An Improved Algorithm for Through-Wall Target Detection Using Ultra-Wideband Impulse Radar

Abstract

This paper considers the detection and localization of a human subject in complex environments using an ultra-wideband impulse radar. The subject is remotely sensed by extracting micro-motion information, such as the respiration and heartbeat frequencies. It is challenging to extract this information due to the low signal to noise and clutter ratio in typical disaster environments. To improve the localization accuracy, a new method is proposed using the characteristics of vital sign signals. The range is determined using a short-time Fourier transform of the kurtosis and standard deviation of the received signals. Furthermore, an improved arctangent demodulation technique is used to determine the frequency of human micro-motion based on a multiple frequency accumulation method. Performance results are presented, which show that the proposed method is superior to several well-known techniques.

Keywords

• Human micro-motion
• ultra-wideband (UWB) impulse radar
• short-time Fourier transform (STFT)
• kurtosis
• frequency accumulation (FA)
• arctangent demodulation (AD)