Abstract-A new Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) has been developed at Multimedia University, in collaboration with Agency of Remote Sensing Malaysia. The SAR operates at C-band, single V V -polarization, with 5 m × 5 m spatial resolution. Its unique features include compact in size, light weight, low power and capable of performing real-time imaging. A series of field measurements and flight tests has been conducted and good quality SAR images have been obtained. The system will be used for monitoring and management of earth resources such as paddy fields, oil palm plantation and soil surface. This paper reports the system design and development, as well as some preliminary results of the UAVSAR.

Abstract-Radar waveform synthesizer is a key component in radar system as it determines the best achievable resolution. In this paper, a miniature and low cost radar waveform synthesizer is proposed. The synthesizer is targeted for Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) based radar system applications that require miniaturized equipment due to limited space in aircraft's fuselage. The waveform synthesizer has been developed using Altera DE3 development board (Stratix III FPGA) and a custom made dual-channel 420 MSPS HS-DAC board. The proposed system is capable of generating various types of radar waveforms: a) Linear Frequency Modulated (LFM) or chirp pulse, b) Frequency Modulated Continuous Wave (FMCW), and c) Calibration Tone (Cal-Tone), for use in different types of radar applications. The distinguishing feature of the proposed synthesizer is its capability in re-configuring the signal properties in real-time. The performance of the synthesizer has been benchmarked with commercially available radar waveform synthesizer and comparable performance has been observed.

No abstract