Optimal Aperture and Path Design for Passive UAV SAR System with Geosynchronous Illuminator

Abstract

Due to the superior flexibility and cost-efficiency, unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) is becoming an indispensable platform for advanced remote sensing applications. In this paper, the passive UAV synthetic aperture radar (SAR) system with geosynchronous illuminator (PUAV-SAR) is studied. The UAV platform passively reuses the backscattered signal of a GEO-SAR, and achieves bistatic imaging and data communication. Firstly, the aperture and path design problem is modeled as a constrained multiobjective optimization problem. Then, a path design method is presented to generate a UAV path with optimized mission performance. Numerical simulations are conducted to verify the effectiveness of the proposed method.