Ground penetrating radar (GPR) is traditionally applied to smooth surfaces in which the assumption of halfspace is an adequate approximation that does not deviate much from reality. Nonetheless, using GPR for internal structure characterization of tree trunks requires measurements on an irregularly shaped closed curve. Typical hyperbola-fitting has no physical meaning in this new context since the reflection patterns are strongly associated to the shape of the tree trunk. Instead of a clinical hyperbola, the reflections give rise to complex-shaped patterns that are difficult to be analyzed even in the absence of clutter. In the current paper, a novel processing scheme is described that can interpret complex reflection patterns assuming a circular target subject to any arbitrary shaped surface. The proposed methodology can be applied using commercial handheld antennas in real-time avoiding computationally costly tomographic approaches that require the usage of custom-made bespoke antenna arrays. The validity of the current approach is illustrated both with numerical and real experiments.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.