FMCW radar with interference signal suppression using artificial neural network

A radar device associated with a first vehicle, the radar device comprising:

• a radar transmitter configured to output a radio frequency (RF) transmission signal including a plurality of frequency-modulated chirps,
• a radar receiver configured to:
• receive an RF radar signal, wherein the RF radar signal is overlaid with an interfering signal that originates from a radar sensor associated with a second vehicle different from the first vehicle,
• generate, based on the RF radar signal, a dataset including a set of digital values, the dataset being associated with a chirp or a sequence of successive chirps;
• and
• a neural network configured to filter the dataset to reduce the interfering signal included in the dataset, the neural network is a convolutional neural network,
• wherein at least one layer of the neural network is a complex-valued neural network layer comprising complex-valued weighting factors selected by the neural network from a predetermined set of discrete values, wherein the complex-valued neural network layer is configured to perform one or more operations according to a complex-valued computation and the complex-valued weighting factors,
• wherein the neural network is configured to update the complex-valued weighting factors by selecting updated complex-valued weighting factors from the predetermined set of discrete values.

A method, comprising:

• transmitting, by a radar device associated with a first vehicle, a radio frequency (RF) transmission signal including a plurality of frequency-modulated chirps;
• receiving, by the radar device, an RF radar signal, wherein the RF radar signal is overlaid with an interfering signal that originates from a radar sensor associated with a second vehicle different from the first vehicle;
• generating, by the radar device, based on the RF radar signal, a dataset including a set of digital values, the dataset being associated with a chirp or a sequence of successive chirps of the RF transmission signal and associated with the interfering signal;
• selecting, by a convolutional neural network of the radar device, complex-valued weighting factors from a predetermined set of discrete values;
• and
• filtering, by the radar device, the dataset using the convolutional neural network, the convolutional neural network being configured to reduce the interfering signal included in the dataset,
• wherein at least one layer of the convolutional neural network is a complex-valued neural network layer comprising the complex-valued weighting factors, wherein the complex-valued neural network layer is configured to perform one or more operations according to a complex-valued computation and the complex-valued weighting factors.