Millimeter-Wave Imaging for FOD Detection

Abstract

We present an efficient approach for reconstructing images of small objects and Foreign Object Debris (FODs) from scattered field synthetic data and measurements in W-band (75−110 GHz), taking advantages of spatial and polarization diversities, and process them with either qualitative or quantitative inverse methods. The target application is FOD detection for airport runways. We investigate FOD detection and identification capabilities through two approaches: a quantitative reconstruction under 2D assumption and qualitative reconstruction using a Backpropagation algorithm (BP). Most existing systems are monostatic but rapid advances in millimeter-wave technologies make it realistic to imagine the deployment of multistatic radars on either side of airport runways. In the following, we investigate the contribution of multistatic measurements, on the reconstruction of typical debris, courtesy of DGAC (French Civil Aviation).