The goal of this research is to devise a method and a system for high resolution 3-D imaging of deeply buried targets using distributed near-ground sensors. Current systems for underground imaging are based on ground penetrating radar (GPR). Conventional GPR systems essentially utilize a monostatic transceiver to acquire data in a uniform grid of sampling points within the imaging area but not all of these points provide independent information about the subsurface environment. Also, in conventional GPR, the data points are not processed coherently together. As a result, the imaging using GPR systems is slow and does not provide enough lateral resolution for many applications. This research uses a synthetic aperture technique to acquire data and process it coherently in order get images with high lateral resolution. In the proposed method, instead of a monostatic transceiver, an array of distributed near-ground sensors consists of at least one transmitter and one moving receiver is utilized. The transmitter is located at the center of the imaging area and one or more receivers move around the transmitter and sample the reflected signals at different locations. In this case, the transmitter and receivers form a bi-static radar. By combining the sampled signals using a beam forming technique, a large synthetic 2-D array is formed to obtain images with a high lateral resolution.
The major tasks in the proposed research are:
The aims of this project is to design high resolution subsurface detection and imaging techniques for various applications in geology, archeology, urban, mining and industrial areas, as well as military and homeland security. As a result, this project will pave the way toward the localization and technology transfer of radar technologies in Saudi Arabia, which is aligned with Vision 2030.