1-Tx/5-Rx Through-Wall UWB Switched-Antenna-Array Radar for Detecting Stationary Humans

Abstract

This research proposes a through-wall S-band ultra-wideband (UWB) switched-antenna-array radar scheme for detection of stationary human subjects from respiration. The proposed antenna-array radar consists of one transmitting (Tx) and five receiving antennas (Rx). The Tx and Rx antennas are of Vivaldi type with high antenna gain (10 dBi) and narrow-angle directivity. The S-band frequency (2–4 GHz) is capable of penetrating non-metal solid objects and detecting human respiration behind a solid wall. Under the proposed radar scheme, the reflected signals are algorithmically preprocessed and filtered to remove unwanted signals, and 3D signal array is converted into 2D array using statistical variance. The images are reconstructed using back-projection algorithm prior to Sinc-filtered refinement. To validate the detection performance of the through-wall UWB radar scheme, simulations are carried out and experiments performed with single and multiple real stationary human subjects and a mannequin behind the concrete wall. Although the proposed method is an odd concept, the interest of this paper is applying the 1-Tx/5-Rx UWB switched-antenna array radar with the proposed method that is capable of distinguishing between the human subjects and the mannequin behind the concrete wall.