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Then the generated images are digitally correlated with stored image data to obtain 2D intensity plot of correlation.
The correlation plots provide the angular errors developed over the flight time of the approaching missile which is then used to correct the flight path during terminal guidance. This work is to be done using visualization and computation application software with image processing tools (MATLAB).It is software intensive work with application to missile terminal guidance.
Development of radar image simulation tool Implementation of algorithm for image intensity Results for Test case involving runway /city landscape
RADAR
RADAR is an abbreviation for RAdio Detection And Ranging. Uses modulated waveforms and directive antennas to transmit electromagnetic energy into a specific volume in space to search for targets. Objects (targets) within a search volume will reflect portions of this energy (radar returns or echoes) back to the radar. Echoes are then processed by the radar receiver to extract target information such as range, velocity, angular position, and other target identifying characteristics. 2 operational types of Radar: Passive Radar Active Radar
Types of RADARS
Considering the waveforms used, RADARS can be classified as Continuous-wave Radars (CW) Pulsed-Radars (PR) CW radars are those that continuously emit electromagnetic energy, and use separate transmit and receive antennas. Target range information cannot be extracted without utilizing some form of modulation. Pulsed radars use a train of pulsed waveforms (mainly with modulation). In this category, radar systems can be classified on the basis of the Pulse Repetition Frequency (PRF), as low PRF, medium PRF, and high PRF radars. Low PRF radars are primarily used for ranging where target velocity (Doppler shift) is not of interest.
During each PRI the radar radiates energy only for seconds and listens for target returns for the rest of the PRI.
Imaging RADARS
Imaging radar produces an image in which the digital number(intensity) at each pixel position is determined by the strength of the radar signal reflected from the corresponding location in the scene. Imaging radars can be divided in 2 main categories, depending on the imaging technique used:
Seeker in Missiles
Why seeker in missile? Because there is uncertainty in the flight path or target location that makes it impossible to achieve the desired accuracy without a seeker. The active radar seeker, from a radar engineer's view, may be defined as an application-specific compact missile-borne pulse tracking radar whose antenna is mounted ,such that the antenna is isolated from the body movement of the missile.
Active radar seekers are the most popular in all the current missile programs owing to their flexibility of design and implementation to suit almost every mission requirement apart from all weather capability.
Detection of targets located on the ground, generally poses more serious challenges because of the randomness of the terrain and the presence of strongly scattering features on the ground which decreases the SNR of the backscattered signal, now called clutter.
Radar scattering depends on: Dielectric properties (terrain property) Conductivity(terrain property) Surface roughness/ volume properties (terrain property) Incidence angle /Elevation angle(geometric property)
RADAR Targets
There are two types of Radar Target: Point targets - Point targets are those targets whose size is smaller than the beam width.
Extended Target
Detection based on
BLOCK DIAGRAM
The Blurring module generates the boundary areas separating the regions of varying backscatter.
The image generation plot (intensity plot) finally generates the whole frame by weighted averaging method.
The scanning interval is the time between two samples taken for processing to generate an image. This time includes the beam acceleration period, uniform scan period and beam deceleration period. The radial and azimuthal extent of the surface area that is illuminated by the airborne radar is called as the Radar Footprint.
Common Search patterns used are: Raster Spiral Helical and Nodding (Sinusoidal) The intensity pixels in the images are generated by averaging the backscatter intensities over the area illuminated by the beam (foot print area) The scan angular rate has to be increased as the onboard radar approaches towards target since as beam footprint shrinks more time is needed to generate the complete frame covering the same area of interest.
In raster scanning, the beam sweeps horizontally left-to-right at a steady rate, then blanks and rapidly moves back to the left, where it turns back on and sweeps out the next line.
Imaging Parameters
Many factors affect the image generation in a typical Real Aperture Radar (RAR).
These factors can be divided into three parameters and they are : Radar Parameters Geometry/Trajectory Parameters Terrain Parameters
Radar parameters
The factors that influence the radar image formation: Beam depth - width of the beam across the scan direction. Beam width - width of the beam along the scan direction. Scan ellipse - beam footprint projected on to the land surface. Scan overlap Factor - factor by which each scan sample overlaps with the other. Pixel per unit distance - distance that each pixel in radar represents. Pulse width - width of the pulses sent out by radar. Frequency Band frequency band of the RAR operation.
Trajectory Parameters
Elevation angle The angle of the onboard radar w.r.t centroid of target patch. Elevation scan range The angular range in elevation plane over which the beam moves. Azimuth angle - The angle of onboard radar w.r.t centroid of target patch in azimuth plane. Azimuth scan range The angular range in azimuth plane over which the beam moves Length & Depth of the rectangular area to be scanned for imaging. Radar Range The radial distance from onboard radar to centroid of target patch Scan shift angle The shift in angle required while changing scan direction. Velocity missile Closing velocity of vehicle towards impact point.
Terrain Parameters
Target MCS Number The gray scale representation of the back scatter signal value (mean clutter strength (MCS)) corresponding to distributed land of interest. Background MCS Number The gray scale representation of the terrain background back scatter signal value. Terrain Type The type of terrain in which the target/structure of interest resides. Also the MCS number includes the effect of propagation in a given atmosphere.
IMPORTANT PARAMETERS
PARAMETER Beam Depth and Width Range resolution Scan Rate Pulse Width Background Clutter (land o) Target Backscatter (o) TYPICAL VALUES 4.5 deg 75 m 64 scans/sec 0.5 s 20 dB - 5 dB
Radar range
Velocity
60 km max
3*e+8
CORRELATION METHODOLOGY(RAR)
The purpose of the study of Correlation is to evaluate the similarity of a chosen ground patch (sub-image) with other parts of a candidate scene, as imaged through a Real Aperture Radar. To obtain 2-Dimensional Correlation plots which are used for extended target detection. Provides the angular errors developed over the flight time of the approaching missile which is then used to correct the flight path during terminal guidance.
Normalized correlation
Correlation plots
Correlation Methodology
Each image is expressed as a matrix of numbers corresponding to the pixel-wise distribution of intensities (Reflectivities) in the image.
The correlation process then reduces to mathematical operations between the elements of matrices representing the two sub-images being correlated. To ensure that the two sub-images being correlated are of equal physical size, it is necessary to ensure that the pixel size in the subimages is identical.
Correlation methodology
Correlation (normalized) is performed between the reference subimage and the underlying subimage of equal size, using the formula.
I x, y I I x, y I
h l y 1 x 1 R R S S
IR
where
IS
1 h h I R x, y hl y 1 x 1
I x, y I
h l y 1 x 1 R R
1 h l I S x, y hl y 1 x 1
C = Normalized correlation coefficient between the reference sub image and its underlying sub image at a given location IR = intensity (reflectivity) of pixel ( x, y) on the reference sub image Pixel intensity at xth row and yth column
Image of a runway complex which is inserted into the main scene on the bottom right
The reference sub image is then shifted down by one pixel, and correlated by shifting one pixel at a time along the horizontal axis. The entire scene is thus traversed until the reference sub image reaches the bottom right corner of the larger image.
The value of the correlation coefficient for each position of the reference subimage is plotted as function of the x-y displacement of the subimage from the top left corner of the larger image. This yields a 2-D plot, which is shown as intensity variation over the x-y plane.
The ability of the vehicle to home on to the target based on the reference scene is determined by the uniqueness of the reference within the larger image. This, in turn, is demonstrated if the self-correlation of the reference scene is sharp and unambiguous, i.e., there are no other competing peaks of comparable magnitude in the vicinity of the self-correlation peak. In particular, an area of radius equal to the prior guidance error around the self-correlation peak should be free from competing peaks.
Correlation characteristics of the ideal image: (a) main image showing cityscape with embedded airport feature, (b) (b) clean subimage containing runways and surrounding areas, (c) intensity plot of correlation of subimage across main image, (d) mesh plot of (c), (e) cross-range view of (d), (f) downrange view of (d).
SOFTWARE IMPLEMENTATION
MATLAB software has been used in this study for generating seeker images in a RAR and then evaluating the similarity between these missile seeker images and the digital images stored in the database of the On-Board computer using the process of correlation.
List of Parameters used in the study Radar Parameters: Beam Depth, Beam Width, Scan Ellipse, Pulse Width, Pixel per Unit Distance and Scan Overlap Factor
Trajectory/Geometry Parameters: Elevation Angle (equivalent to grazing angle) Length of Stretch Radar Range
ALGORITHM
Read an image (true-color or grayscale) using the MATLAB IPT function imread. Convert this image to a grayscale image if the image is true-color using the IPT function RGB2GRAY. This is the main reference image stored in the database of the On-Board computer in RAR. Crop out a portion of this main image to get the target sub-image using the IPT function imcrop. This is used by the RAR as the reference target image.
But for practical cases noise is associated with seeker image generation due to various reasons, one is noise due to electronic sensors in seeker or due to other reasons. So to accommodate for noise and observe the results we add noise (Gaussian noise ) to the main image and using that image we generate a degraded seeker image. Noise is added to the image by using the MATLAB IPT function imnoise.
Load the trajectory parameters (Radar_RANGE) IPT function spline is used The original trajectory and the trajectory curve obtained by splining is as shown
Now using the splined trajectory curve obtain Radar_RANGE values at these new points and seeker images are generated at all these points. Seeker images for both main image and target images are generated at all these points by a method of degradation/blurring For this purpose, at all these points a structural element is generated using the IPT function getnhood. The radius of this structural element is different at each point in the trajectory(Radar Range) and it is dependent on Pixel per unit distance and Radar Beam-width.
This structural element (analogous to beam footprint) is used as a template for Raster scanning with overlapping ( as defined by the Overlap_FACTOR) to cover the entire image area. A certain percentage (25%) is used here. The structural element is made to sweep the whole image defined by its own area. At each of these positions the pixels defined by the area of the circle/distorted ellipse are averaged out to get a single value. This process is repeated as the structural element sweeps the entire image area and we get a set of averaged out values which are rounded off.
This image is the degraded seeker generated image. Thus we generate the seeker generated main image at all points in the trajectory.
For the purpose of effective correlation of two images, the two images should have the same resolution. So we downgrade the clean target scene cropped from the main image to the resolution of the seeker generated image. For this purpose we use the MATLAB IPT function imtransform. At each point in the trajectory, the downgraded target sub-image is correlated with the seeker generated main image using the IPT MATLAB function normxcorr2 to yield an intensity plot which is the intensity variation of the normalized correlation coefficients over the x-y plane. This plot gives a sharp and an unambiguous intensity peak, providing the angular errors developed over the flight time of the approaching missile which is then used to correct the flight path during terminal guidance. To get the mesh plot which is the 3-D view of the intensity plot we use the IPT MATLAB function mesh. The projections of this plot are also obtained using the view MATLAB function.
CONCLUSION
Thus RAR Imaging is a simple and cost effective technique for missile guidance for extended target detection
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