Ship imaging and tracking using LFMCW scanning radar in shipping lane management application

A new ship imaging and tracking method using linear frequency modulated continuous wave (LFMCW) scanning radar in shipping lane management application is proposed. It aims at solving the problem that it is difficult for a ship to find the right shipping lane when it first enters an unknown port in bad weather conditions. A theoretical analysis is presented, demonstrating the imaging process of LFMCW radar. An image can be got after the radar scans 360°. Multi-frame images of a ship can be obtained by continuous scanning the ship area. Changes between images are used for ship tracking by multi-frame joint detection algorithm. It is then validated on an experiment. The experiment results show the efficiency of the proposed method.