Accurate 3-Dimensional Imaging Method Based on Extended RPM for Rotating Target Model

Shouhei KIDERA  Hiroyuki YAMADA  Tetsuo KIRIMOTO  

Publication
IEICE TRANSACTIONS on Communications   Vol.E95-B   No.10   pp.3279-3289
Publication Date: 2012/10/01
Online ISSN: 1745-1345
DOI: 10.1587/transcom.E95.B.3279
Print ISSN: 0916-8516
Type of Manuscript: PAPER
Category: Sensing
Keyword: 
3-D image reconstruction,  ISAR,  target with continuous boundary,  extended RPM,  scattered center shifting,  

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Summary: 
Three-dimensional (3-D) reconstruction techniques employed by airborne radars are essential for object recognition in scenarios where optically vision is blurry, and are required for the monitoring of disasters and coast-guard patrols. There have been reports on 3-D reconstruction methods that exploit the layover appearing in inverse synthetic aperture radar (ISAR) imagery, which are suitable for the recognition of artificial targets such as buildings, aircraft or ships. However, existing methods assume only a point target or the aggregate of point targets, and most require the tracking of the multiple points over sequential ISAR images. In the case of a solid object with a continuous boundary, such as a wire or polyhedral structure, the positioning accuracy of such methods is severely degraded owing to scattering centers continuously shifting on the target surface with changes in the rotation angle. To overcome this difficulty, this paper extends the original Range Points Migration (RPM) method to the ISAR observation model, where a double mono-static model with two transmitting and receiving antennas is introduced to suppress cross-range ambiguity. The results of numerical simulation and experimental validation demonstrate that the extended RPM method has a distinct advantage for accurate 3-D imaging, even for non-point targets.