Classification of drones and birds using convolutional neural networks applied to radar micro-Doppler spectrogram images

Funding: UK Science and Technology Facilities Council ST/N006569/1 (DR).This study presents a convolutional neural network (CNN) based drone classification method. The primary criterion for a high-fidelity neural network based classification is a real dataset of large size and diversity for training. The first goal of the study was to create a large database of micro-Doppler spectrogram images of in-flight drones and birds. Two separate datasets with the same images have been created, one with RGB images and other with grayscale images. The RGB dataset was used for GoogLeNet architecture-based training. The grayscale dataset was used for training with a series architecture developed during this study. Each dataset was further divided into two categories, one with four classes (drone, bird, clutter and noise) and the other with two classes (drone and non-drone). During training, 20% of the dataset has been used as a validation set. After the completion of training, the models were tested with previously unseen and unlabelled sets of data. The validation and testing accuracy for the developed series network have been found to be 99.6% and 94.4% respectively for four classes and 99.3% and 98.3% respectively for two classes. The GoogLenet based model showed both validation and testing accuracies to be around 99% for all the cases.PostprintPeer reviewe

Millimetre wave quasi-optical signal processing and spread spectrum techniques

The use of quasi-optical techniques for signal processing at millimetre wave frequencies and their application to spread spectrum systems is presented in this thesis. Millimetre waves offer a number of advantages when compared to microwave and optical signals and as a result they are finding an increasing number of applications in the area of communications. Traditionally, millimetre wave research has been centred on scientific and experimental interests. In recent years, however, practical communications systems have been emerging at these frequencies. New technologies are being developed which aim to exploit the potential advantages of millimetric signals and the work undertaken here relates to one particular avenue - that of quasi-optics. This thesis introduces measurement methods for assessing millimetric components and quasi-optical systems, followed by an appraisal of Gunn oscillators and their associated power supplies as suitable signal sources for communications. A type of Gunn oscillator displaying semi-chaotic behaviour is described which may have potential as an inherently broadband source suitable for spread spectrum applications. The application of quasi-optical signal processing methods to a prototype spread spectrum millimetre wave system is presented. The system has been shown to operate satisfactorily in a number of demonstrations. Theoretical models of the quasi-optical circuit show good agreement with experiment and an analysis of the signal-to-noise behaviour predicts the potential receiver performance. Some ideas for future work, building on that presented here, are suggested

220GHz wideband 3D imaging radar for concealed object detection technology development and phenomenology studies

Part of the research leading to these results has received funding from the European Union Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007-2013) under grant agreement no. 312745.We present a 220 GHz 3D imaging ‘Pathfinder’ radar developed within the EU FP7 project CONSORTIS (Concealed Object Stand-Off Real-Time Imaging for Security) which has been built to address two objectives: (i) to de-risk the radar hardware development and (ii) to enable the collection of phenomenology data with ~1 cm3 volumetric resolution. The radar combines a DDS-based chirp generator and self-mixing multiplier technology to achieve a 30 GHz bandwidth chirp with such high linearity that the raw point response is close to ideal and only requires minor nonlinearity compensation. The single transceiver is focused with a 30 cm lens mounted on a gimbal to acquire 3D volumetric images of static test targets & materials.Publisher PD

A 220 GHz 3D imaging radar with sub-cm3 voxel resolution for security applications

Radars operating at high millimetre and sub-millimetre wave frequencies are promising candidates for security applications such as people screening since they offer the possibility to form 3D images through clothing with sufficient resolution to detect concealed objects. High spatial resolution of order 1 cm can be achieved using practically sized antennas and high range resolution can be achieved using wideband FMCW chirps, e.g. 30 GHz, to yield 0.5 cm range bins. We present a 220 GHz test-bed ‘Pathfinder’ radar which achieves sub-cm3 voxel resolution with very high signal fidelity. The radar is used to de-risk technology under development for next generation people screening systems.Postprin

Second generation of AVTIS FMCW millimeter wave radars for mapping volcanic terrain

The second generation AVTIS ground-based millimeter wave instruments designed for monitoring topography of volcanic lava domes are solid state 94 GHz FMCW rastered, real beam radars operating at ranges of up to ~7 km with a range resolution of ~2.5 m. Operating ten times faster than the prototype with reduced power consumption suitable for battery powered portable use as well as installation at a telemetered site under solar power, we examine their performance as tools for monitoring topography over time and report on the operational statistics both as a radar sensor and as a means of generating digital elevation maps.Publisher PD

Radar micro-Doppler signatures of drones and birds at K-band and W-band

The authors acknowledge the funding received from the Science and Technology Facilities Council which has supported this work under grant ST/N006569/1Due to the substantial increase in the number of affordable drones in the consumer market and their regrettable misuse, there is a need for efficient technology to detect drones in airspace. This paper presents the characteristic radar micro-Doppler properties of drones and birds. Drones and birds both induce micro-Doppler signatures due to their propeller blade rotation and wingbeats, respectively. These distinctive signatures can then be used to differentiate a drone from a bird, along with studying them separately. Here, experimental measurements of micro-Doppler signatures of different types of drones and birds are presented and discussed. The data have been collected using two radars operating at different frequencies; K-band (24 GHz) and W-band (94 GHz). Three different models of drones and four species of birds of varying sizes have been used for data collection. The results clearly demonstrate that a phase coherent radar system can retrieve highly reliable and distinctive micro-Doppler signatures of these flying targets, both at K-band and W-band. Comparison of the signatures obtained at the two frequencies indicates that the micro-Doppler return from the W-band radar has higher SNR. However, micro-Doppler features in the K-band radar returns also reveal the micro-motion characteristics of drones and birds very effectively.Publisher PDFPeer reviewe

Coherent 24 GHz FMCW radar system for micro-Doppler studies

The authors acknowledge the funding received from the Science and Technology Facilities Council which has supported this work under grant ST/N006569/1.This paper presents the hardware design of a coherent 24 GHz radar system developed at the University of St Andrews to obtain micro-Doppler data. The system is based on the Analog Devices EV-RADAR-MMIC2 evaluation board which is based around a chipset of three integrated circuits: a two channel transmitter, a four channel receiver and a fractional-N frequency synthesizer. The evaluation board is combined with a number of other components to enable coherent operation with a PC-based data acquisition card and to boost the output power to increase the operational range. Three identical custom-made smooth-walled conical horn antennas for transmit and co- and cross-polar receive signals were designed and built for the radar system. It is shown that the performance of these high gain (24.5 dBi) antennas agrees extremely well with the design simulations. Finally, field trial results comprising human, bird and drone micro-Doppler data are shown to validate the system performance.Publisher PD

Millimeter-wave radar micro-Doppler feature extraction of consumer drones and birds for target discrimination

The authors acknowledge the funding received from the Science and Technology Facilities Council which has supported this work under grant ST/N006569/1.This paper discusses the various millimeter-wave radar micro-Doppler features of consumer drones and birds which can be fed to a classifier for target discrimination. The proposed feature extraction methods have been developed by considering the micro-Doppler signature characteristics of in-flight targets obtained with a frequency modulated continuous wave (FMCW) radar. Three different drones (DJI Phantom 3 Standard, DJI Inspire 1 and DJI S900) and four birds of different sizes (Northern Hawk Owl, Harris Hawk, Indian Eagle Owl and Tawny Eagle) have been used for the feature extraction and classification. The data for all the targets was obtained with a fixed beam W-band (94 GHz) FMCW radar. The extracted features have been fed to two different classifiers for training (linear discriminant and support vector machine (SVM)). It is shown that the classifiers using these features can clearly distinguish between a drone and a bird with 100% prediction accuracy and are able to differentiate between various sizes of drones with more than 90% accuracy. The results demonstrate that the proposed algorithm is a very suitable candidate as an automatic target recognition technique for a practical FMCW radar based drone detection system.Publisher PD

Submillimetre wave 3D imaging radar for security applications

There is ongoing worldwide interest in finding solutions to enhance the security of civilians at airports, borders and high risk public areas in ways which are safe, ethical and streamlined. One promising approach is to use submillimetre wave 3D imaging radar to detect concealed threats as it offers the advantages of high volumetric resolution (~1 cm3) with practically sized antennas (<0.5 m) such that even quite small objects can be resolved through clothing. The Millimetre Wave Group at the University of St Andrews has been developing submillimetre wave 3D imaging radars for security applications since 2007. A significant goal is to achieve near real-time frame rates of at least 10 Hz, to cope with dynamic scenes, over wide fields of view at short range with high pixel counts. We review the radar systems we have developed at 340 and 220 GHz and the underpinning technologies which we have employed to realise these goals.PostprintNon peer reviewe

Compact corrugated feedhorns with high Gaussian coupling efficiency and -60 dB sidelobes

We demonstrate that very high performance, extremely compact, scalar corrugated feedhorns can be designed and constructed by optimizing the excitation and phasing of the HE11, HE12 and HE13 modes near the throat of the horn whilst limiting excitation of higher order modes. We present the design and measurement of two families of dual-profiled horn, both with a directivity of 20 dBi that couple with very high efficiency to a fundamental Gaussian mode. The first was optimized for sidelobe performance and features sidelobes approaching -60 dB for a horn length of only 15.6λ. The second was designed to minimize horn length and achieves sidelobe levels below -35 dB for a horn which is only 4.8λ long. The horns exhibit excellent coupling to the fundamental free-space Gaussian mode, with LG00 power coupling of 99.92% and 99.75% respectively. We demonstrate excellent agreement between simulation and experiment at 94 GHz and simulate the performance over a 20% bandwidth. High performance compact scalar horns are of interest because they reduce manufacturing risk at high frequencies, and reduce size and weight at lower frequencies, which can be important in horn arrays and space applications, where horn arrays often have serious weight and size restrictions.PostprintPeer reviewe