Target localization and velocity estimation in near Forward Scatter Radar Systems: Preliminary results

In this paper we investigate the two-dimensional target localization and motion parameters estimation capabilities of a near Forward Scatter (NFS) Radar system with a dual receiving antenna. Taking advantage of the low-cost Crystal Video Detector (CVD) commonly adopted in Forward Scatter Radar (FSR) configurations, in this work we propose a short-time CVD to test for target detection. Once the target has been detected, the Doppler frequency and the Direction of Arrival measurements extracted at two separate time instants are jointly exploited to localize the target in the (x,y) plane and to estimate its velocity components. As expected the achievable estimation accuracy depends on the time delay between the measurements. The experimental results achieved by means of a passive NFS system where FM transmissions are exploited as waveforms of opportunity support the practical applicability and confirm the effectiveness of the proposed approach.