Micro-Doppler-based target detection and feature extraction in indoor and outdoor environments

In many cases, a target or a structure on a target may have micro-motions, such as vibrations or rotations. Micro-motions of structures on a target may introduce frequency modulation on the returned radar signal and generate sidebands on the Doppler frequency shift of the targetʹs body. The modulation due to micro-motion is called the micro-Doppler (m-D) phenomenon. In this paper, we present an effective quadratic time–frequency S-method-based approach in conjunction with the Viterbi algorithm to extract m-D features. For target recognition applications, mainly those in military surveillance and reconnaissance operations, m-D features have to be extracted quickly so that they can be used for real-time target identification. The S-method is computationally simple, requiring only slight modifications to the existing Fourier transform-based algorithm. The effectiveness of the S-method in extracting m-D features is demonstrated through the application to indoor and outdoor experimental data sets such as rotating fan and human gait. The Viterbi algorithm for the instantaneous frequency estimation is used to enhance the weak human m-D features in relatively high noise environments. As such, this paper contributes additional experimental m-D data and analysis, which should help in developing a better picture of the human gait m-D research and its applications to indoor and outdoor imaging and automatic gait recognition systems.