Fast and precise ranging based on Stepped-Frequency continuous wave radar measurements using compressive sensing algorithms

Stepped-Frequency continuous wave (SFCW) radar suffers from the drawback of long data acquisition time which discourages its wide usage for practical applications. In this paper, we introduce a compressive sensing (CS) based data measurement scheme which only uses a small sample of the total frequency points to increase the data acquisition speed. Typically amplitude information is used in these schemes. However, for some applications that require a high precision range measurement of the target, the use of phase information of the target's profile is also needed besides the amplitude information to improve the ranging precision; which is challenging. In this paper, we analyze the parameters of CS based method, which affect the accuracy of the recovered phase information of the target in detail. Simulation by an ideal point target and actual measurements by using our developed SFCW radar are carried out to investigate the effects of these parameters.