Small and Short-Range Radar Systems (Modern and Practical Approaches to Electrical Engineering)
Radar Expert, Esteemed Author Gregory L. Charvat on CNN and CBS
Author Gregory L. Charvat appeared on CNN on March 17, 2014 to discuss whether Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 might have literally flown below the radar. He appeared again on CNN on March 20, 2014 to explain the basics of radar, and he explored the hope and limitations of the technology involved in the search for Flight 370 on CBS on March 22, 2014.
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Coupling theory with reality, from derivation to implementation of actual radar systems, Small and Short-Range Radar Systems analyzes and then provides design procedures and working design examples of small and short-range radar systems. Discussing applications from automotive to through-wall imaging, autonomous vehicle, and beyond, the practical text supplies high-level descriptions, theoretical derrivations, back-of-envelope calculations, explanations of processing algorithms, and case studies for each type of small radar system covered, including continuous wave (CW), ultrawideband (UWB) impulse, linear frequency modulation (FM), linear rail synthetic aperture radar (SAR), and phased array. This essential reference:
- Explains how to design your own radar devices
- Demonstrates how to process data from small radar sensors
- Provides real-world, measured radar data to test algorithms before investing development time
Complete with downloadable MATLAB® scripts and actual radar measurements, Small and Short-Range Radar Systems empowers you to rapidly develop small radar technology for your application.
Why Read This Book
You will get a practical, end-to-end guide to designing and building small, short-range radar systems that bridges theory and hands-on implementation. The book emphasizes real-world constraints and working examples (including SDR-based builds and FMCW systems), so you can move from signal‑processing math to deployable radar prototypes.
Who Will Benefit
Engineers and graduate students with some signals and systems background who want to design, implement, or prototype short‑range radar systems for automotive, robotics, through‑wall imaging, or research applications.
Level: Intermediate — Prerequisites: Undergraduate-level calculus and linear algebra, basic signals & systems and electromagnetics, and familiarity with DSP concepts (FFT, filtering); MATLAB or Python experience is helpful but not strictly required.
Key Takeaways
- Design practical short‑range radar architectures (FMCW, CW, pulsed) matched to application constraints
- Implement radar signal chains from RF front end through ADC to digital processing using SDRs and standard toolchains
- Apply FFTs, spectral analysis, matched filtering, and CFAR detection to extract range and velocity information
- Use advanced processing techniques — Doppler processing, range‑Doppler mapping, MIMO concepts, and imaging for through‑wall and SAR‑like applications
- Design and tune digital filters and adaptive algorithms for clutter suppression and improved detection
- Evaluate system performance with link‑budget, resolution, SNR, and statistical signal‑processing metrics and perform practical calibration/tests
Topics Covered
- Introduction: Scope, applications, and short‑range radar trends
- Radar fundamentals: range, Doppler, resolution, and link budgets
- Radar waveforms: CW, FMCW, pulsed, and waveform selection
- RF front‑end, antennas, and hardware considerations for small systems
- Digitization and ADC issues: sampling, dynamic range, and front‑end calibration
- Digital signal processing basics for radar: FFTs, spectral analysis, and filters
- Detection and estimation: matched filtering, CFAR, and parameter estimation
- Doppler processing and range‑Doppler imaging
- MIMO, beamforming, and waveform diversity for short‑range systems
- Practical implementations: SDRs, hardware modules, and embedded processing
- Applications: automotive, robotics, through‑wall imaging, and industrial sensing
- Adaptive filtering and statistical signal processing techniques
- Design examples, case studies, and hands‑on projects
- Measurement, testing, and system calibration
- Appendices: mathematical tools, example code snippets, and references
Languages, Platforms & Tools
How It Compares
Compared with Skolnik's classical texts (broad radar theory) and Richards' Fundamentals of Radar Signal Processing (deep signal‑processing focus), Charvat's book is more compact and hands‑on—emphasizing small, short‑range systems, SDR implementation, and practical design recipes.
