Wavefront reconstruction of 3D cylindrical subsurface radar imagery: A study on synthetic phantoms

In recent years, the use of radar technology has been proposed in a wide range of subsurface imaging applications. Traditionally, linear scan trajectories are used to acquire data in most subsurface radar scenarios. However, novel subsurface radar applications, such as breast microwave imaging and wood inspection, require the use of non linear scan trajectories in order to adjust to the geometry of the scanned area. This paper proposes a novel reconstruction algorithm for subsurface radar data acquired along 3D cylindrical scan trajectories. The spectrum of the collected data is processed in order to locate the spatial origin of the target reflections and remove the spreading of the target reflections which results from the different signal travel times along the scan trajectory. The proposed algorithm was tested using experimental data sets, yielding promising results.