SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR RECOGNIZING OBJECTS IN RADAR IMAGERY

摘要

The present invention is directed to systems and methods for detecting objects in a radar image stream. Embodiments of the invention can receive a data stream from radar sensors and use a deep neural network to convert the received data stream into a set of semantic labels, where each semantic label corresponds to an object in the radar data stream that the deep neural network has identified. Processing units running the deep neural network may be collocated onboard an airborne vehicle along with the radar sensor(s). The processing units can be configured with powerful, high-speed graphics processing units or field-programmable gate arrays that are low in size, weight, and power requirements. Embodiments of the invention are also directed to providing innovative advances to object recognition training systems that utilize a detector and an object recognition cascade to analyze radar image streams in real time. The object recognition cascade can comprise at least one recognizer that receives a non-background stream of image patches from a detector and automatically assigns one or more semantic labels to each non-background image patch. In some embodiments, a separate recognizer for the background analysis of patches may also be incorporated. There may be multiple detectors and multiple recognizers, depending on the design of the cascade. Embodiments of the invention also include novel methods to tailor deep neural network algorithms to successfully process radar imagery, utilizing techniques such as normalization, sampling, data augmentation, foveation, cascade architectures, and label harmonization.

主权项

1. A system for detecting objects in a radar image stream, comprising:
a flying vehicle; a radar sensor on the flying vehicle; a processor on the flying vehicle; an object detection module loaded on the processor, the object detection module comprising a deep learning algorithm trained on a plurality of labeled radar image chips; the processor configured to receive a stream of radar image data from the radar sensor, the processor further configured to provide the received stream of radar image data to the object detection module; the object detection module programmed to invoke the deep learning algorithm to process the received stream of radar image data into a semantic label corresponding to a detected object in the stream; and the processor further configured to provide the semantic label to an operational control module onboard the flying vehicle.