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electronics

Editorial
Artificial Intelligence (AI)-Based Radar Signal Processing and
Radar Imaging
Weike Feng 1 , Xiaowei Hu 1, * and Xingyu He 2

1 Air and Missile Defense College, Air Force Engineering University, Xi’an 710051, China;
fengweike007@163.com
2 Air Traffic Control and Navigation College, Air Force Engineering University, Xi’an 710051, China;
hxy_19890708@163.com
* Correspondence: xwhu002@163.com

1. Introduction to Artificial Intelligence (AI)-Based Radar Signal Processing and


Radar Imaging
In recent years, artificial intelligence (AI), especially deep learning, has led to remark-
able achievements in image recognition, speech recognition, autonomous driving and many
other fields. In the field of radar signal processing, more and more researchers are trying to
use deep learning algorithms to solve problems related to radar signal processing, such
as radar jamming/clutter recognition and suppression, radar waveform and array design,
radar imaging, and automatic target recognition.
(1) Radar jamming/clutter recognition and suppression. With the continuous progress
of deceptive active jamming technology, traditional anti-jamming technology cannot guar-
antee the normal operation of radars under jamming conditions. In light of this, scholars
have carried out a series of anti-jamming studies based on deep learning, mainly includ-
ing jamming signal recognition [1], target recognition under jamming conditions [2], and
adaptive anti-jamming strategy optimization [3]. At the same time, the deep learning
algorithm provides technical support for suppressing the sea surface and ground clutter.
Related research includes target detection in the environment of sea clutter [4] and ground
clutter [5].
(2) Radar waveform and array design. In terms of radar waveform and array design,
deep learning is mainly used for the following purposes: (1) Transmitting power spectrum
Citation: Feng, W.; Hu, X.; He, X. design for spectrum sharing, in which the most representative result of this research is of
Artificial Intelligence (AI)-Based non-interference spectrum interval screening and radar waveform adaptive adjustment
Radar Signal Processing and Radar technology developed by the DEVCOM laboratory [6]; (2) optimization of MIMO radar
Imaging. Electronics 2024, 13, 4251. transmitting waveform design; and (3) antenna array design, in which the main research
https://doi.org/10.3390/ focus is MIMO radar design and optimization of sub-array [7].
electronics13214251
(3) Automatic target recognition. Deep learning-based radar automatic target recogni-
Received: 16 October 2024 tion technology can mainly be divided into the following categories: (1) automatic target
Accepted: 23 October 2024 recognition (ATR) based on SAR images [8]; (2) target recognition based on high-resolution
Published: 30 October 2024 range profiles, mainly including the identification of aircraft [9], ground vehicles [10] and
ship targets [11]; (3) target identification based on micro-Doppler features, such as human
target action recognition [12] and UAV/bird screening [13]; (4) automatic target recognition
based on other information (such as target radar cross-section [14]).
Copyright: © 2024 by the authors.
(4) Radar imaging. The study of deep learning for radar imaging was first proposed
Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.
in [15]. The Yazici team designed a recursive autoencoder network structure of the iterative
This article is an open access article
shrinkage threshold algorithm (ISTA) in an optimized manner. This recursive autoencoder
distributed under the terms and
conditions of the Creative Commons
network structure has a faster convergence rate and fewer reconstruction errors than ISTA.
Attribution (CC BY) license (https://
The radar systems currently used in deep learning for target imaging are 2-D turntable
creativecommons.org/licenses/by/
imaging [16], 2-D inverse synthetic aperture radar (ISAR) imaging [17], multiple input
4.0/). and multiple output (MIMO) imaging [18], through-the-wall radar imaging [19], Terahertz

Electronics 2024, 13, 4251. https://doi.org/10.3390/electronics13214251 https://www.mdpi.com/journal/electronics


Electronics 2024, 13, 4251 2 of 6

coded-aperture imaging (TCAI) [20], interferometric ISAR imaging [21], and synthetic
aperture radar ground-moving target indication (SAR-GMTI) [22].

2. Overview of This Special Issue


This Special Issue, “Artificial Intelligence (AI)-Based Radar Signal Processing and
Radar Imaging”, attracted the interest of many researchers in the field, and after a double-
blind review process, twelve high-quality papers were selected for publication. In this
section, a brief overview of these contributions is provided, allowing the reader to explore
them in more detail.
The first contribution, by Geng Chen et al., proposes a fast phase-only beamforming
algorithm for frequency diverse array multiple-input–multiple-output radar systems. The
Kronecker decomposition is used to decompose the desired phase-only weight vector into
phase-only transmit and receive weight vectors and decompose the target steering vector
into transmit and receive steering vectors. The transmit and receive steering vectors and
the transmit and receive weight vectors with the Vandermonde structure are decomposed
into Kronecker factors with uni-modulus vectors, respectively. Furthermore, the Kronecker
factors are divided into two parts—the interference suppression factors and the signal
enhancement factor—to maintain the mainlobe gain and form a deep null at the desired
position. The phase-only weights, which effectively form a deep null at the desired position,
can be obtained by the proposed strategy.
The second contribution to this Special Issue is a paper by Peng et al. which proposes a
synthetic aperture radar (SAR) imaging and detection model of multiple targets at the mar-
itime scene. The sea surface sample is generated according to the composite rough surface
theory. The SAR imaging model is constructed based on a hybrid EM calculation approach
with the fast ray tracing strategy and the modified facet Small Slope Approximation (SSA)
solution. Numerical simulations are performed to calculate the EM scattering and the SAR
imaging of multiple cone targets above the sea surface, and the scattering mechanisms are
analyzed and discussed. A modified YOLO-v7 neural network with the Spatial Pyramid
Pooling Fast Connected Spatial Pyramid Convolution (SPPFCSPC) module, convolutional
block attention module (CBAM), modified Feature Pyramid Network (FPN) structure and
extra detection head is developed. The results show that the proposed method has a good
performance in detecting the targets in complex backgrounds.
The third contribution is an article by Qingkuan Wang et al. that proposes a fast
facet-based SAR imaging model to simulate the SAR images of non-cooperative aircraft
targets. The scattering coefficient of each facet on the target and rough surface is obtained
by combining the iterative physical optics and the Kirchhoff approximation. Next, the
radar echo signal of an aircraft target above a rough surface environment is generated, and
the SAR images are simulated. A SAR image target detection model is built by combining
the YOLO-v5 network with the convolutional block attention module (CBAM) and another
detection head. The simulation results demonstrate an obvious improvement in precision.
The fourth contribution is a paper by Xiaoge Wang et al. that proposes a novel
interference suppression method based on echo preprocessing to address the smeared
spectrum (SMSP) interference. The authors begin by analyzing the pulse compression
(PC) and the coherent integration (CI) characteristics of SMSP interference. Then, echo
preprocessing and interference suppression are introduced and described in detail. Finally,
the SMSP interference is suppressed. Because the proposed method does not involve
filtering and reconstruction processing, the energy of the true target is not lost.
The fifth contribution to this Special Issue is a paper by Yongzhe Zhu et al., in which
the authors conduct an in-depth analysis of two typical smart noise jamming methods:
noise convolution jamming methods and noise product jamming methods. The distribution
characteristics of the two jamming methods in both time–frequency dimensions and their
internal time–frequency relationships are analyzed. Based on this, a self-defense smart noise
jamming suppression method based on pulse frequency stepping is proposed. This method
obtains the true distance information of the target based on the phase difference caused by
Electronics 2024, 13, 4251 3 of 6

frequency stepping between adjacent pulses and uses this information to construct a filter
for the radar echo, achieving jamming suppression. The effectiveness of this method was
verified by simulations.
The sixth contribution of the Special Issue is a paper by Bo Zou et al. that introduces an
airborne radar STAP method based on deep unfolding and convolutional neural networks.
CNN is used to reduce the requirements of SR algorithms for parameter setting and
iterations, increasing their accuracy, and the clutter space–time spectrum obtained by SR
is used to reduce the network scale of CNN. Based on the idea of deep unfolding (DU),
the SR algorithm is unfolded into a deep neural network, whose optimal parameters
are obtained by training to improve its convergence performance. On this basis, the SR
network and CNN are trained end-to-end to estimate the clutter space–time spectrum
efficiently and accurately. The results of the simulations and experiments show that
the proposed method can improve the clutter suppression performance and has a lower
computational complexity.
The seventh contribution to this Special Issue is a research article by Ninghui Li et al. It
introduces a novel wideband DOA estimation approach utilizing a hierarchical prior based
on variational Bayesian inference. To significantly enhance sparsity, the authors propose a
novel hierarchical Bayesian prior framework and deduce a novel iterative approach. It is
discovered that the iterative approach has a lower computational complexity than most
of the existing state-of-the-art algorithms. The proposed approach also achieves a high
angular estimation accuracy and sparsity performance by utilizing the joint sparsity of the
multiple measurement vector (MMV) models and stabilizes the estimated values between
different frequencies or snapshots to obtain a flat spatial spectrum.
The eighth contribution is an article by Huixu Dong et al. that proposes an algorithm
for sorting staggered pulse repetition interval (PRI) signals based on the congruence
transform. The proposed algorithm transforms the arrival time of the pulse to a fixed value,
based on which the staggered PRI signal sorting and the sub-PRI sequence extraction can be
achieved. The simulation results show that the proposed algorithm can effectively sort the
staggered PRI signals and obtain the sub-PRI sequence directly without sub-PRI ranking,
and compared to some typical algorithms, it is less affected by the interfered pulses and
the pulse loss.
The ninth contribution to this Special Issue is an article by Zhipeng Liao et al. that
introduces an end-to-end robust adaptive beamforming (RBF) approach that utilizes a
two-stage convolutional neural network. The first stage includes convolutional blocks
and residual blocks without downsampling. The blocks assess the covariance matrix with
precision using finite snapshots. The second stage maps the first stage’s output to an
adaptive weight vector employing a similar structure to the first stage. The two stages are
pre-trained with different datasets and fine-tuned as an end-to-end network, simplifying the
network training process. The two-stage structure enables the network to possess practical
physical meaning, allowing for a satisfying performance even with a few snapshots in the
presence of array gain/phase errors.
The tenth contribution to this Special Issue is a paper by Jieyu Huang et al. A joint
power and bandwidth allocation algorithm in a collocated MIMO radar based on the
quality of service (QoS) framework is proposed for the multi-target tracking problem with
different threat levels. Firstly, a posterior Cramer–Rao lower bound (PCRLB) concerning
the power and bandwidth is derived. Next, the optimal objective functions of power and
bandwidth are designed based on the QoS framework, and the problem is solved using
the convex relaxation technique and the cyclical minimization algorithm. The results show
that the proposed algorithm has better tracking accuracy and achieves more reasonable
resource allocation compared to strategies such as average allocation.
The eleventh contribution is an article by Yongzhe Zhu et al. that proposes a method
for suppressing false target jamming with non-uniform stepped-frequency radar. The
authors derive the correlation between the phase difference of adjacent pulses and range
information and the Doppler frequency when the frequency is uniformly stepped, as well
Electronics 2024, 13, 4251 4 of 6

as the error caused by the Doppler frequency in range estimation. Then, a decoupling
method based on waveform design and the corresponding suppression method of range
false target jamming are proposed. The simulation results show that the proposed method
can effectively suppress the jamming of self-defense range false targets.
Finally, the twelfth contribution to the special issue is a paper by Ziyi Li et al. that
uses a cycle-consistency generative adversarial network (CycleGAN) to suppress clutter for
millimetre-wave radar. In an unsupervised learning way, their proposed method converts
the cluttered range-angle image into a clutter-free one. The generator of CycleGAN is
used as the feature extraction network for object detection. The authors use the public
dataset CRUW to evaluate their proposed method and compare it with traditional methods
and existing deep learning methods. The experimental results show that their proposed
method can ensure the integrity and consistency of the target response while effectively
removing clutter.

3. Conclusions
The Guest Editors of this Special Issue believe that AI-based radar signal processing
and radar imaging will remain at the epicenter of scientific interest, and hope that this
collection of articles will be helpful to scientists who focus their research efforts on this
challenging domain.

Author Contributions: Conceptualization, W.F.; writing—original draft preparation, X.H. (Xiaowei


Hu); writing—review and editing, W.F. and X.H. (Xingyu He). All authors have read and agreed to
the published version of the manuscript.
Funding: This work is supported in part by the Youth Talent Lifting Project of the China Asso-
ciation for Science and Technology No. 2021-JCJQ-QT-018 and The Youth Innovation Team of
Shaanxi Universities.
Acknowledgments: The Guest Editors of this Special Issue sincerely thank all the scientists who
submitted their research articles, the reviewers who assisted in evaluating these manuscripts, and
both the Editorial Board Members and the Editors of Electronics for their overall support.
Conflicts of Interest: The authors declare no conflicts of interest.
List of Contributions:
1. Zhu, Y.; Zhang, Z.; Wang, X.; Li, B.; Liu, W.; Chen, H. A Method for Suppressing False
Target Jamming with Non-Uniform Stepped-Frequency Radar. Electronics 2023, 12, 2534.
https://doi.org/10.3390/electronics12112534.
2. Huang, J.; Yang, Z.; Xie, J.; Zhang, H.; Li, Z. Joint Power and Bandwidth Allocation in Col-
located MIMO Radar Based on the Quality of Service Framework. Electronics 2023, 12, 2567.
https://doi.org/10.3390/electronics12122567.
3. Liao, Z.; Duan, K.; He, J.; Qiu, Z.; Li, B. Robust Adaptive Beamforming Based on a Convolutional
Neural Network. Electronics 2023, 12, 2751. https://doi.org/10.3390/electronics12122751.
4. Dong, H.; Wang, X.; Qi, X.; Wang, C. An Algorithm for Sorting Staggered PRI Signals Based on
the Congruence Transform. Electronics 2023, 12, 2888. https://doi.org/10.3390/electronics121
32888.
5. Li, N.; Zhang, X.; Zong, B.; Lv, F.; Xu, J.; Wang, Z. Wideband DOA Estimation Utilizing a
Hierarchical Prior Based on Variational Bayesian Inference. Electronics 2023, 12, 3074. https:
//doi.org/10.3390/electronics12143074.
6. Zou, B.; Feng, W.; Zhu, H. Airborne Radar STAP Method Based on Deep Unfolding and Convo-
lutional Neural Networks. Electronics 2023, 12, 3140. https://doi.org/10.3390/electronics12143
140.
7. Zhu, Y.; Zhang, Z.; Li, B.; Zhou, B.; Chen, H.; Wang, Y. Analysis of Characteristics and Sup-
pression Methods for Self-Defense Smart Noise Jamming. Electronics 2023, 12, 3270. https:
//doi.org/10.3390/electronics12153270.
8. Wang, X.; Chen, H.; Liu, W.; Zhang, L.; Li, B.; Ni, M. Echo Preprocessing-Based Smeared Spec-
trum Interference Suppression. Electronics 2023, 12, 3690. https://doi.org/10.3390/electronics1
2173690.
Electronics 2024, 13, 4251 5 of 6

9. Wang, Q.; Sheng, J.; Tong, C.; Wang, Z.; Song, T.; Wang, M.; Wang, T. A Fast Facet-Based SAR
Imaging Model and Target Detection Based on YOLOv5 with CBAM and Another Detection
Head. Electronics 2023, 12, 4039. https://doi.org/10.3390/electronics12194039.
10. Peng, P.; Wang, Q.; Feng, W.; Wang, T.; Tong, C. An SAR Imaging and Detection Model of
Multiple Maritime Targets Based on the Electromagnetic Approach and the Modified CBAM-
YOLOv7 Neural Network. Electronics 2023, 12, 4816. https://doi.org/10.3390/electronics12234
816.
11. Chen, G.; Wang, C.; Gong, J.; Tan, M. A Fast Phase-Only Beamforming Algorithm for FDA-
MIMO Radar via Kronecker Decomposition. Electronics 2024, 13, 337. https://doi.org/10.3390/
electronics13020337.
12. Li, Z.; Li, Y.; Wang, Y.; Zheng, T.; Qu, H. Millimeter-Wave Radar Clutter Suppression Based
on Cycle-Consistency Generative Adversarial Network. Electronics 2024, 13, 4166. https:
//doi.org/10.3390/electronics13214166.

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