Improving estimation performance of compressive sensing-based multiple-input multiple-output radar using electronic beamsteering

Abstract

Two-dimensional direction-of-arrival (DoA) estimation in azimuth and elevation via radar systems equipped with uniform rectangular arrays (URAs) will play an important role in various application areas—most distinctively in future urban air mobility settings with unmanned aerial vehicles. A key factor is the fast and reliable provision of target detections in terms of range and DoA for safe autonomous operation of the vehicle using on-board antenna arrays with compact installation size. The authors present a technique for improving the performance of DoA estimation using compressive sensing in conjunction with multiple-input multiple-output arrays with electronically steered beams in the transmit direction. The simulation study investigates the impact of different design considerations on radar signal processing performance. An optimisation of a radar system using electronic beamsteering in the transmit domain is presented numerically. Based on the architecture of the URAs used, performance and detection accuracy can be improved.