TY - JOUR
T1 - Estimating Morphological Parameters of Insects in Non-Horizontal Flight Attitudes Based on Scattering Matrix Reconstruction
AU - Hu, Cheng
AU - Zhang, Fan
AU - Li, Weidong
AU - Wang, Rui
AU - Wang, Jiangtao
AU - Liu, Haibo
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2025 IEEE.
PY - 2025
Y1 - 2025
N2 - For vertical-looking radars (VLRs), it is typically assumed that insects maintain a steady and approximately horizontal flight attitude as they pass through the radar beam, allowing for the estimation of insect morphological parameters by measuring the Radar Cross Section (RCS) for a ventral aspect. However, for tracking radars, which dynamically track and monitor insects, the attitude of the insect relative to the radar beam constantly changes. This dynamic change in attitude renders traditional insect morphological parameter estimation methods based on the ventral-aspect RCS ineffective. This paper proposes a novel method for estimating the morphological parameters of insects in non-horizontal flight attitudes. By determining the azimuth and pitch angles of the insect's body axis relative to the radar antenna reference coordinate system and reconstructing the scattering matrix (SM) of the insect from non-horizontal attitudes to a horizontal attitude, we achieve the estimation of morphological parameters for insects in non-horizontal attitudes. The effectiveness of the proposed method is validated using a fully-polarimetric multi-angle observation dataset of 33 insects from 6 species measured in a microwave anechoic chamber. The mean relative errors in estimating the mass and length of the insects across 20 different observation angles are 20.06% and 12.85%. Compared to estimates obtained without making the correction, the accuracy of mass and body length estimation is improved by 19.80% and 13.79%, respectively.
AB - For vertical-looking radars (VLRs), it is typically assumed that insects maintain a steady and approximately horizontal flight attitude as they pass through the radar beam, allowing for the estimation of insect morphological parameters by measuring the Radar Cross Section (RCS) for a ventral aspect. However, for tracking radars, which dynamically track and monitor insects, the attitude of the insect relative to the radar beam constantly changes. This dynamic change in attitude renders traditional insect morphological parameter estimation methods based on the ventral-aspect RCS ineffective. This paper proposes a novel method for estimating the morphological parameters of insects in non-horizontal flight attitudes. By determining the azimuth and pitch angles of the insect's body axis relative to the radar antenna reference coordinate system and reconstructing the scattering matrix (SM) of the insect from non-horizontal attitudes to a horizontal attitude, we achieve the estimation of morphological parameters for insects in non-horizontal attitudes. The effectiveness of the proposed method is validated using a fully-polarimetric multi-angle observation dataset of 33 insects from 6 species measured in a microwave anechoic chamber. The mean relative errors in estimating the mass and length of the insects across 20 different observation angles are 20.06% and 12.85%. Compared to estimates obtained without making the correction, the accuracy of mass and body length estimation is improved by 19.80% and 13.79%, respectively.
KW - insect radar
KW - morphological parameter estimation
KW - non-horizontal attitude
KW - scattering matrix reconstruction
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85215299904&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1109/TGRS.2025.3528047
DO - 10.1109/TGRS.2025.3528047
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85215299904
SN - 0196-2892
JO - IEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing
JF - IEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing
ER -