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Attention-enhanced Alexnet for improved radar micro-Doppler signature classification

Attention-enhanced Alexnet for improved radar micro-Doppler signature classification
Attention-enhanced Alexnet for improved radar micro-Doppler signature classification

This work introduces an attention mechanism that can be integrated into any standard convolution neural network to improve model sensitivity and prediction accuracy with minimal computational overhead. The attention mechanism is introduced in a lightweight network – Alexnet and its classification performance for human micro-Doppler signatures is evaluated. The Alexnet model trained with an attention module can implicitly highlight the salient regions in the radar signatures while suppressing the irrelevant background regions and consistently improving network predictions. Network visualizations are provided through class activation mapping, providing better insights into how the predictions are made. The visualizations demonstrate how the attention mechanism focusses on the region of interest in the radar signatures.

image classification, micro Doppler, radar target recognition
1751-8784
652-664
Vishwakarma, Shelly
c98f51e0-a07e-4b21-becd-75d7249643ea
Li, Wenda
3a3026d2-6265-4fb9-9b4e-22082087909e
Tang, Chong
9409c6d1-69d2-4598-8b43-bbb7f51f6fe2
Woodbridge, Karl
5234b3c0-6313-4513-8309-28b824a14fb6
Adve, Ravi Raj
c3d1b58a-a32d-4d9b-ba34-dced4723ac5d
Chetty, Kevin
324e29d3-cdf5-4e2b-9b78-5fad57f4e4d0
Vishwakarma, Shelly
c98f51e0-a07e-4b21-becd-75d7249643ea
Li, Wenda
3a3026d2-6265-4fb9-9b4e-22082087909e
Tang, Chong
9409c6d1-69d2-4598-8b43-bbb7f51f6fe2
Woodbridge, Karl
5234b3c0-6313-4513-8309-28b824a14fb6
Adve, Ravi Raj
c3d1b58a-a32d-4d9b-ba34-dced4723ac5d
Chetty, Kevin
324e29d3-cdf5-4e2b-9b78-5fad57f4e4d0

Vishwakarma, Shelly, Li, Wenda, Tang, Chong, Woodbridge, Karl, Adve, Ravi Raj and Chetty, Kevin (2022) Attention-enhanced Alexnet for improved radar micro-Doppler signature classification. IET Radar, Sonar and Navigation, 17 (4), 652-664. (doi:10.1049/rsn2.12369).

Record type: Article

Abstract

This work introduces an attention mechanism that can be integrated into any standard convolution neural network to improve model sensitivity and prediction accuracy with minimal computational overhead. The attention mechanism is introduced in a lightweight network – Alexnet and its classification performance for human micro-Doppler signatures is evaluated. The Alexnet model trained with an attention module can implicitly highlight the salient regions in the radar signatures while suppressing the irrelevant background regions and consistently improving network predictions. Network visualizations are provided through class activation mapping, providing better insights into how the predictions are made. The visualizations demonstrate how the attention mechanism focusses on the region of interest in the radar signatures.

Text
IET Radar Sonar Navi - 2022 - Vishwakarma - Attention‐enhanced Alexnet for improved radar micro‐Doppler signature - Version of Record
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More information

Accepted/In Press date: 9 December 2022
Published date: 30 December 2022
Keywords: image classification, micro Doppler, radar target recognition

Identifiers

Local EPrints ID: 502021
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/502021
ISSN: 1751-8784
PURE UUID: c0ef8b86-4484-452c-bb14-dab0cc03dec0
ORCID for Shelly Vishwakarma: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0003-1035-3259

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Date deposited: 13 Jun 2025 16:57
Last modified: 22 Aug 2025 02:35

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Contributors

Author: Shelly Vishwakarma ORCID iD
Author: Wenda Li
Author: Chong Tang
Author: Karl Woodbridge
Author: Ravi Raj Adve
Author: Kevin Chetty

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