Concepts for 3D MIMO imaging of buildings

Stationary MIMO radar systems have the potential to generate two-or three dimensional radar images with a relatively small number of antenna elements. Since Tx- and Rx-beamforming can be performed in the processor, also simultaneously, there is a great variety of possible signal processing approaches. One task of such a system is to image buildings from a small distance violating the far field condition. In this paper, non-conventional processing will be presented aiming to achieve good image results at low observation and processing time. RAWIS ('Radar-Warn- und Informationssystem fur Anwendungen im Katastrophenschutz', 'Radar warning and information system for applications in disaster control') is a project granted from the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) aiming at the monitoring of buildings endangered to collapse. The task for the MIMO radar as part of the system is to deliver 3D images of the buildings and to recognize small displacements of their parts immediately. In this paper we will address only the imaging of scenes without moving parts. The latter is an own task which will be tackled in further investigations.