Proof of concept of micro-UAV-based radar imaging

The potential of micro-UAV-based radar imaging is far from being exploited, though radar sensors having budgets compatible with micro-UAV are increasingly available. As a contribution to this topic, this paper discusses the relation between UAV dynamics and navigation, and radar processing, and presents a proof-of-concept ground imaging experiment in which a commercial hexacopter has been equipped with an ultralight radar. Flight results are presented in terms of both raw data and images obtained by means of an ad-hoc data processing approach. Results suggest that, in spite of its accuracy limitations, standalone GNSS information can be effectively integrated within radar processing algorithms, thus improving ground target detection and localization performance.

[1]  Evert Slob,et al.  GPR Imaging Via Qualitative and Quantitative Approaches , 2015 .

[2]  WhiteheadKen,et al.  Remote sensing of the environment with small unmanned aircraft systems (UASs), part 1: a review of progress and challenges1 , 2014 .

[3]  F. Nex,et al.  UAV for 3D mapping applications: a review , 2014 .

[4]  C. Hugenholtz,et al.  Remote sensing of the environment with small unmanned aircraft systems ( UASs ) , part 1 : a review of progress and challenges 1 , 2014 .

[5]  Francesco Soldovieri,et al.  A Tomographic Approach for Helicopter-Borne Ground Penetrating Radar Imaging , 2012, IEEE Geoscience and Remote Sensing Letters.

[6]  Francesco Soldovieri,et al.  Tomographic airborne ground penetrating radar imaging: Achievable spatial resolution and on-field assessment , 2014 .

[7]  Francesco Soldovieri,et al.  Performance Assessment of a Microwave Tomographic Approach for the Forward Looking Radar Configuration , 2014 .

[8]  Kazuo Ouchi,et al.  Recent Trend and Advance of Synthetic Aperture Radar with Selected Topics , 2013, Remote. Sens..

[9]  Giancarmine Fasano,et al.  Ultralight radar sensor for autonomous operations by micro-UAS , 2016, 2016 International Conference on Unmanned Aircraft Systems (ICUAS).

[10]  Gianluca Gennarelli,et al.  Full three-dimensional imaging via ground penetrating radar: assessment in controlled conditions and on field for archaeological prospecting , 2014 .

[11]  G. Lachapelle,et al.  A performance comparison of single and dual frequency GPS ambiguity resolution strategies , 2003 .

[12]  G. Leone,et al.  A linear inverse scattering algorithm for realistic GPR applications , 2007 .