Novel Hybrid-Learning Algorithms for Improved Millimeter-Wave Imaging Systems

Increasing attention is being paid to millimeter-wave (mmWave), 30 GHz to 300 GHz, and terahertz (THz), 300 GHz to 10 THz, sensing applications including security sensing, industrial packaging, medical imaging, and non-destructive testing. Traditional methods for perception and imaging are challenged by novel data-driven algorithms that offer improved resolution, localization, and detection rates. Over the past decade, deep learning technology has garnered substantial popularity, particularly in perception and computer vision applications. Whereas conventional signal processing techniques are more easily generalized to various applications, hybrid approaches where signal processing and learning-based algorithms are interleaved pose a promising compromise between performance and generalizability. Furthermore, such hybrid algorithms improve model training by leveraging the known characteristics of radio frequency (RF) waveforms, thus yielding more efficiently trained deep learning algorithms and offering higher performance than conventional methods. This dissertation introduces novel hybrid-learning algorithms for improved mmWave imaging systems applicable to a host of problems in perception and sensing. Various problem spaces are explored, including static and dynamic gesture classification; precise hand localization for human computer interaction; high-resolution near-field mmWave imaging using forward synthetic aperture radar (SAR); SAR under irregular scanning geometries; mmWave image super-resolution using deep neural network (DNN) and Vision Transformer (ViT) architectures; and data-level multiband radar fusion using a novel hybrid-learning architecture. Furthermore, we introduce several novel approaches for deep learning model training and dataset synthesis.Comment: PhD Dissertation Submitted to UTD ECE Departmen

FGG-NUFFT-Based Method for Near-Field 3-D Imaging Using Millimeter Waves

In this paper, to deal with the concealed target detection problem, an accurate and efficient algorithm for near-field millimeter wave three-dimensional (3-D) imaging is proposed that uses a two-dimensional (2-D) plane antenna array. First, a two-dimensional fast Fourier transform (FFT) is performed on the scattered data along the antenna array plane. Then, a phase shift is performed to compensate for the spherical wave effect. Finally, fast Gaussian gridding based nonuniform FFT (FGG-NUFFT) combined with 2-D inverse FFT (IFFT) is performed on the nonuniform 3-D spatial spectrum in the frequency wavenumber domain to achieve 3-D imaging. The conventional method for near-field 3-D imaging uses Stolt interpolation to obtain uniform spatial spectrum samples and performs 3-D IFFT to reconstruct a 3-D image. Compared with the conventional method, our FGG-NUFFT based method is comparable in both efficiency and accuracy in the full sampled case and can obtain more accurate images with less clutter and fewer noisy artifacts in the down-sampled case, which are good properties for practical applications. Both simulation and experimental results demonstrate that the FGG-NUFFT-based near-field 3-D imaging algorithm can have better imaging performance than the conventional method for down-sampled measurements

FGG-NUFFT-Based Method for Near-Field 3-D Imaging Using Millimeter Waves

In this paper, to deal with the concealed target detection problem, an accurate and efficient algorithm for near-field millimeter wave three-dimensional (3-D) imaging is proposed that uses a two-dimensional (2-D) plane antenna array. First, a two-dimensional fast Fourier transform (FFT) is performed on the scattered data along the antenna array plane. Then, a phase shift is performed to compensate for the spherical wave effect. Finally, fast Gaussian gridding based nonuniform FFT (FGG-NUFFT) combined with 2-D inverse FFT (IFFT) is performed on the nonuniform 3-D spatial spectrum in the frequency wavenumber domain to achieve 3-D imaging. The conventional method for near-field 3-D imaging uses Stolt interpolation to obtain uniform spatial spectrum samples and performs 3-D IFFT to reconstruct a 3-D image. Compared with the conventional method, our FGG-NUFFT based method is comparable in both efficiency and accuracy in the full sampled case and can obtain more accurate images with less clutter and fewer noisy artifacts in the down-sampled case, which are good properties for practical applications. Both simulation and experimental results demonstrate that the FGG-NUFFT-based near-field 3-D imaging algorithm can have better imaging performance than the conventional method for down-sampled measurements

FGG-NUFFT-Based Method for Near-Field 3-D Imaging Using Millimeter Waves

In this paper, to deal with the concealed target detection problem, an accurate and efficient algorithm for near-field millimeter wave three-dimensional (3-D) imaging is proposed that uses a two-dimensional (2-D) plane antenna array. First, a two-dimensional fast Fourier transform (FFT) is performed on the scattered data along the antenna array plane. Then, a phase shift is performed to compensate for the spherical wave effect. Finally, fast Gaussian gridding based nonuniform FFT (FGG-NUFFT) combined with 2-D inverse FFT (IFFT) is performed on the nonuniform 3-D spatial spectrum in the frequency wavenumber domain to achieve 3-D imaging. The conventional method for near-field 3-D imaging uses Stolt interpolation to obtain uniform spatial spectrum samples and performs 3-D IFFT to reconstruct a 3-D image. Compared with the conventional method, our FGG-NUFFT based method is comparable in both efficiency and accuracy in the full sampled case and can obtain more accurate images with less clutter and fewer noisy artifacts in the down-sampled case, which are good properties for practical applications. Both simulation and experimental results demonstrate that the FGG-NUFFT-based near-field 3-D imaging algorithm can have better imaging performance than the conventional method for down-sampled measurements