An FPGA-based real-time UAV SAR raw signal simulator

Abstract

Faced with the high computational complexity of UAV SAR raw signal simulators, a multi-FPGA system is developed. The system is based on a time-domain raw signal algorithm which can compute in real time and can be used for closed-loop simulation. In order to improve the efficiency of the SAR slant range computing, a modified non-restoring squire root algorithm for FPGA is designed. An improved method is presented to perform coherent accumulation of raw signal to decrease memory cost. The pipelined FFT and IFFT are used to compute the convolution in order to reduce delay. The SAR raw signal generation system is implemented and verified with real-time performance. It can simulate an imaging scene size of 640 + 640 point scatters with a PRF higher than 40 kHz.

The Open-Source Framework for 3D Synthetic Aperture Radar Simulation

“…Again, it is impossible to replace all of them with a single solution, but a certain amount of work can be avoided by introducing a common basis. Even the development of the hardware-based simulators [42], [47] can be simplified by using a softwarebased one as a reference.…”

“…Content may change prior to final publication. [23], [24] facet approximation of the 3D scene 2D-FFT based SiSAR [25] system simulator, development aid modular SARIS [26] detailed instrument simulator with hardware imperfections MATLAB implementation [27] general-purpose inverse algorithm creating raw data from SAR image GRECOSAR [28] polarimetric SAR/ISAR simulator processing [29] clutter simulation for GMTI java implementation, multiplatform SBRAS [30] spaceborne SAR, formation flying simulation and processing, GUI, DEM generation, performance analysis SARSIM [31] GMTI [32] image quality evaluation parameter-based [33] scanline simulator, X-band SAR [34] fast simulator of extended scenes [35] multilevel interferometric simulator processing DIONISOS [36], [37] all-in-one SAR simulator processing [38] bistatic simulator [39] multi-mode simulator processing [40] point target simulator, calibration [41] general-purpose 3D, combining geometrical optics and full-wave electromagnetic methods [42] closed-loop testing of UAV-based radar FPGA-enabled hardware in the loop [43] spaceborne spotlight SAR focusing Wavemill End-to-End Simulator (WE2ES) [44] ocean currents estimation multi-beam capabilities cSAR [45] multichannel SAR system simulator [46] bistatic simulator of extended scenes [47] general-purpose FPGA-enabled hardware in the loop Synthetic aperture radar imaging simulator [48] pulse envelope evaluation, spotlight SAR quality metrics with a defined two-dimensional pattern and for future implementations with polarimetry support. The omnidirectional objects (such as the omnidirectional scattering points and the omnidirectional antennas) have only three degrees of freedom, and for these objects both the orientation vector and the rotation angle are ignored.…”