Array-Based Ground Penetrating Synthetic Aperture Radar on Board an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle for Enhanced Buried Threats Detection
Array-Based Ground Penetrating Synthetic Aperture Radar on Board an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle for Enhanced Buried Threats Detection
复制标题
DOI：
10.1109/tgrs.2023.3272982
复制
发表时间：
2023-01-01
影响因子：
8.2
通讯作者：
Las-Heras, Fernando
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Garcia-Fernandez, Maria;Alvarez-Narciandi, Guillermo;Las-Heras, Fernando
基于无人机（UAV）的探地雷达（GPR）系统的使用在过去几年中受到关注，这得益于其相较于地面系统的优势，例如非接触式检测以及能够到达难以进入的区域。就探测简易爆炸装置（IED）和地雷等掩埋威胁而言，前者至关重要。由于使用了探地雷达 - 合成孔径雷达（SAR）处理技术，当前最先进的基于无人机的探地雷达系统能够提供厘米级的分辨率。不断改进这些系统面临的挑战之一是扫描通量，即给定时间内可扫描的区域。本文介绍了一种用于地下成像的基于阵列的探地雷达 - 合成孔径雷达系统，旨在在不损害系统成像能力的情况下最大化扫描通量。首先，将天线阵列安装在便携式装置上以评估其性能和成像能力。接下来，将天线阵列集成到无人机平台中，并在具有不同类型掩埋目标的实际场景中对带有该阵列的基于无人机的探地雷达 - 合成孔径雷达系统进行测试。结果表明，扫描通量得到显著提高，此外，阵列所有发射 - 接收通道的相干组合提供了更强的探测能力。
The usage of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs)-based ground penetrating radar (GPR) systems has gained interest over the last years thanks to advantages over ground-based systems, such as contactless inspection and capability, to reach difficult-to-access areas. The former is of paramount importance concerning the detection of buried threats, such as improvised explosive devices (IEDs) and landmines. Current state-of-the-art UAV-based GPR systems are able to provide centimeter-level resolution thanks to the use of GPR-synthetic aperture radar (SAR) processing techniques. One of the challenges to keep improving these systems is the scanning throughput, that is, the area that can be scanned in a given time. This contribution presents an array-based GPR-SAR system for subsurface imaging, aiming at maximizing the scanning throughput without jeopardizing the imaging capabilities of the system. First, the antenna array is mounted on a portable setup to evaluate its performance and imaging capabilities. Next, the antenna array is integrated into the UAV platform, and the UAV-based GPR-SAR system with the array is tested in realistic scenarios with different kinds of buried targets. Results show that the scanning throughput is significantly improved and, furthermore, the coherent combination of all transmitting-receiving channels of the array provides enhanced detection capabilities.