Contour recognition with a cooperative distributed radar sensor network

Cooperative Radar Sensor Systems operate several radar sensors with independent generation in a distributed network. Evaluating the cross-echo distances (bistatic responses), additional information about the target´s contour can be gained, as the locations of further reflection points of the target can be estimated. In this paper, a system model with several single channel stations is introduced, which enables to distinguish between spherical (point scatterers) and planar objects. For this model, the complete signal processing chain to process the bistatic response is presented. Criteria to distinguish between point and planar scatterers are derived from geometrical deliberations. The technique is demonstrated in a measurement setup with an arbitrary waveform generator (AWG) as the signal source for two stations. Results are discussed for varying phase noise parameters. The measurements reveal that the presented method enables contour classification of objects under strict phase noise requirements.