VEHICLE RADAR SYSTEM WITH A SHARED RADAR AND COMMUNICATION SYSTEM

• US 20170310758A1
• Filed: 04/25/2017
• Published: 10/26/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 04/25/2016
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Uhnder, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Uhnder, Inc.
• Inventors: Davis, Curtis, Hegde, Manju, Stark, Wayne E., Eshraghi, Aria, Goldenberg, Marius, Ali, Murtaza
• Granted Patent: US 9,954,955 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 13/0209 Systems with very large relative bandwidth, i.e. larger than 10 %, e.g. baseband, pulse, carrier-free, ultrawideband
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 13/325 using transmission of coded signals, e.g. P.S.K. signals
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 13/34 using transmission of continuous, frequency-modulated waves while heterodyning the received signal, or a signal derived therefrom, with a locally-generated signal related to the contemporaneously transmitted signal
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 13/87 Combinations of radar systems, e.g. primary radar and secondary radar
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 13/878 Combination of several spaced transmitters or receivers of known location for determining the position of a transponder or a reflector G01S13/874 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 13/931 of land vehicles
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 2013/9316 combined with communication equipment with other vehicles or with base stations
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 2013/9321 Velocity regulation, e.g. cruise control
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 7/006 using shared front-end circuitry, e.g. antennas G01S13/765, G01S13/825 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 1/69 Spread spectrum techniques
• CPC Class Codes: H04J 13/12 Generation of orthogonal codes
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 27/2003 for continuous phase modulation frequency shift keying H04L27/10
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/12 specially adapted for proprietary or special-purpose networking environments, e.g. medical networks, sensor networks, networks in vehicles or remote metering networks

Abstract

A shared radar and communication system for a vehicle includes capabilities for radar detection and communication with vehicles equipped with similar systems. The radar system is equipped with pluralities of transmit antennas and pluralities of receive antennas. The radar transmits a signal modulated with spread codes that are information bits. A receiver discriminates the signals sent from own transmitters and multiple reflections to detect objects of interest. In addition, the receiver discriminates signals transmitted from different systems on other vehicles. This requires the receiving system to have knowledge of the codes transmitted by the other vehicle. The receiving system determines the information bits sent by the other vehicle. If multiple radar systems on multiple vehicles use different sets of codes (but known to each other), the multiple systems can create a communication infra-structure in addition to radar detection and imaging.

Claims

1. A shared radar sensing and communications system for a vehicle, the system comprising:

a transmitter configured for installation and use on a vehicle, wherein the transmitter is configured to modulate a radio signal based upon a first plurality of information bits;

a control unit configured to select the first plurality of information bits used to modulate the radio signal;

wherein the transmitter is configured to transmit the modulated radio signal;

a receiver configured for installation and use on the vehicle, wherein the receiver is configured to receive a first radio signal that is the transmitted modulated radio signal reflected from objects in the environment;

wherein the receiver is configured to receive a second radio signal transmitted from another system, wherein the second radio signal carries second radio signal information bits, and wherein the receiver receives both the first radio signal and the second radio signal; and

wherein the receiver is configured by the control unit to at least one of process the first received radio signal to detect objects in the environment, and to process the second received radio signal to determine a second plurality of information bits carried by the second received radio signal.

2. The system of claim 1 further comprising a plurality of transmitters and a plurality of receivers.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the transmitter comprises a digital processing unit, a digital-to-analog converter, an analog processing unit, and a transmit antenna.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the receiver comprises a receive antenna, an analog processing unit, an analog-to-digital converter, and a digital processing unit.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein one or more spreading codes are used to phase modulate the radio signal.

6. The system of claim 5, wherein the first plurality of information bits are mapped to +1 or −

1, and used to modulate or multiply the one or more spreading codes.

7. The system of claim 5 further comprising a spreading code generator configured to generate the spreading code based upon the first plurality of information bits.

8. The system of claim 1, wherein the first and second pluralities of information bits are each arranged in a block structure with a series of preamble bits followed by a finite quantity of information bits.

9. The system of claim 8, wherein a length of the block structure is determined by a frequency and timing offset between the receiver and the other system.

10. The system of claim 1, wherein the receiver comprises a block of correlators configured to correlate the second received radio signal with a second spreading code that was used to modulate the second radio signal to carry the second plurality of information bits.

11. The system of claim 10, wherein three correlators are used to track transmissions of the other system and to extract the second plurality of information bits from the second received radio signal while at least one of the system and the other system is moving relative to the other.

12. The system of claim 1, wherein the second plurality of information bits carries information related to at least one object that is not detected by the receiver and that is detected by the other system.

13. The system of claim 12 further comprising a display, wherein the control unit is configured to send display information to the display to display information related to the at least one object that is not detected by the receiver but that is detected by the other system.

14. A shared radar sensing and communications system for a vehicle, the system comprising:

a plurality of transmitters configured for installation and use on a vehicle, wherein each transmitter of the plurality of transmitters is configured to modulate radio signals using spreading codes based upon a first plurality of information bits;

wherein the plurality of transmitters is configured to transmit the modulated radio signals;

a control unit configured to select the first plurality of information bits used to generate the spreading codes;

a plurality of receivers configured for installation and use on the vehicle, wherein each receiver of the plurality of receivers is configured to receive first radio signals that are the transmitted modulated radio signals reflected from objects in the environment;

wherein each receiver of the plurality of receivers is configured to receive second radio signals transmitted from another system, wherein the second radio signals carry a second plurality of information bits, and wherein each receiver of the plurality of receivers receives both the first radio signals and the second radio signals; and

wherein the control unit is configured to process the first received radio signals to detect objects in the environment, and further configured to process the second received radio signals to determine the second plurality of information bits carried by the second received radio signals.

15. The system of claim 14, wherein a first subset of transmitters of the plurality of transmitters are used in the detection of objects in the environment, and wherein a second subset of transmitters of the plurality of transmitters are used to communicate information bits to the other system.

16. The system of claim 15, wherein the second subset of transmitters of the plurality of transmitters is configured to transmit with a narrowed focus in a direction of the other system, and wherein the first subset of transmitters of the plurality of transmitters is configured to transmit with a broad focus forward of the equipped vehicle.

18. The system of claim 14, wherein the second plurality of information bits carries information related to at least one object that is not detected by the receiver and that is detected by the other system.

17. A shared radar sensing and communications system, the system comprising:

a plurality of transmitters configured for installation and use on a vehicle, wherein each transmitter of the plurality of transmitters is configured to modulate radio signals using spreading codes based upon a first plurality of information bits;

wherein the plurality of transmitters is configured to transmit the modulated radio signals;

a control unit configured to select the first plurality of information bits used to generate the spreading codes;

a plurality of receivers configured for installation and use on the vehicle, wherein each receiver of the plurality of receivers is configured to receive first radio signals that are the transmitted modulated radio signals reflected from objects in the environment;

wherein each receiver of the plurality of receivers is configured to receive second radio signals transmitted from another system, wherein the second radio signals carry a second plurality of information bits, and wherein each receiver of the plurality of receivers receives both the first radio signals and the second radio signals;

wherein the control unit is configured to process the first received radio signals to detect objects in the environment, and further configured to process the second received radio signals to determine the second plurality of information bits carried by the second received radio signals; and

wherein the control unit is configured to direct the plurality of transmitters to transmit with a broad focus forward of the equipped vehicle to detect objects in the environment for a first period of time, and to direct the plurality of transmitters to transmit with a narrow focus in a direction of the other system during a second period of time, and wherein the first and second periods of time repeat in a sequence.

19. A method for managing a shared radar sensing and communications system in a vehicle, the method comprising:

providing a plurality of transmitters configured for installation and use on a vehicle, wherein each transmitter of the plurality of transmitters is configured to modulate radio signals using a spreading code based upon a first plurality of information bits;

selecting the first plurality of information bits used to generate the spreading codes;

transmitting the modulated radio signals with the plurality of transmitters;

providing a plurality of receivers configured for installation and use on the vehicle;

receiving with the plurality of receivers first radio signals that are transmitted modulated radio signals reflected from objects in the environment;

receiving with the plurality of receivers second radio signals transmitted from another system, wherein the second radio signals carry a second plurality of information bits, and wherein each receiver of the plurality of receivers receives both the first radio signals and the second radio signals; and

processing the first received radio signals to detect objects in the environment, and further processing the second received radio signals to determine the second plurality of information bits carried by the second received radio signal.

20. The method of claim 19 further comprising selecting a first subset of transmitters of the plurality of transmitters to detect objects in the environment, and selecting a second subset of transmitters of the plurality of transmitters to communicate information bits between the other system.

21. The method of claim 20, wherein the second subset of transmitters are configured to transmit with a narrow focus in a direction of the other system.

22. The method of claim 20, wherein the first subset of transmitters are configured to transmit with a broad focus forward of the equipped vehicle.

24. The method of claim 19, wherein the second plurality of information bits carries information related to at least one object that is not detected from processing the first received radio signal but that is detected by the other system.

23. A method for managing a shared radar sensing and communications system in a vehicle, the method comprising:

providing a plurality of transmitters configured for installation and use on a vehicle, wherein each transmitter of the plurality of transmitters is configured to modulate radio signals using a spreading code based upon a first plurality of information bits;

selecting the first plurality of information bits used to generate the spreading codes;

transmitting the modulated radio signals with the plurality of transmitters;

providing a plurality of receivers configured for installation and use on the vehicle;

receiving with the plurality of receivers first radio signals that are transmitted modulated radio signals reflected from objects in the environment;

receiving with the plurality of receivers second radio signals transmitted from another system, wherein the second radio signals carry a second plurality of information bits;

processing the first received radio signals to detect objects in the environment, and further processing the second received radio signals to determine the second plurality of information bits carried by the second received radio signal; and

directing the plurality of transmitters to transmit with a broad focus forward of the equipped vehicle to detect objects in the environment for a first period of time, and directing the plurality of transmitters to transmit with a narrow focus in a direction of the other system during a second period of time, wherein the first and second periods of time repeat in a sequence.