Behind-wall target detection using micro-doppler effects

Abstract: During the last decade technology for seeing through walls and through dense vegetation has interested many researchers. This technology offers excellent opportunities for military and police applications, though applications are not limited to the military and police; they go beyond those applications to where detecting a target behind an obstacle is needed. To be able to disclose the location and velocity of obscured targets, scientists’ resort to electromagnetic wave propagation. Thus, through-the-wall radar (TWR) is technology used to propagate electromagnetic waves towards a target through a wall. Though TWR is a promising technology, it has been reported that TWR imaging (TWRI) poses a range of ambiguities in target characterisation and detection. These ambiguities are related to the thickness and electric properties of walls. It has been reported that the mechanical and electric properties of the wall defocus the target image rendered by the radar. The defocusing problem is the phenomenon of displacing the target away from its true location when the image is rendered. Thus, the operator of the TWR will have a wrong position, not the real position of the target. Defocusing is not the only problem observed while the signal is travelling through the wall. Target classification, wall modelling and others are areas that need investigation...D.Ing. (Electrical and Electronic Engineering