Parametric Decomposition of Pulsed Lidar Signals with Noise Corruption Using FRFT Spectrum Analysis

Abstract

The parametric decomposition of full-waveform Lidar data is challenging when faced with heavy noise scenarios. In this paper, we report a fractional Fourier transform (FRFT)-based approach for accurate parametric decomposition of pulsed Lidar signals with noise corruption. In comparison with other joint time-frequency analysis (JTFA) techniques, FRFT is found to present a one-dimensional Lidar signal by a particular two-dimensional spectrum, which can exhibit the mathematical distribution of the multiple components in Lidar signals even with a heavy noise interference. A FRFT spectrum-processing solution with histogram clustering and moving LSM fitting is designed to extract the amplitude, time offset, and pulse width contained in the mathematical distribution. Extensive experimental results demonstrate that the proposed FRFT spectrum analysis method can remarkably outperform the conventional Levenberg–Marquardt-based method. In particular, it can accurately decompose the amplitudes, time offsets, and pulse widths of the pulsed Lidar signal with a −10-dB signal-to-noise-ratio by mean deviation ratios of 4.885%, 0.531%, and 7.802%, respectively.