A Miniaturized Ultra-Wideband Radar for UAV Remote Sensing Applications

This letter presents a novel approach to build a compact lightweight unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) radar for remote sensing applications. The proposed radar exploits the recent advancement of an automotive radar chip for broadband chirp generation and rapid data processing. To compensate for the pat...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inIEEE microwave and wireless components letters Vol. 32; no. 3; pp. 198 - 201
Main Authors Abushakra, Feras, Jeong, Nathan, Elluru, Deepak N., Awasthi, Abhishek K., Kolpuke, Shriniwas, Luong, Tuan, Reyhanigalangashi, Omid, Taylor, Drew, Gogineni, S. Prasad
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published IEEE 01.03.2022
Subjects
Autonomous aerial vehicles
Chirp
Frequency-modulated continuous-wave (FMCW) radar
linear chirp
Radar
Radar antennas
Radar imaging
Radar remote sensing
remote sensing
Spaceborne radar
unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs)
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Summary:This letter presents a novel approach to build a compact lightweight unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) radar for remote sensing applications. The proposed radar exploits the recent advancement of an automotive radar chip for broadband chirp generation and rapid data processing. To compensate for the path losses and improve penetration at the millimeter-wave (mm-wave) frequency range, up- and down-converters are developed to generate an ultra-wideband (UWB) (3.25-5.15 GHz) chirp signal. The total payload of the radar is 2.5 kg. The proposed radar is installed on an UAV and tested in the field at a 100-m altitude above the ground surface. The results show that the compact low-power UWB radar can be used to map vegetation and soil moisture with fine resolution.
ISSN:1531-1309
1558-1764
DOI:10.1109/LMWC.2021.3129153