Stepped-Frequency Distributed Radar for Through-the-Wall Sensing

A technical analysis of the effectiveness of distributed radar for through-the-wall sensing applications.

Army Research Laboratory, Adelphi, MD

The authors are studying the application of distributed radar to through-the-wall sensing. The intended operational scenario for this technology is detection and identification of personnel and weaponry located inside of a building from a (safe) remote standoff distance outside of that building.

The radar architecture and signal-processing algorithms used for this study are similar to the designs implemented by the U.S. Army Combat Capabilities Development Command (DEVCOM) Army Research Laboratory (ARL) for buried- and concealed-surface target detection; the current radar transmits and receives higher frequencies. For this study, experiments were conducted at ARL's Adelphi Laboratory Center (ALC) in Building 507 (the “sandbox” area) using the indoor low-metal two-story plywood structure. The controlled environment used to test the distributed radar is the same as the low-metal environment used to test ARL's harmonic radar against electronic targets.