Development of a cm-resolution ground penetrating UAV-SAR system for 3D subsurface radar imaging

Abstract:
Innovative synthetic aperture radar concepts for close-range high-resolution applications have been enabled by the rapid developments in unmanned aerial vehicles in recent years. In combination with highly integrated ground penetrating radar, such systems provide a basis for new sensing solutions in many applications. At DLR, a radar sensor called DRONAR using 100 % relative bandwidth at a center frequency of 2 GHz is developed and serves as payload for an offthe- shelf multi-copter platform in order to demonstrate this novel technology. Unique three-dimensional subsurface imaging capabilities of this sensor are demonstrated using an experimental dataset acquired in October 2023. Recent developments of the system and the validation of the 3D imaging performance is presented in this contribution.