Detection of Micro-Doppler Signals of Drones Using Radar Systems with Different Radar Dwell Times

Not any radar dwell time of a drone radar is suitable for detecting micro-Doppler (or jet engine modulation, JEM) produced by the rotating blades in radar signals of drones. Theoretically, any X-band drone radar system should detect micro-Doppler of blades because of the micro-Doppler effect and par...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Drones (Basel) 2022-09, Vol.6 (9), p.262
Main Authors: Gong, Jiangkun, Yan, Jun, Li, Deren, Kong, Deyong
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Blades
cognitive micro-Doppler radar
Doppler effect
Doppler radar
Doppler resolution
Drone aircraft
drone detection
Dwell time
Fourier transforms
JEM signals
Jet engines
Methods
Radar data
radar dwell time
Radar equipment
Radar systems
Rotation
Signal processing
Superhigh frequencies
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Summary:Not any radar dwell time of a drone radar is suitable for detecting micro-Doppler (or jet engine modulation, JEM) produced by the rotating blades in radar signals of drones. Theoretically, any X-band drone radar system should detect micro-Doppler of blades because of the micro-Doppler effect and partial resonance effect. Yet, we analyzed radar data detected by three radar systems with different radar dwell times but similar frequency and velocity resolution, including Radar−α, Radar−β, and Radar−γ with radar dwell times of 2.7 ms, 20 ms, and 89 ms, respectively. The results indicate that Radar−β is the best radar for detecting micro-Doppler (i.e., JEM signals) produced by the rotating blades of a quadrotor drone, DJI Phantom 4, because the detection probability of JEM signals is almost 100%, with approximately 2 peaks, whose magnitudes are similar to that of the body Doppler. In contrast, Radar−α can barely detect any micro-Doppler, and Radar−γ detects weak micro-Doppler signals, whose magnitude is only 10% of the body Doppler’s. Proper radar dwell time is the key to micro-Doppler detection. This research provides an idea for designing a cognitive micro-Doppler radar by changing radar dwell time for detecting and tracking micro-Doppler signals of drones.
ISSN:2504-446X
2504-446X
DOI:10.3390/drones6090262