High-Accuracy Target Recognition Scheme Based on Photonic Radar and Optical Reservoir Computing

A high-accuracy target recognition scheme based on photonic radar and optical reservoir computing is proposed and demonstrated. The adoption of broadband photonic radar enables the acquisition of high-resolution range profiles (HRRPs) of the targets. A semiconductor laser-based optical reservoir computing (RC) system is used to achieve high recognition accuracy based on such HRRPs. With four small objects as targets, the performance of the proposed target recognition scheme is experimentally investigated. The results show that a high recognition accuracy of 95% is achieved based on photonic radar (8-GHz bandwidth) and optical RC. Therefore, the proposed scheme provides a promising solution for small target recognition in security check, traffic control, air defense and other related applications.