Techniques for angle resolution in radar
AssigneeTexas Instruments Incorporated
InventorsSandeep Rao, Saurabh Khanna
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A radar apparatus for estimating position of a plurality of obstacles. The radar apparatus includes a receive antenna unit. The receive antenna unit includes a linear array of antennas and an additional antenna at a predefined offset from at least one antenna in the linear array of antennas. The radar apparatus also includes a signal processing unit. The signal processing unit estimates an azimuth frequency associated with each obstacle of the plurality of obstacles from a signal received from the plurality of obstacles at the linear array of antennas. In addition, the signal processing unit estimates an azimuth angle and an elevation angle associated with each obstacle from the estimated azimuth frequency associated with each obstacle.
Claims23
A radar apparatus for estimating position of a plurality of obstacles, the radar apparatus comprising:
- a receive antenna unit, the receive antenna unit comprising:
- a linear array of antennas;
- and
- an additional antenna at a predefined offset from at least one antenna in the linear array of antennas;
- and
- a signal processing unit, the signal processing unit configured to:
- estimate an azimuth frequency associated with each obstacle of the plurality of obstacles from a signal received from the plurality of obstacles at the linear array of antennas;
- estimate a complex amplitude associated with each obstacle from the estimated azimuth frequency associated with the plurality of obstacles and from the signal received from the plurality of obstacles at the linear array of antennas;
- estimate a complex phasor associated with each obstacle from the estimated complex amplitude associated with the plurality of obstacles and from a signal received from the plurality of obstacles at the additional antenna;
- and
- estimate an azimuth angle and an elevation angle associated with each obstacle from the estimated complex phasor associated with each obstacle and from the estimated azimuth frequency associated with each obstacle.
A method of estimating position of a plurality of obstacles using a radar apparatus, the method comprising:
- estimating an azimuth frequency associated with each obstacle of the plurality of obstacles from a signal received from the plurality of obstacles at the radar apparatus;
- estimating a complex amplitude associated with each obstacle from the estimated azimuth frequency associated with the plurality of obstacles and from the signal received from the plurality of obstacles at the radar apparatus;
- estimating a complex phasor associated with each obstacle from the estimated complex amplitude associated with the plurality of obstacles and from the signal received from the plurality of obstacles at the radar apparatus;
- and
- estimating an azimuth angle and an elevation angle associated with each obstacle from the estimated complex phasor associated with each obstacle and from the estimated azimuth frequency associated with each obstacle.
A radar apparatus for estimating position of a plurality of obstacles, the radar apparatus comprising:
- a transmit antenna unit;
- a transmitter coupled to the transmit antenna unit and configured to generate the outbound RF (radio frequency) signal;
- a receive antenna unit;
- a receiver coupled to the receive antenna unit and configured to receive the inbound RF signal from the receive antenna unit, wherein the outbound RF signal is scattered by the plurality of obstacles to generate the inbound RF signal;
- a mixer coupled to the receiver and to the transmitter and configured to demodulate the inbound RF signal to generate a demodulated signal;
- an analog to digital converter (ADC) coupled to the mixer and configured to generate a digital signal in response to the demodulated signal received from the mixer;
- an FFT (fast fourier transform) module coupled to the ADC and configured to transform the digital signal from a time domain to a frequency domain;
- and
- a signal processing unit coupled to the FFT module and configured to process the digital signal, the signal processing unit further configured to:
- estimate an azimuth frequency associated with each obstacle of the plurality of obstacles from the digital signal;
- estimate a complex amplitude associated with each obstacle from the estimated azimuth frequency associated with the plurality of obstacles and from the digital signal;
- estimate a complex phasor associated with each obstacle from the estimated complex amplitude associated with the plurality of obstacles;
- and
- estimate an azimuth angle and an elevation angle associated with each obstacle from the estimated complex phasor associated with each obstacle and from the estimated azimuth frequency associated with each obstacle.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.