Analysis of Doppler Radars With a Numerical Method

This work proposes a numerical technique for the analysis of Doppler radar systems, which are used in many applications, including but not limited to aircraft detection, vital signs monitoring, and hand gesture control. The proposed approach consists of using the finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) method with the implementation of moving objects, where the order of magnitude of the speed of light is considered for the numerical movements. This ensures that nonprohibitive computational time is required. The dynamic interactions between electromagnetic waves and moving targets are precisely captured. Medically accurate videos are used for heartbeat and respiration detections. Postprocessing is applied to obtain realistic radar responses, enabling the simulation results to closely mimic those measured by Doppler radars. Several problems are investigated and the numerical results are compared with experimental data reported in the literature. Additionally, an experimental setup is introduced for the analysis of the proposed numerical method, by using a Doppler radar and an object in motion that is video-recorded. The video is then inserted in the FDTD code to compare the simulated and experimental results. Two scenarios are studied: an oscillating metronome and hand gestures. The obtained results further validate the proposed method.