Autonomous Airborne 3D SAR Imaging System for Subsurface Sensing: UWB-GPR on Board a UAV for Landmine and IED Detection
Autonomous Airborne 3D SAR Imaging System for Subsurface Sensing: UWB-GPR on Board a UAV for Landmine and IED Detection
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DOI：
10.3390/rs11202357
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发表时间：
2019-10-01
期刊：
影响因子：
5
通讯作者：
Las Heras, Fernando
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Garcia-Fernandez, Maria;Alvarez-Lopez, Yuri;Las Heras, Fernando
这项工作提出了一种增强型自主机载合成孔径雷达(SAR)成像系统，能够从地下提供全3D雷达图像。拟议的原型和方法使得即使在难以接近的情况下也能安全地探测到金属和非金属掩埋目标，而不与地面相互作用。因此，它们特别适合探测危险目标，如地雷和简易爆炸装置(IED)。该样机主要由工作在超高频(UHF)频段的超宽带(UWB)雷达模块和安装在无人机(UAV)上的高精度双频实时动态(RTK)定位系统组成。无人机自动飞越感兴趣的区域，收集雷达测量数据。这些测量是精确的地理参考，以便使它们的相干组合能够获得聚焦良好的SAR图像。还提出了处理链的改进，以处理与基于无人机的测量相关的一些问题(如非均匀采集栅格)以及提高图像的分辨率和信杂比。原型和方法都通过测量进行了验证，显示了它们提供高分辨率3D SAR图像的能力。
This work presents an enhanced autonomous airborne Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) imaging system able to provide full 3D radar images from the subsurface. The proposed prototype and methodology allow the safe detection of both metallic and non-metallic buried targets even in difficult-to-access scenarios without interacting with the ground. Thus, they are particularly suitable for detecting dangerous targets, such as landmines and Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs). The prototype is mainly composed by an Ultra-Wide-Band (UWB) radar module working from Ultra-High-Frequency (UHF) band and a high accuracy dual-band Real Time Kinematic (RTK) positioning system mounted on board an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV). The UAV autonomously flies over the region of interest, gathering radar measurements. These measurements are accurately geo-referred so as to enable their coherent combination to obtain a well-focused SAR image. Improvements in the processing chain are also presented in order to deal with some issues associated to UAV-based measurements (such as non-uniform acquisition grids) as well as to enhance the resolution and the signal to clutter ratio of the image. Both the prototype and the methodology were validated with measurements, showing their capability to provide high-resolution 3D SAR images.