Design of a short-range radar system for wing-beat frequency detection

Abstract

Birds plays an essential role in ecosystem as well as human society. This paper presented the design of a short-range, low-power monitoring radar for bird observation. By utilizing the self-injection locked radar architecture and joint frequency-time analysis, the proposed system is able to detect the wing-beat frequency (WBF) from a flying bird at distances up to 18 m. Several experiments are successfully conducted on both bionic birds and real flying pigeons. The development of this radar system shows a great potential in the ornithology study.