Freehand, Agile, and High-Resolution Imaging With Compact mm-Wave Radar

The aim of this paper is to present a freehand scanning system with a compact mm-wave radar. In order to achieve high-resolution images, the system exploits the free movements of the radar to create a synthetic aperture. However, in contrast to conventional synthetic aperture radar (SAR), in which canonical acquisition surfaces (e.g., planes or cylinders) are used, the system allows for a given tolerance compatible with real hand-made trajectories. Moreover, different techniques are studied to compensate for the impact of irregular sampling to reduce the artifacts in the image. As a result, real-time scanning can be readily performed even by inexperienced users. The scanning system, comprising a commercial motion capture system and an mm-wave module, can be easily deployed and calibrated. Several results involving different objects are shown to illustrate the performance of the system.