Convolutional Neural Network-Based Radar Antenna Scanning Period Recognition

Abstract

The antenna scanning period (ASP) of radar is a crucial parameter in electronic warfare (EW) which is used in many applications, such as radar work pattern recognition and emitter recognition. For antennas of radars and EW systems, which perform scanning circularly, the method based on threshold measurement is invalid. To overcome this shortcoming, this study proposes a method using the convolutional neural network (CNN) to recognize the ASP of radar under the condition that antennas of the radar and EW system both scan circularly. A system model is constructed, and factors affecting the received signal power are analyzed. A CNN model for rapid and accurate ASP radar classification is developed. A large number of received signal time–power images of three separate ASPs are used for the training and testing of the developed model under different experimental conditions. Numerical experiment results and performance comparison demonstrate high classification accuracy and effectiveness of the proposed method in the condition that antennas of radar and EW system are circular scan, where the average recognition accuracy for radar ASP is at least 90% when the signal to-noise ratio (SNR) is not less than 30 dB, which is significantly higher than the recognition accuracy of NAC and AFT methods based on adaptive threshold detection.