Fast ISAR Image Formations Over Multiaspect Angles Using the Shooting and Bouncing Rays

• Published in: IEEE antennas and wireless propagation letters 2018-06, Vol.17 (6), p.1020-1023
• Main Authors: Lee, Jae-In, Yun, Dal-Jae, Kim, Hyung-Ju, Yang, Woo-Yong, Myung, Noh-Hoon
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Computational modeling; Design automation; image-domain ray-tube integration; Inverse synthetic aperture radar (ISAR) image formation; one-shot ISAR imaging; Ray tracing; shooting and bouncing ray (SBR) technique; Solid modeling; Synthetic aperture radar; synthetic aperture radar automatic target recognition (SAR ATR); Target recognition
• ISSN: 1536-1225; 1548-5757
• DOI: 10.1109/LAWP.2018.2829826

Synthetic aperture radar automatic target recognition (SAR ATR) is a powerful tool for recognizing targets. The SAR ATR needs a massive database of inverse synthetic aperture radar (ISAR) images from computer-aided design (CAD) models for multiple aspect angles. To rapidly build the multiview database, we present a fast method to simulate the ISAR images over multiple aspect angles using the shooting and bouncing ray technique. Compared to the previous fast method where a ray-tracing process must be performed at each aspect angle of the ISAR images, the proposed method generates the ISAR images over multiple aspect angles through only a one-time ray-tracing process at an arbitrary angle. Therefore, the computation time is decreased as much as the number of ray-tracing processes is decreased. Similar to the previous fast method, the proposed method should be used under small angle conditions for perfect electric conductor (PEC) CAD models with a sufficiently smooth surface. The ISAR images of a tank CAD model are simulated over multiple aspect angles to verify the performance of the proposed method.