Phase-Based Human Target 2-D Identification with a Mobile FMCW Radar Platform

Identifying and locating human targets in a complex environment with a mobile radar platform are important for urban rescue missions. This article introduces a precise phase-based human target 2-D synthetic-aperture radar (SAR) imaging and recognition system based on vital sign tracking with a mobile frequency-modulated continuous-wave (FMCW) radar. The solution first relies on FMCW phase detection to extract the vital sign signal of the human target. It then applies the SAR imaging method to obtain the 2-D imaging of the scene and labels human targets in the detected 2-D map without manual selection. Experiments are carried out for the azimuth human target recognition, multiple human targets recognition, and 2-D mapping in a complex outdoor environment. The results show that the proposed solution can capture not only the vital signs of human subjects but also the precise position information for 2-D mapping, demonstrating great potential for search and rescue applications.