Human-Target Detection and Surrounding Structure Estimation Under a Simulated Rubble via UWB Radar

The presence of a human target and the surrounding rubble structure are both important information in postdisaster rescue. In this letter, we study the signal-processing algorithm for detecting a human target in radar echo data. Furthermore, a solution is proposed to estimate the surrounding structure-the distance between the human target and the top wall of the cavity where the human target is trapped. In the latter procedure, the human position estimated before is used as a prior knowledge. In order to verify the feasibility of the proposed method, experiments are carried out with a human subject lying under the simulated rubble structure. The results show prospects of the proposed method.