Continuous Wave (CW) radars are preferred for their low probability of intercept by the other receivers. Frequency modulation techniques, the linear frequency modulation (LFM) technique in particular, are commonly used in CW radars to resolve the range and the radial velocity of the detected targets. The conventional method for target detection in a linear FMCW radar makes use of a mixer followed by a low-pass filter whose output is Fourier transformed to get the range and velocity information. In this thesis, an alternative target detection technique based on the use of the Ambiguity Function (AF) will be investigated in frequency modulated CW radars. Results of the AF-based technique and the conventional Fourier-based technique will be compared for different target detection scenarios.

In this study, novel methods for high-resolution radar target detection in non-Gaussian clutter environment are proposed. In solution of the problem, two approaches are used: Non-coherent detection that operates on the envelope-detected signal for thresholding and coherent detection that performs clutter suppression, Doppler processing and thresholding at the same time. The proposed non-coherent detectors, which are designed to operate in non-Gaussian and range-heterogeneous clutter, yield higher performance than the conventional methods that were designed either for Gaussian clutter or heterogeneous clutter. The proposed coherent detector exploits the information in all the range cells and pulses and performs the clutter reduction and thresholding simultaneously. The design is performed for uncorrelated, partially correlated and fully correlated clutter among range cells. The performance analysis indicates the superiority of the designed methods over the classical ones, in fully correlated and partially correlated situations. In addition, by design of detectors for multiple targets and making corrections to the conventional methods, the target-masking problem of the classical detectors is alleviated.

The goal of this thesis study is to investigate the Ambiguity Function Technique for target detection in phase-coded continuous wave radar. Also, phase shift keying techniques are examined in detail. Continuous Wave (CW) Radars, which are also known as Low Probability of Intercept (LPI) radars, emit continuous signals in time which are modulated by either frequency modulation or phase modulation techniques. Modulation of the transmitted radar signal is needed to estimate both the range and the radial velocity of the detected targets. In this thesis, Phase Shift Keying (PSK) techniques such as the Barker codes, Frank codes, P1, P2, P3, P4 codes will be employed for radar signal modulation. The use of Ambiguity Function, which is a non-linear Time- Frequency Representation (TFR), for target detection will be investigated in phasecoded CW radars for different target scenarios.

The main aim of using radars in industrial safety system is to detect the presence of target accurately. The conventional methods of radar target detection algorithm such as the Cell averaging constant false alarm rate method (CA-CFAR), Greatest of constant false alarm method (GO-CFAR) and the Smallest of constant false alarm rate method (SO-CFAR) has their own disadvantage when it comes to precise target detection which is a key factor for a safety system. This thesis investigates the above mentioned conventional CFAR algorithms for its pros and cons in target detection and proposes a new and improved method called Cell Evaluation target detection method. The proposed method is shown to mitigate the limitations present and the assumptions made in the conventional target detection method. Further more angular estimation is performed to determine the precise location of the target and the artifacts due to the angular estimation is eliminated by aggregating the detected points from multiple radar modules by linear translation. This gives a better visualization of the target. / Radarteknik kan användas inom maskinsäkerhet (MS) för att detektera skyddsvärda objekt, typiskt människor i arbete nära maskiner. Konventionella metoder för detektering med given frekvens falsk alarm (eng. Constant False Alarm Rate (CFAR)) som baseras på medelvärden, har dock betydande brister. Främst beträffande precision och tillförlitlighet, vilket är centralt för MS. Exempel som studerats i detta examensarbete är “Cell-averaging CFAR” (CA-CFAR), “Greatest of CFAR” (GO-CFAR) samt “Smallest of CFAR” (SO-CFAR). Med målet att förbättra detektionen föreslås även en ny CFAR-metod, vilken benämns ”Cell Evaluation target detection”. I detta arbete visas denna metod undertrycka begränsningar med konventionella tekniker. Den undviker även en del antaganden som inte alltid stämmer i praktiken. Studien inkluderar även skattning av riktning. Det visas hur visualisering av skyddsobjekt kan förbättras, genom att felaktigheter elimineras efter sammanläggning av detektioner från flera radarmoduler efter koordinattransformation.