Signals, Vol. 4, Pages 337-358: Classification and Discrimination of Birds and Small Drones Using Radar Micro-Doppler Spectrogram Images

Signals, Vol. 4, Pages 337-358: Classification and Discrimination of Birds and Small Drones Using Radar Micro-Doppler Spectrogram Images

Signals doi: 10.3390/signals4020018

Authors: Ram M. Narayanan Bryan Tsang Ramesh Bharadwaj

This paper investigates the use of micro-Doppler spectrogram signatures of flying targets, such as drones and birds, to aid in their remote classification. Using a custom-designed 10-GHz continuous wave (CW) radar system, measurements from different scenarios on a variety of targets were recorded to create datasets for image classification. Time/velocity spectrograms generated for micro-Doppler analysis of multiple drones and birds were used for target identification and movement classification using TensorFlow. Using support vector machines (SVMs), the results showed an accuracy of about 90% for drone size classification, about 96% for drone vs. bird classification, and about 85% for individual drone and bird distinction between five classes. Different characteristics of target detection were explored, including the landscape and behavior of the target.