Algorithm for Micro-Size Target Detection with Frequency Modulated Continuous Wave (FMCW) Radar

Poster presented at the 2018 Defence and Security Doctoral Symposium.

Micro-UAVs of the size of an insect can be used to perform stealthy surveillance or to gather intelligence crucial to attack roles at a relatively short range and within enclosed spaces and buildings. Conventional radar systems have been optimised to detect and classify bigger targets and are not specifically designed to detect micro-targets of less than 5cm in size.

Other micro-targets that are relatively small in size are the insect itself. Insect detecting, monitoring and tracking have been a great interest too until now, especially those that can caused harm to the agriculture and wide spread of diseases. It is important to detect at early stage rather than noticed it after the destructive happened. Most entomology radars that are being used now are pulsed signal wave radar, that are less efficient compared to continuous wave radar. A set of MATLAB simulations will be carried out to understand how to extract the Doppler as well as micro-Doppler signatures from these small targets, then to understand what sort of detection range can be achieved with current technology.