Simulation and Analysis of Human Micro-Dopplers in Through-Wall Environments

We present a simulation methodology for generating micro-Doppler radar signatures of humans moving behind walls. The method combines primitive-based modeling of humans with finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) simulation of walls. Realistic motions of humans are generated from computer animation data. The time-varying human radar cross section is simulated using the primitive-based prediction technique. The scattered returns of humans behind walls are then simulated by a hybrid of the human simulation model with the through-wall propagation data generated from FDTD. The resulting simulator is used to investigate the effects of walls of both homogeneous and inhomogeneous types on human micro-Dopplers. It is found that while through-wall propagation affects the magnitude response of the Doppler spectrogram in the form of attenuation and fading, it only introduces very minor distortions on the actual Doppler frequencies from the body parts. This is corroborated by measurement data collected using a Doppler radar, as well as by a point-scatterer analysis of refraction and multipath introduced by walls.