Inverse scattering level set algorithm for retrieving the shape and location of multiple targets

Inverse scattering is the ability to infer the characteristics and properties of unknown targets illuminated by electromagnetic waves. The collected scattered fields at the receivers are inverted to retrieve the targets. Inverse scattering solutions offer a wide range of applications in diverse areas such as medical imaging, non-destructive evaluation, ground penetrating radar, etc. The non-linearity and non-uniqueness of the inverse scattering problem pose a challenge in most available techniques. Retrieving the shape and location of targets is the focus of this research with the assumption that their electrical properties are a priori known.;Among the several shape reconstruction techniques, the level set method has proven to be robust and topologically flexible. In this work, several algorithms based on the level set technique are developed for retrieving the shape and location of multiple complex targets in two- and three-dimensions (2D and 3D). The level set algorithm has proven to be successful in reconstructing multiple targets immersed in air or hidden behind a wall (see through wall imaging). The transverse electric (TE) and transverse magnetic (TM) excitations for the 2D cases are investigated numerically and experimentally. Successful shape reconstruction results are demonstrated in both cases even when the synthetic data is corrupted with Gaussian noise with SNR as low as 5dB.;For the 3D case, multiple targets made of the same or different materials are successfully retrieved even with corrupted synthetic data with SNR of 10dB. To speed up the level-set algorithm, the MPI parallelization technique is implemented on the San Diego Supercomputer to achieve a speedup of 84 for 2D targets and 52 for 3D targets. The obtained results are published in 8 journal papers and 10 conference papers.