Radar data processing apparatus and data processing method

A data processing apparatus for a millimeter-wave radar, which receives data concerning peaks appearing in a frequency spectrum of a beat signal produced by mixing a received signal with a portion of a transmitted signal frequency-modulated by a triangular wave increasing and decreasing alternately in a cyclic fashion, and which processes the peak data for the increasing and decreasing sections of the triangular wave for a plurality of angles, comprising:

• part for determining pairing between peaks in the increasing section of the triangular wave and the corresponding peaks in the decreasing section thereof;
• part for calculating, from frequencies of the paired peaks, a distance to each individual target and a relative velocity of the target;
• part for grouping together peaks substantially equal in frequency and distributed within a prescribed angle range, by determining that the peaks are due to reflections from the same target;
• and
• part for determining that, if a number of peaks belonging to the same group is smaller than a predetermined value, the peaks belonging to the same group are ineligible peaks.

A radar data processing apparatus comprising:

• part for checking continuity to determine whether previously obtained target data and currently obtained target data are data obtained from the same target;
• part for performing filtering calculations on the target data that has been determined as being data from the same target as a result of the continuity check;
• and
• part for prohibiting the filtering calculations from being performed for the calculation of the relative velocity of the target contained in the target data, if the currently obtained target data is data calculated from currently obtained actual measured values, and if the previously obtained target data is data calculated by extrapolation, not from actual measured values.

A data processing method for a millimeter-wave radar, which receives data concerning peaks appearing in a frequency spectrum of a beat signal produced by mixing a received signal with a portion of a transmitted signal frequency-modulated by a triangular wave increasing and decreasing alternately in a cyclic fashion, and which processes the peak data for the increasing and decreasing sections of the triangular wave for a plurality of angles, comprising the steps of:

• determining pairing between peaks in increasing section of the triangular wave and the corresponding peaks in decreasing section thereof;
• calculating, from frequencies of the paired peaks, distance to each individual target and relative velocity of the target;
• and
• determining an ineligible target based on the calculated relative velocity.

A data processing method for a millimeter-wave radar, which receives data concerning peaks appearing in a frequency spectrum of a beat signal produced by mixing a received signal with a portion of a transmitted signal frequency-modulated by a triangular wave increasing and decreasing alternately in cyclic fashion, and which processes the peak data for the increasing and decreasing sections of the triangular wave for a plurality of angles, comprising the steps of:

• determining pairing between the peaks in the increasing section of the triangular wave and the corresponding peaks in the decreasing section thereof;
• calculating, from frequencies of the paired peaks, distance to each individual target and relative velocity of the target;
• grouping together peaks substantially equal in frequency and distributed within a prescribed angle range, by determining that the peaks are due to reflections from the same target;
• and
• determining that, if a number of peaks belonging to the same group is smaller than a predetermined value, the peaks belonging to the same group are ineligible peaks.

A radar data processing method comprising the steps of:

• checking continuity to determine whether previously obtained target data and currently obtained target data are data obtained from the same target;
• performing filtering calculations on the target data that has been determined as being data from the same target as a result of the continuity check;
• and
• prohibiting the filtering calculations from being performed for the calculation of the relative velocity of the target contained in the target data, if the currently obtained target data is data calculated from currently obtained actual measured values, and if the previously obtained target data is data calculated by extrapolation, not from actual measured values.