Practical Investigation of a MIMO Radar System for Small Drones Detection

This study presents the latest progress of the MIMO radar system developed for small drones detection. The sparse array optimization method in practical situation is proposed and a target-based MIMO radar array calibration method is presented to improve the signal-to-noise ratio of the target. Experiment in the microwave chamber is conducted to verify the designed sparse array beam pattern and measurement campaigns for small drones are performed to test the system performance. Experimental results and analysis show that the system has good capability in small drones detection and tracking.