dataset generated from electromagnetic scattering simulations. In this respect, this paper presents the deep learning network trained with the synthetic dataset and applies it to detecting and classifying real SAR ground targets. With experiment results, this paper also analyzes the network performance according to the composition ratio between the real measured data and the synthetic data involved in network training. Finally, the summary and limitations are discussed to give information on the future research direction.