New method of time-frequency representation for ISAR imaging of ship targets

Inverse synthetic aperture radar （ISAR） imaging of ship targets is very important in the national defense. For the high maneuverability of ship targets, the Doppler frequency shift of the received signal is time-varying, which will degrade the ISAR image quality for the traditional range-Doppler （RD） algorithm. In this paper, the received signal in a range bin is characterized as the multi-component polynomial phase signal （PPS） after the motion compensation, and a new approach of time-frequency represen- tation, generalized polynomial Wigner-Ville distribution （GPWVD）, is proposed for the azimuth focusing. The GPWVD is based on the exponential matched-phase （EMP） principle. Compared with the conventional polynomial Wigner-Ville distribution （PWVD）, the EMP principle transfers the non-integer lag coefficients of the PWVD to the position of the exponential of the signal, and the interpolation can be avoided completely. For the GPWVD, the cross-terms between multi-component signals can be reduced by decomposing the GPWVD into the convolution of Wigner-Ville distribution （WVD） and the spectrum of phase adjust functions. The GPWVD is used in the ISAR imaging of ship targets, and the high quality instantaneous ISAR images can be obtained. Simulation results and measurement data demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed new method.

Ship recognition based on HRRP via multi-scale sparse preserving method

In order to extract the richer feature information of ship targets from sea clutter, and address the high dimensional data problem, a method termed as multi-scale fusion kernel sparse preserving projection(MSFKSPP) based on the maximum margin criterion(MMC) is proposed for recognizing the class of ship targets utilizing the high-resolution range profile(HRRP). Multi-scale fusion is introduced to capture the local and detailed information in small-scale features, and the global and contour information in large-scale features, offering help to extract the edge information from sea clutter and further improving the target recognition accuracy. The proposed method can maximally preserve the multi-scale fusion sparse of data and maximize the class separability in the reduced dimensionality by reproducing kernel Hilbert space. Experimental results on the measured radar data show that the proposed method can effectively extract the features of ship target from sea clutter, further reduce the feature dimensionality, and improve target recognition performance.

A Novel SAR Image Ship Small Targets Detection Method

To satisfy practical requirements of high real-time accuracy and low computational complexity of synthetic aperture radar (SAR) image ship small target detection, this paper proposes a small ship target detection method based on the improved You Only Look Once Version 3 (YOLOv3). The main contributions of this study are threefold. First, the feature extraction network of the original YOLOV3 algorithm is replaced with the VGG16 network convolution layer. Second, general convolution is transformed into depthwise separable convolution, thereby reducing the computational cost of the algorithm. Third, a residual network structure is introduced into the feature extraction network to reuse the shallow target feature information, which enhances the detailed features of the target and ensures the improvement in accuracy of small target detection performance. To evaluate the performance of the proposed method, many experiments are conducted on public SAR image datasets. For ship targets with complex backgrounds and small ship targets in the SAR image, the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm is verified. Results show that the accuracy and recall rate improved by 5.31% and 2.77%, respectively, compared with the original YOLOV3. Furthermore, the proposed model not only significantly reduces the computational effort, but also improves the detection accuracy of ship small target.

Construction of Ship Target Image Library Based on 3DS MAX and AP Algorithm

To achieve accurate classification and recognition of ship target types,it is necessary to establish a sample library of ship targets to be identified.On the basis of exploring the principles of building a ship target image library,the paper determines the sample set.Using 3DS MAX software as the platform,combined with the accurate 3D model of the ship in an offline state,the software fully utilizes its own rendering and animation functions to achieve the automatic generation of multi-view and multi-scale views of ship targets.To reduce the storage capacity of the image database,a construction method of the ship target image database based on the AP algorithm is presented.The algorithm can obtain the optimal cluster number,reduce the data storage capacity of the image database,and save the calculation amount for the subsequent matching calculation.

A new CFAR ship target detection method in SAR imagery

Many ship target detection methods have been developed since it was verified that ship could be imaged with the space-based SAR systems. Most developed detection methods mostly emphasized ship detection rate but not computation time. By making use of the advantages of the K-distribution CFAR method and two-parameter CFAR method, a new CFAR ship target detection algorithm was proposed. In that new method, we use the K-distribution CFAR method to calculate a global threshold with a certain false-alarm rate. Then the threshold is applied to the whole SAR imagery to determine the possible ship target, pixcls, and a binary image is given as tile preliminary result. Mathematical morphological filter are used to filter the binary image. After that step, we use tile two-parameter CFAR method to detect the ship targets. In the step, the local sliding window only works in the possible ship target pixels of the SAR imagery. That step avoids the statistical calculation of the background pixels, so the method proposed can much improve the processing speed. In order to test the new method, two SAN imagery with different background were used, and the detection result shows that that method can work well in different background circumstances with high detection rate. Moreover, a synchronous ship detection experiment was carried out in Qingdao port in October 28, 2005 to verify the new method and one ENVISAT ASAR imagery was acquired to detect ship targets. It can be concluded from the experiment that the new method not only has high detection rate, but also is time-consuining, and is suitable for the operational ship detection system.

Multi-static InISAR imaging for ships under sparse aperture

This paper concentrates on super-resolution imaging of the ship target under the sparse aperture situation.Firstly,a multi-static configuration is utilized to solve the coherent processing interval(CPI)problem caused by the slow-speed motion of ship targets.Then,we realize signal restoration and image reconstruction with the alternating direction method of multipliers(ADMM).Furthermore,we adopt the interferometric technique to produce the three-dimensional(3D)images of ship targets,namely interferometric inverse synthetic aperture radar(InISAR)imaging.Experiments based on the simulated data are utilized to verify the validity of the proposed method.

Optimal ship imaging for shore-based ISAR using DCF estimation

The optimal imaging time selection of ship targets for shore-based inverse synthetic aperture radar （ISAR） in high sea conditions is investigated. The optimal imaging time includes opti- mal imaging instants and optimal imaging duration. A novel method for optimal imaging instants selection based on the estimation of the Doppler centroid frequencies （DCFs） of a series of images obtained over continuous short durations is proposed. Combined with the optimal imaging duration selection scheme using the image contrast maximization criteria, this method can provide the ship images with the highest focus. Simulated and real data pro- cessing results verify the effectiveness of the proposed imaging method.

Imaging algorithm of multi-ship motion target based on compressed sensing

An imaging algorithm based on compressed sensing（CS） for the multi-ship motion target is presented. In order to reduce the quantity of data transmission in searching the ships on a large sea area, both range and azimuth of the moving ship targets are converted into sparse representation under certain signal basis. The signal reconstruction algorithm based on CS at a distant calculation station, and the Keystone and fractional Fourier transform（FRFT） algorithm are used to compensate range migration and obtain Doppler frequency. When the sea ships satisfy the sparsity, the algorithm can obtain higher resolution in both range and azimuth than the conventional imaging algorithm. Some simulations are performed to verify the reliability and stability.

Semisupervised heterogeneous ensemble for ship target discrimination in synthetic aperture radar images

Ship detection using synthetic aperture radar(SAR)plays an important role in marine applications.The existing methods are capable of quickly obtaining many candidate targets,but numerous non-ship objects may be wrongly detected in complex backgrounds.These non-ship false alarms can be excluded by training discriminators,and the desired accuracy is obtained with enough verified samples.However,the reliable verification of targets in large-scene SAR images still inevitably requires manual interpretation,which is difficult and time consuming.To address this issue,a semisupervised heterogeneous ensemble ship target discrimination method based on a tri-training scheme is proposed to take advantage of the plentiful candidate targets.Specifically,various features commonly used in SAR image target discrimination are extracted,and several acknowledged classification models and their classic variants are investigated.Multiple discriminators are constructed by dividing these features into different groups and pairing them with each model.Then,the performance of all the discriminators is tested,and better discriminators are selected for implementing the semisupervised training process.These strategies enhance the diversity and reliability of the discriminators,and their heterogeneous ensemble makes more correct judgments on candidate targets,which facilitates further positive training.Experimental results demonstrate that the proposed method outperforms traditional tritraining.

Synthetic damage effect assessment through evidential reasoning approach and neural fuzzy inference:Application in ship target

The damage effect assessment of anti-ship missiles combines system science and weapon science,which can provide reference for the assessment of battlefield damage situation.In order to solve the difficulty of heterogeneous data aggregation and the difficulty in constructing the mapping between factors and damage effect,this paper analyzes the specific damage process of the anti-ship missile to the ship,and proposes a synthetic Evidential Reasoning(ER)–Adaptive Neural Fuzzy Inference System(ANFIS)to assess the damage effect.To solve the problem of fuzziness and uncertainty of criteria in the assessment process,the belief structure model is used to transform qualitative and quantitative information into a unified mathematical structure,and ER algorithm is used to fuse the information of lower-level criteria.In order to solve the problem of fuzziness and uncertainty of the information contained in the first-level variables,and the strong non-linear characteristics of the mapping between first-level variables and damage effect,the ANFIS with selfadaptation and self-learning is constructed.The map between the three first-level variables and damage effect is established,and the interaction process of the various factors in the damage effect assessment are clear.Sensitivity analysis shows that assessment model has good stability.The result analysis and comparative analysis show that the process proposed in this paper can effectively assess the damage effect of anti-ship missiles,and all criteria data are objective and comparable.