Drone-mounted ground penetrating radar (GPR) has the capability to investigate terrain that is inaccessible or hazardous to humans. A linear frequency-modulated (LFM) radar with the potential for GPR applications is described based on the LimeSDR Mini software defined radio (SDR). Challenges of the LimeSDR Mini radar include the SDR's lack of support for transmitter-receiver synchronization and high bleedthrough leakage. These issues are overcome through corrective software processing techniques including deconvolution of the SDR's system impulse response and digital feed-through nulling. Feed-through nulling is effective at reducing bleedthrough leakage, achieving a 26 dB reduction in power. Although high noise can confound the identification of targets with small radar cross sections in dynamic environments, the LimeSDR Mini radar is demonstrated to display a moving target across multiple ranges. This research demonstrates the increasing accessibility of SDR radar for drone applications, as the LimeSDR Mini is lightweight and low-cost compared to high-end SDRs typically used in SDR radar.

High cost is a current problem with modern radar systems. Software-defined radios (SDRs) offer a possible solution for low-cost customizable radar systems. An SDR is a radio communi- cation system where, instead of the traditional radio components implemented in hardware, many of the components are implemented in software on a computer or embedded system. Although SDRs were originally designed for wireless communication systems, the firmware of an SDR can be configured into a radar system. With new companies entering the market, various types of low- cost SDRs have emerged. This thesis explores the use of a LimeSDR-Mini in a short-range radar through open software tools and custom code. The LimeSDR-Mini is successfully shown to detect targets at a short range. However, due to the instability of the LimeSDR-Mini, the consistent detection of a target is not possible. This thesis shows how the LimeSDR is characterized and how timing synchronization and instability issues are mitigated. The LimeSDR-Mini falls short of operating reliable in a radar system and other SDR boards need to be explored as viable options. Test setups using coaxial cables and test setups using antennas in an outdoor environment show the instability of the LimeSDR-Mini. The transmitter and the receiver are asynchronous. The timing difference varies slightly from run to run, which results in issues that are exacerbated in a short-range radar. The bleed-through signal is the signal leakage from the transmitter to the receiver. The bleed-through signal prevents the detection of targets at a short-range. Feed-through nulling is a signal processing technique used to eliminate the bleed-through signal so that short- range targets can be detected. The instability of the LimeSDR-Mini reduces the effectiveness of feed-through nulling techniques.

The work deals with the use of software-defined radio as a probe for monitoring the operation of wireless communication according to the IEEE 802.11a/g standard. In the theoretical introduction, the concept of software-defined radio as a hardware device with software programmable circuits enabling the transmission or reception of signals in theoretically any frequency band is introduced. The introduction also contains adescription of selected devices and the IEEE 802.11 protocol with its most used additionsand modulations. In the first part of the practical part of the work, wireless communication is capturedusing a wireless network card in monitoring mode. The intercepted communication was decrypted and this decrypted traffic was compared with the data captured by the probe within the network. These results then served as acomparative basis for software-defined radio capturing. The focus of this work is to verify the capabilities of software-defined radio and its use for sniffing wireless communicationin the frequency band 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz. The attempt to use a software-defined radio here results from the scalability and adaptability that a wireless card cannot offer due to fixed hardware parameters. LimeSDR mini, LimeSDR and bladeRF 2.0 devices were used for capture. First, the configuration of the operating system, the installation of drivers and programs for control and work with selected devices are described. After verifying the functionality of the software-defined radio, a model of a signal decoder with the parameters of the IEEE 802.11g standard captured from the radio spectrum was put into operation. Finally, the data streams captured by the software-defined radio and the wireless network card were compared side by side. The results showed that the software-defined radio in the used configuration captures only a part of the total volume of transmitted frames.