Previously held under moratorium from 11 September 2017 until 16 February 2022This Thesis presents advanced signal processing solutions for Automatic
Target Recognition (ATR) operations and for spectrum sharing in distributed radar systems.
Two Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) ATR algorithms are described for
full- and single-polarimetric images, and tested on the GOTCHA and the
MSTAR datasets. The first one exploits the Krogager polarimetric decomposition in order to enhance peculiar scattering mechanisms from manmade targets, used in combination with the pseudo-Zernike image moments. The second algorithm employs the Krawtchouk image moments,
that, being discrete defined, provide better representations of targets’ details. The proposed image moments based framework can be extended to
the availability of several images from multiple sensors through the implementation of a simple fusion rule.
A model-based micro-Doppler algorithm is developed for the identification of helicopters. The approach relies on the proposed sparse representation of the signal scattered from the helicopter’s rotor and received by
the radar. Such a sparse representation is obtained through the application of a greedy sparse recovery framework, with the goal of estimating
the number, the length and the rotation speed of the blades, parameters
that are peculiar for each helicopter’s model. The algorithm is extended to
deal with the identification of multiple helicopters flying in formation that
cannot be resolved in another domain. Moreover, a fusion rule is presented
to integrate the results of the identification performed from several sensors
in a distributed radar system. Tests performed both on simulated signals
and on real signals acquired from a scale model of a helicopter, confirm
the validity of the algorithm.
Finally, a waveform design framework for joint radar-communication systems is presented. The waveform is composed by quasi-orthogonal chirp
sub-carriers generated through the Fractional Fourier Transform (FrFT),
with the aim of preserving the radar performance of a typical Linear Frequency Modulated (LFM) pulse while embedding data to be sent to a
cooperative system. Techniques aimed at optimise the design parameters and mitigate the Inter-Carrier Interference (ICI) caused by the quasiorthogonality of the chirp sub-carriers are also described. The FrFT based
waveform is extensively tested and compared with Orthogonal Frequency
Division Multiplexing (OFDM) and LFM waveforms, in order to assess
both its radar and communication performance.This Thesis presents advanced signal processing solutions for Automatic
Target Recognition (ATR) operations and for spectrum sharing in distributed radar systems.
Two Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) ATR algorithms are described for
full- and single-polarimetric images, and tested on the GOTCHA and the
MSTAR datasets. The first one exploits the Krogager polarimetric decomposition in order to enhance peculiar scattering mechanisms from manmade targets, used in combination with the pseudo-Zernike image moments. The second algorithm employs the Krawtchouk image moments,
that, being discrete defined, provide better representations of targets’ details. The proposed image moments based framework can be extended to
the availability of several images from multiple sensors through the implementation of a simple fusion rule.
A model-based micro-Doppler algorithm is developed for the identification of helicopters. The approach relies on the proposed sparse representation of the signal scattered from the helicopter’s rotor and received by
the radar. Such a sparse representation is obtained through the application of a greedy sparse recovery framework, with the goal of estimating
the number, the length and the rotation speed of the blades, parameters
that are peculiar for each helicopter’s model. The algorithm is extended to
deal with the identification of multiple helicopters flying in formation that
cannot be resolved in another domain. Moreover, a fusion rule is presented
to integrate the results of the identification performed from several sensors
in a distributed radar system. Tests performed both on simulated signals
and on real signals acquired from a scale model of a helicopter, confirm
the validity of the algorithm.
Finally, a waveform design framework for joint radar-communication systems is presented. The waveform is composed by quasi-orthogonal chirp
sub-carriers generated through the Fractional Fourier Transform (FrFT),
with the aim of preserving the radar performance of a typical Linear Frequency Modulated (LFM) pulse while embedding data to be sent to a
cooperative system. Techniques aimed at optimise the design parameters and mitigate the Inter-Carrier Interference (ICI) caused by the quasiorthogonality of the chirp sub-carriers are also described. The FrFT based
waveform is extensively tested and compared with Orthogonal Frequency
Division Multiplexing (OFDM) and LFM waveforms, in order to assess
both its radar and communication performance