Doppler radar

• US 3,992,709 A
• Filed: 04/12/1976
• Issued: 11/16/1976
• Est. Priority Date: 11/24/1971
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Matsushita Electric Industrial Company Limited (Panasonic Holdings Corporation), Toyota Jidosha Kogyo Kabushiki Kaisha (Toyota Motor Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Matsushita Electric Industrial Company Limited (Panasonic Holdings Corporation), Toyota Jidosha Kogyo Kabushiki Kaisha (Toyota Motor Corporation)
• Inventors: Watanabe, Masahiro, Shibuya, Hideo
• Primary Examiner(s): Hubler, Malcolm F.
• Application Number:
  US05/675,816
• Time in Patent Office: 218 Days
• Field of Search: 343/7.5, 343/8
• US Class Current: 342/109
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 13/5244 Adaptive clutter cancellation specially adapted for airborne MTI, G01S13/5242
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 7/36 Means for anti-jamming , e.g. ECCM, i.e. electronic counter-counter measures

Abstract

A Doppler radar for use in a vehicle for predicting a collision with another vehicle, capable of detecting noise due to a false wave i.e., the transmitted wave from another vehicle having a frequency in the vicinity of the true transmitted wave frequency and having entered through a receiver antenna into a mixer, and controlling the frequency of the true transmitted wave to depress said noise to zero, thereby avoiding the interference of the false wave with the Doppler signal output.

Claims

1. A Doppler radar for measuring the relative velocity of a moving object comprising:

a mixer for mixing a part of a transmitted wave and a reflected wave from said relatively moving object to produce a Doppler signal, the input to said mixer including a sporadically received false wave which can cause interference with said Doppler signal,

first and second band pass filters coupled to the output of said mixer, said first filter transmitting signals in the Doppler frequency region and said second filter transmitting only components in the output of said mixer outside said Doppler frequency region which are produced by mixing said transmitted wave with said false wave,

means coupled to said first band pass filter for receiving a continuous signal corresponding to the relative velocity of said moving object, and

means coupled to said second band pass filter for varying the frequency of said transmitted wave to bring the mean frequency difference between said transmitted and false waves out of the frequency region wherein said false wave can disturb the Doppler signal, said frequency varying means being controlled by the output of said second filter.

2. A Doppler radar according to claim 1, in which said means coupled to said second band filter comprises

means for transforming those components in the output of said second band pass filter which are above a predetermined level into trigger signals having a predetermined pulse width;

and

a control circuit for controlling the frequency of the transmitted wave by said trigger signal so as to bring said mean frequency difference outside said frequency region in which the false wave can disturb the Doppler signal.

3. A Doppler radar according to claim 2 and for use in a vehicle for predicting the collision with another vehicle, the radar comprising a gate responsive to the Doppler signal for calculating the relative distance and velocity of the firstmentioned vehicle and said other vehicle.

4. In a Doppler radar system for measuring the relative velocity of a moving object, said system including an oscillator for generating a microwave signal;

means for transmitting said microwave signal to said object and receiving a signal reflected therefrom;

a mixer for mixing a part of the microwave signal generated by said oscillator and said reflected signal, the output of said mixer including a Doppler signal and a noise signal, a first band pass filter coupled to the output of said mixer for transmitting signals in the Doppler frequency region; and

means coupled to said first band pass filter for receiving a continuous signal corresponding to the relative velocity of said moving object;

the improvement comprising;

second band pass filter means coupled to the output of said mixer for deriving only frequency components in the output of said mixer outside said Doppler frequency region which are produced by mixing said transmitted wave with said false wave and which can cause interference with said Doppler signal, and

means coupled to said oscillator and responsive to the level of the frequency components derived by said second band pass filter means for shifting the frequency of said microwave signal from a first value to a second value to bring said frequency components at the output of said second band pass filter means outside a frequency band capable of causing interference, thereby avoiding interference of said noise signal with said Doppler signal.

5. A Doppler radar system defined by claim 4, wherein said means coupled to said oscillator and responsive to the frequency components derived by said second band pass filter means comprises a trigger signal generating circuit coupled to the output of said second band pass filter means and an oscillation frequency controlling circuit coupled between the output of said trigger signal generating circuit and said oscillator, said oscillation frequency controlling circuit changing the frequency of said oscillator in response to a signal from said trigger signal generating circuit.

6. An anti-jamming circuit for use in a Doppler radar system having a voltage-controlled frequency-variable oscillator, a mixer for mixing a part of a transmitted wave and reflected wave to produce a Doppler signal and a false wave, a first band pass filter coupled to the output of said mixer for transmitting signals in the Doppler frequency region, and means coupled to said first band pass filter for receiving a continuous signal corresponding to the relative velocity of said moving object comprising, second band pass filter means connected to the output of said mixer for deriving only those components in the output of said mixer outside said Doppler frequency region which are produced by mixing said transmitted wave and said false wave and are capable of interfering with said Doppler signal;

trigger means responsive to an input having a level above a given level from said second band pass filter means for producing a trigger signal having a given pulse width; and

an oscillation-frequency control circuit responsive to said trigger signal for producing sequentially output voltage having different magnitudes, the output of said control circuit being coupled with said frequency-variable generator to shift the oscillation frequency of the generated signal to a frequency band free from the interference of said false wave with the Doppler signal in accordance with the output voltage from said control circuit.

7. An anti-jamming circuit as defined by claim 6, wherein said trigger means comprises a monostable circuit;

and said oscillation frequency control circuit comprises first and second bistable circuits and a voltage divider coupled to the outputs of said bistable circuits, said voltage-controlled frequency-variable oscillator being coupled to said voltage divider.