Robotic See-Through Imaging with Everyday RF Signals

这项提案的总体目标是引入一个新的多学科基础，利用无人驾驶自动驾驶车辆的日常射频信号进行透视成像。日常射频信号的透视成像可以对许多不同的领域产生重大影响，例如搜救行动、监视和安全、被遮挡物体的检测/分类、基础设施评估、医学成像和考古勘探，仅举几例。另一方面，机器人网络可以在许多不同的领域产生巨大影响，如救灾、应急响应、环境监测、监视和安全。这项拟议中的工作在射频传感和机器人技术的交汇处，可以通过联合并相继优化机器人路径规划和射频成像，极大地促进射频传感领域的最先进水平，从而对我们的社会产生革命性的影响。该提案还有一个重要的教育内容，针对的是代表人数不足的学生。更具体地说，在这项研究工作中，提出了一种新的多学科范式，以装备一些无人驾驶车辆，使用日常射频信号对完全未知的区域进行透视成像。沿着这一思路，第一个主要任务集中在运动模式和射频成像性能之间的相互作用，以便理解和数学描述对射频成像最有用的机器人运动模式。第二个任务是在考虑车辆的动力学、环境导航约束、运动能量预算和操作时间的同时，为联合和连续地共同设计机器人的路径规划和成像奠定了基础。最后，本文提出的理论和设计范式在地面和空中飞行器上得到了广泛的验证。总体而言，拟议的研究可以为提高射频成像和机器人技术的最先进水平做出重大贡献。

The overall goal of this proposal is to introduce a new multi-disciplinary foundation for see-through imaging with everyday RF signals using unmanned autonomous vehicles. See-through imaging with everyday RF signals can considerably impact many different areas such as search and rescue operations, surveillance and security, detection/classification of occluded objects, infrastructure assessment, medical imaging, and archaeological exploration, just to name a few. Robotic networks, on the other hand, can have a tremendous impact in many different areas such as disaster relief, emergency response, environmental monitoring, surveillance, and security. This proposed work at the intersection of RF sensing and robotics can considerably advance the state-of-the-art in RF sensing by jointly and successively optimizing robotic path planning and RF imaging, and can thus have a transformative impact on our society. The proposal also has a significant educational component targeting under-represented students. More specifically, in this research effort, a new multi-disciplinary paradigm is proposed to equip a number of unmanned vehicles with see-through imaging of completely unknown areas using everyday RF signals. Along this line, the first major task focuses on the interplay between motion patterns and RF imaging performance, in order to understand and mathematically characterize robotic motion patterns most informative for RF imaging. The second task then develops the foundation of jointly and successively co-designing the path planning and imaging of the robots while considering the dynamics of the vehicles, environmental navigation constraints, motion energy budget, and operation time. Finally, the proposed theories and design paradigm are extensively validated with ground and aerial vehicles. Overall, the proposed research can make a significant contribution to enhancing the state-of-the-art in both RF imaging and robotics.