Moving Target Radar Echo Real-Time Simualtion: Technologies And Application

In order to perform a comprehensive validation of function and performance for radar systems, ergodic and typical experiment data of targets and environments under different conditions are needed. However, it is usually time-consuming and costly, even unrealizable. Therefore, radar echo simulation is an important testing approach for advanced radar system design, especially for the signal processing system design. Due to the development of radar operating system and its signal processing techniques, it is possible to measure and extract many more elaborate dynamic features, e.g., micro-Doppler. Hence, the requirements for radar echo simulation technology accordingly rise. It is an important issue for radar system development to simulate target multi-dimension features and environment clutter in real-time operation with high precision and develop a corresponding radar echo simulator. Aiming at solving this problem, these dissertation studies echo simulation algorithms and implementation techniques for moving targets, and develop a radar echo simulator successfully, which can be used in Hardware-in-the-loop simulation.The background and significance of this work are presented in the introduction chapter. We first survey the background, contents, key techniques and their developing directions of radar echo simulation technology. An introduction of challenging difficulties and developing goals is then proposed. The main researching contents are given finally.In chapter 2, the motion simulation approaches for moving targets and the fast algorithms for electromagnetic scattering computation are studied. Firstly, we perform an in-depth analysis for key components which affect the precision of electromagnetic scattering computation, e.g., model partition, surface scattering, dynamic simulation, fast computation, etc. Secondly, fast algorithms for electromagnetic scattering computation are studied aiming at nonrigid body motion. An interpolation algorithm is proposed to compute scattering series for moving targets, and the error upper bounds of the algorithm are derived. Finally, a modified approach based on the neural network is introduced to decrease the"facet noise", which is induced by approximating surface by flat facets. The computation precision is improved significantly.In chapter 3, the modeling of moving target echoes is studied. Firstly, a systemic analysis for the impacts of motion forms on radar signatures is performed, and vibration significance curves for high resolution radar are given. Based on this, a dynamic scatterer model is introduced to modeling radar echoes for moving targets. The model reflects both high resolution structural features of vibrating targets and stochastic features. It provides theoretical foundation for the implementation of radar echo simulation in real-time operation. In chapter 4, the design and optimization techniques based on very large scale integration (VLSI) in real-time echo simulation are studied. Firstly, applying the optimization method of multiple CORDIC units to share look-up table of tangent, we design a reusable intellect property (IP) for echo simulation based on dynamic scatter model. Secondly, aiming at real-time clutter simulation, a K-distributional clutter simulation algorithm is proposed based on the sphere invariance random process, which can simulate arbitrary time period, coherent, and variable parameter clutter. The reusable clutter generating IP is designed successfully.In chapter 5, the application of the proposed simulation and implementation techniques are studied in a typical scenario. An echo simulator is designed for hardware-in-the-loop simulation. Firstly, the global architecture and key techniques of radar tracking systems are analyzed. Secondly, an echo simulation system is designed and implemented using VLSI system on a chip (SOC) as the key components. The system possesses a high precision, real-time operation, and interaction, which are due to the simulation technique based on dynamic scatter model, high speed parallel system architecture, and pipelining data processing. Finally, the system is applied to a target tracking Hardware-in-the-loop simulation system.