Target Reconstruction Based on 3-D Scattering Center Model for Robust SAR ATR

• Published in: IEEE transactions on geoscience and remote sensing Vol. 56; no. 7; pp. 3772 - 3785
• Main Authors: Ding, Baiyuan, Wen, Gongjian
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York IEEE 01.07.2018; The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc. (IEEE)
• Subjects: 3-D scattering center model; Automatic target recognition; automatic target recognition (ATR); Computer simulation; Correlation analysis; Image reconstruction; Mathematical models; Methods; Model matching; neighbor matching; Object recognition; Outliers (statistics); Predictive models; Radar imaging; reconstruction; Redundancy; Robustness; SAR (radar); Scattering; Similarity; Solid modeling; Synthetic aperture radar; synthetic aperture radar (SAR); Target acquisition; Target recognition; Three dimensional models; Two dimensional models
• ISSN: 0196-2892; 1558-0644
• DOI: 10.1109/TGRS.2018.2810181

This paper proposes a robust synthetic aperture radar (SAR) automatic target recognition method based on the 3-D scattering center model. The 3-D scattering center model is established offline from the CAD model of the target using a forward method, which can efficiently predict the 2-D scattering centers as well as the scattering filed of the target at arbitrary poses. For the SAR images to be classified, the 2-D scattering centers are extracted based on the attributed scattering center model and matched with the predicted scattering center set using a neighbor matching algorithm. The selected model scattering centers are used to reconstruct an SAR image based on the 3-D scattering center model, which is compared with the test image to reach a robust similarity. The designed similarity measure comprehensively considers the image correlation between the test image and the model reconstructed image and the model redundancy as for describing the test image. As for target recognition, the model with the highest similarity is determined to the target type of the test SAR image when it is denied to be an outlier. Experiments are conducted on both the data simulated by an electromagnetic code and the data measured in the moving and stationary target acquisition recognition program under standard operating condition and various extended operating conditions to validate the effectiveness and robustness of the proposed method.