Sparse Blind Deconvolution Method for Wall Parameters Estimation

The information of wall parameters is very important for the imaging performance of through-the-wall radar imaging (TWRI). The existing estimation methods usually require the calibration procedure to ensure the accuracy of the estimated wall parameters. To avoid the time-consuming calibration procedure, a sparse blind deconvolution method for wall parameters estimation is proposed in this letter. The proposed method uses the time-delay-only estimation (TDOE) strategy with the hybrid bistatic–monostatic measurement configuration to retrieve the unknown thickness, relative permittivity, and conductivity of the wall. In the estimation process, the sparse blind deconvolution algorithm is developed to retrieve the time delays of echoes reflected from the wall. The proposed sparse blind deconvolution method can precisely extract the time delays of echoes in the time domain without the calibration procedure to obtain the shape of the transmitted pulse and the frequency response of the antennas. The estimation results from the full-wave synthetic data have shown that the proposed method can also improve the estimation accuracy of the wall parameters.