Apparatus and method for compressive sensing radar imaging

• US 7,928,893 B2
• Filed: 04/12/2007
• Issued: 04/19/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 04/12/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Rice University
• Original Assignee: Rice University
• Inventors: Steeghs, Theo P. H., Baraniuk, Richard G.
• Primary Examiner(s): Tarcza; Thomas H
• Assistant Examiner(s): Brainard; Timothy A
• Application Number:
  US12/296,627
• Publication Number:
  US 20100001901A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,468 Days
• Field of Search: 342/25
• US Class Current: 342/25.00F
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 13/904 SAR modes
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 13/9064 Inverse SAR [ISAR]
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 7/295 Means for transforming co-ordinates or for evaluating data, e.g. using computers
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 7/32 Shaping echo pulse signals; Deriving non-pulse signals from echo pulse signals
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 7/411 Identification of targets based on measurements of radar reflectivity G01S7/415 takes precedence

Abstract

Method and apparatus for developing radar scene and target profiles based on Compressive Sensing concept. An outgoing radar waveform is transmitted in the direction of a radar target and the radar reflectivity profile is recovered from the received radar wave sequence using a compressible or sparse representation of the radar reflectivity profile in combination with knowledge of the outgoing wave form. In an exemplary embodiment the outgoing waveform is a pseudo noise sequence or a linear FM waveform.

Claims

1. A radar transceiver comprising:

a received signal processor that utilizes knowledge of an outgoing wave sequence in combination with a compressible or sparse representation of a radar scene to recover a radar reflectivity profile by sampling a random filtered received signal to obtain samples containing sufficient information to reconstruct a sparse representation of said radar reflectivity profile.

2. A radar transceiver according to claim 1 wherein said received signal processor recovers said radar reflectivity profile from samples said received signal at a sampling rate below a Nyquist-rate of said radar reflectivity profile.

3. A radar transceiver according to claim 2 wherein a part of the radar reflectivity profile is reconstructed using a subset of coefficients associated with a full recovery of the radar reflectivity profile.

4. A radar transceiver according to claim 2 wherein the received signal processor performs a detection or Automatic Target Recognition task on the received wave sequence utilizing a compressible or sparse representation of the radar reflectivity profile in combination with knowledge of the outgoing wave sequence.

5. A radar transceiver according to claim 2 wherein the signal processor recovers a range-Doppler radar profile, utilizing a compressible or sparse representation of the radar profile in combination with knowledge of the outgoing wave sequence, and additional radar acquisition parameters, such as relative radar position, radar look direction, and Pulse Repetition frequency.

6. A radar transceiver according to claim 2 wherein the signal processor recovers a two-dimensional Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) scene, utilizing a compressible or sparse representation of the radar scene in combination with knowledge of the outgoing wave sequence and additional SAR acquisition parameters, such as relative radar position, radar look direction and Pulse Repetition Frequency.

7. A radar transceiver according to claim 2 wherein the signal processor recovers a two-dimensional Inverse Synthetic Aperture Radar (ISAR) target reflectivity profile, utilizing a compressible or sparse representation of the radar target, in combination with knowledge about the outgoing wave sequence and additional ISAR acquisition parameters, such as target position, radar look direction and Pulse Repetition Frequency.

8. A radar transceiver according to claim 2 wherein where the radar reflectivity profile or scene is developed in three dimensions.

9. A method for recovering a radar reflectivity profile comprising the steps of:

generating an outgoing wave sequence; and

recovering a radar reflectivity profile utilizing knowledge of said outgoing wave sequence in combination with a compressible representation of the reflectivity profile by sampling a random filtered received signal to obtain samples containing sufficient information to reconstruct a sparse representation of said radar reflectivity profile.

10. A method according to claim 9 wherein said received signal processor recovers said radar reflectivity profile from below a Nyquist-rate sampled received wave sequence.

11. A method according to claim 10 wherein part of the radar reflectivity profile is reconstructed using a subset of the coefficients associated with a full recovery of the radar reflectivity profile.

12. A method according to claim 10, further comprising the step of performing a detection or Automatic Target Recognition task on the received wave sequence utilizing a compressible representation of the radar reflectivity profile in combination with knowledge of the outgoing wave sequence.

13. A method according to claim 10, wherein said step of recovering a radar reflectivity profile comprises the step of recovering a range-Doppler radar profile, utilizing a compressible representation of the radar profile in combination with knowledge of the outgoing wave sequence, and additional radar acquisition parameters.

14. A method according to claim 13, wherein said additional radar parameters comprise at least one of relative radar position, radar look direction, and Pulse Repetition frequency.

15. A method according to claim 10, wherein said recovering step recovers a two-dimensional Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) scene, utilizing a compressible representation of the radar scene in combination with knowledge of the outgoing wave sequence and additional SAR acquisition parameters, such as relative radar position, radar look direction and Pulse Repetition Frequency.

16. A method according to claim 10, wherein the signal processor recovers a two-dimensional Inverse Synthetic Aperture Radar (ISAR) target reflectivity profile, utilizing a compressible or sparse representation of the radar target, in combination with knowledge about the outgoing wave sequence and additional ISAR acquisition parameters, such as target position, radar look direction and Pulse Repetition Frequency.

17. A method according to claim 10 wherein the radar reflectivity profile is developed in three dimensions.

18. A method according to claim 10, wherein said recovering step further comprises reconstructing a sparse representation of said radar reflectivity profile using Orthogonal Matching Pursuit.