SBIR-STTR Award

Target recognition is often confirmed through visual identification, placing personnel as well as expensive military assets in extreme danger. Moving Target Recognition (MTR) mode performed by an airborne radar system will enable the identification of targets at a safe standoff distance; however, MTR is pushing the state-of-the-art for Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance (ISR) radars. Radars use Moving Target Indication (MTI) mode to detect moving targets; however, to reliably image moving ground targets for ATR, the target position and attitude must be known to a high degree of accuracy. Also, radar geolocation accuracy from MTI is highly range dependent in the cross-range dimension, as radar angle accuracy is usually 1-2 orders of magnitude higher in angle variance than an EO/IR sensor. To address the warfighter’s need for responsive target location and recognition, IMSAR LLC is proposing to leverage our low-Size, Weight, and Power (SWaP) Commercial-Off-The-Shelf (COTS) radar systems to develop an MTR mode that processes radar data to accurately geolocate moving targets and uses backprojection to develop a 3D image chip, which can be input into Automatic Target Recognition (ATR) algorithms. Radars use Moving Target Indication (MTI) mode to detect moving targets; however, to reliably image moving ground targets for ATR, the target position and attitude must be known to a higher degree of accuracy than what a single radar can provide. Also, radar geolocation accuracy from MTI is highly range dependent in the cross-range dimension, as radar angle accuracy is usually 1-2 orders of magnitude higher in angle variance than an EO/IR sensor. For these reasons, we believe using two radars that are performing MTI on moving targets will provide the relevant data needed to determine a higher degree of geolocation accuracy for moving targets. IMSAR has years of experience performing aerial radar data collections from a variety of platforms including the (left to right) Skyfront Perimeter Drone, IMSAR’s Cessna 172 aircraft, and DJI Matrice. IMSAR has the radar experience necessary to provide the quality and quantity SAR imagery needed for the development of MTR algorithms. Our all-weather, day-and-night Ku-band radar systems range from the 7-pound NSP-3 designed for Group I UAS to the 24-pound NSP-7 designed for Group IV UAS and manned aircraft. These systems are modular, scalable, and designed with an open architecture, which has enabled our systems to be integrated on a variety of platforms from hand-held UAS to high-altitude long endurance platforms. These radar systems provide a suite of capabilities, including high-resolution SAR, Coherent and Magnitude Change Detection (CCD/MCD), “VideoSAR” style SAR Motion Video (SMV), ground vehicles and dismounts(GMTI/DMTI), Maritime (MMTI), each with High Value Target (HVT) tracking capabilities.

Multi-Domain Operations (MDO) require the use of Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS) for autonomous collection of Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance (ISR). Electro-Optical Infrared (EO/IR) can provide recognition of moving targets, but their operability is limited by darkness and degraded visual environments (DVEs) such as clouds, smoke, dust, fog, and haze. Radar systems provide all-weather ISR capability and are capable of identifying static targets, but they are typically not capable of producing imagery of moving targets in high-enough resolution to support target recognition. To address the warfighter’s need for responsive target location and recognition, IMSAR LLC is proposing to leverage its low-SWaP high-performance radar systems to process high-resolution SAR imagery to detect, geolocate, image, and recognize moving targets Detection, identification, and tracking of moving objects in SAR signals is necessary in both civil and military applications. However, SAR processing assumes the ground is static, and moving targets can cause errors in SAR images, such as defocusing and target displacement. Radars use Moving Target Indication (MTI) mode to detect moving targets. To reliably image moving ground targets for ATR, the target position and attitude must be known to a higher degree of accuracy than what a single radar can provide. Also, radar geolocation accuracy from MTI is highly range dependent in the cross-range dimension, as radar angle accuracy is usually 1-2 orders of magnitude higher in angle variance than an EO/IR sensor.  During Phase I, IMSAR successfully performed advanced methods of SAR data collection using two radars simultaneously collecting data on moving targets. Using post-processing techniques with truth data, the SAR data was used to accurately determine the location and velocity of moving targets. By constraining the target’s path and taking a directional derivative across a Digital Elevation Map (DEM) slope, IMSAR will estimate the combined pitch/roll needed to estimate the moving target’s orientation. For Phase II, IMSAR will partner with Atmospheric and Environmental Research (AER), who will further develop MTR algorithms for target recognition.