Exploiting Cognition in ISAR Processing for Spectral Compatibility Applications

This article introduces and analyzes the concept of a cognitive inverse synthetic aperture radar (ISAR) ensuring spectral compatibility in crowded electromagnetic environments. In such a context, the proposed approach alternates between environmental perception, recognizing possible emitters in its frequency range, and an action stage, synthesizing and transmitting a tailored radar waveform to achieve the desired imaging task while guaranteeing spectral coexistence with overlaid emitters. The perception is carried out by a spectrum sensing module providing the true relevant spectral parameters of the sources in the environment. The action stage employs a tailored signal design process, synthesizing a radar waveform with bespoke spectral notches, enabling ISAR imaging over a wide spectral bandwidth without interfering with other radio frequency (RF) sources. A key enabling requirement for the proposed application is the capability to successfully recover possible missing data in the frequency domain (induced by spectral notches) and in the slow-time dimension (enabling concurrent RF activities still in a cognitive fashion). This process is carried out by resorting to advanced methods based on either the compressed-sensing framework or a rank-minimization (RM) recovery strategy. The capabilities of the proposed system are assessed by exploiting a dataset of drone measurements in the frequency band between 13 and 15 GHz. Results highlight the effectiveness of the devised architecture to enable spectral compatibility while delivering high-quality ISAR images as well as additional RF activities.