Three-Dimensional Electromagnetic Model-Based Pose Estimation Using Fully Polarimetric Wideband Radar

The pose of a rotational symmetry target in a wideband radar is the angle between its symmetry axis and the radar line of sight. It is a required parameter for target absolute attitude measurement using the bistatic radar measuring system. In this letter, a 3-D electromagnetic model (3-D EM model)-based method is proposed for estimating the target pose from fully polarimetric wideband radar measurements. The 3-D EM model is established offline based on the target geometric structure. Scattering features at different target poses can be accurately predicted by this model. In the proposed algorithm, a synthetic high-resolution range profile (HRRP), which is proved to be only related to the target pose, is first generated from the sum of echoes in radar copolarization channels. Then, by matching this synthetic HRRP with the synthetic HRRPs recovered by the 3-D EM model, the target pose is obtained. Experiments using both data predicted by a high-frequency electromagnetic code and data measured in an anechoic chamber verify the validity of the method.