Sense-through-wall human detection based on UWB radar sensors

• We study sense-through-wall human detection based on UWB radar sensors.
• We propose a standard deviation (std)-based approach to human detection.
• Our approach is very simple to be implemented, but it has high accuracy.
• It can achieve perfect detection (no detection error) with appropriate detection threshold.

In an emergency scenario, such as earthquake, victims can often be trapped in collapsed trenches or buildings. Search and rescue would be greatly simplified if first responders were equipped with a UltraWide Band (UWB) Radar sensor which has sense-through wall capability. Motivated by this challenge, we study sense-through-wall human detection based on UWB radar sensors. We observed that a Discrete Fourier Transform (DFT)-based approach could not work well in scenarios where signal attenuation is high, and the DFT-based approach has high computational load, which makes it difficult to be used in real-world. We propose a standard deviation (std)-based approach to sense-through wall and sense-through wooden door human detection, and make analysis on detection threshold selection. Our approach is very simple to be implemented, but it has high accuracy. It can achieve perfect detection (no detection error) with appropriate detection threshold.