A multistatic radar array for detecting wild animals during pasture mowing

During pasture mowing in spring time, every year countless animals such as fawns are killed or severely injured. In addition to animal protection laws, this is a big problem for farmers due to botulism of the livestock. Many different strategies have been developed to either scar the fawns away or to detect them, for example by searching with a hunting dog. These methods are either ineffective or very time-consuming and therefore less applicable. In this paper, we present a detecting method which is based on microwave signals. This incoherent radar system uses antennas arranged as a matrix and a signal superposition principle. It detects the reflection signature of covered targets of a certain shape - e.g. metals or objects with high water content. The low computing power needed allows a large area to be scanned within a short time. Since this radar system is almost completely insensitive to vertical movement of the extension arm, it can be mounted on a fast driving vehicle.