DNN Transfer Learning from Diversified Micro-Doppler for Motion Classification

Recently, deep neural networks (DNNs) have been the subject of intense research for the classification of radio frequency (RF) signals, such as synthetic aperture radar (SAR) imagery or micro-Doppler signatures. However, a fundamental challenge is the typically small amount of data available due to the high costs and resources required for measurements. Small datasets limit the depth of DNNs implementable, and limit performance. In this work, a novel method for generating diversified radar micro-Doppler signatures using Kinect-based motion capture simulations is proposed as a training database for transfer learning with DNNs. In particular, it is shown that together with residual learning, the proposed DivNet approach allows for the construction of deeper neural networks and offers improved performance in comparison to transfer learning from optical imagery. Furthermore, it is shown that initializing the network using diversified synthetic micro-Doppler signatures enables not only robust performance for previously unseen target profiles, but also class generalization. Results are presented for 7-class and 11-class human activity recognition scenarios using a 4-GHz continuous wave (CW) software-defined radar.