Analysis of accurate signal propagation model for through-wall imaging radar using compressive sensing

In most applications of through-wall imaging (TWI) radar, target positioning has attracted more attentions than electromagnetic (EM) wave propagation. And the special application also provides a possibility for applying the bran-new theory, known as compressive sensing (CS), to TWI. However, due to the high sensitivity of CS in model error, the approximate propagation model which is widely used by conventional imaging algorithms will hardly satisfy the requirement of CS for robust reconstruction any longer, especially in the noisy environments. Except for target positioning error, the model error also results in the deterioration of image quality, such as integral sidelobe ratio. In this paper, the approach for calculating the accurate propagation model is presented. And with numerical simulations, the effects of model error on both conventional algorithms and CS are demonstrated.