Target localization methods for frequency-only MIMO radar


Tezin Türü: Doktora

Tezin Yürütüldüğü Kurum: Orta Doğu Teknik Üniversitesi, Mühendislik Fakültesi, Elektrik ve Elektronik Mühendisliği Bölümü, Türkiye

Tezin Onay Tarihi: 2012

Öğrenci: YILMAZ KALKAN

Danışman: BUYURMAN BAYKAL

Özet:

This dissertation is focused on developing the new target localization and the target velocity estimation methods for frequency-only multi-input, multi-output (MIMO) radar systems with widely separated antennas. If the frequency resolutions of the transmitted signals are enough, only the received frequencies and the Doppler shifts can be used to find the position of the target. In order to estimate the position and the velocity of the target, most multistatic radars or radar networks use multiple independent measurements from the target such as time-of-arrival (TOA), angle-of-arrival (AOA) and frequency-of-arrival (FOA). Although, frequency based systems have many advantages, frequency based target localization methods are very limited in literature because of the fact that highly non-linear equations are involved in solutions. In this thesis, alternative target localization and the target velocity estimation methods are proposed for frequency-only systems with low complexity. One of the proposed methods is able to estimate the target position and the target velocity based on the measurements of the Doppler frequencies. Moreover, the target movement direction can be estimated efficiently. This method is referred to as "Target Localization via Doppler Frequencies - TLDF" and it can be used for not only radar but also all frequency-based localization systems such as Sonar or Wireless Sensor Networks. Besides the TLDF method, two alternative target position estimation methods are proposed as well. These methods are based on the Doppler frequencies, but they requires the target velocity vector to be known. These methods are referred to as "Target Localization via Doppler Frequencies and Target Velocity - TLD&V methods" and can be divided two sub-methods. One of them is based on the derivatives of the Doppler Frequencies and hence it is called as "Derivated Doppler - TLD&V-DD method". The second method uses the Maximum Likelihood (ML) principle with grid search, hence it is referred to as "Sub-ML, TLD&V-subML method". The more realistic signal model for ground based, widely separated MIMO radar is formed as including Swerling target fluctuations and the Doppler frequencies. The Cramer-Rao Bounds (CRB) are derived for the target position and the target velocity estimations for this signal model. After the received signal is constructed, the Doppler frequencies are estimated by using the DFT based periodogram spectral estimator. Then, the estimated Doppler frequencies are collected in a fusion center to localize the target. Finally, the multiple targets localization problem is investigated for frequency-only MIMO radar and a new data association method is proposed. By using the TLDF method, the validity of the method is simulated not only for the targets which are moving linearly but also for the maneuvering targets. The proposed methods can localize the target and estimate the velocity of the target with less error according to the traditional isodoppler based method. Moreover, these methods are superior than the traditional method with respect to the computational complexity. By using the simulations with MATLAB, the superiorities of the proposed methods to the traditional method are shown.