Radar equipment and method for its operation
First Claim
1. A radar equipment, comprising:
- at least one antenna for transmitting and receiving radar signals;
a signal processor for supplying said at least one antenna; and
a mixer and a filter for producing a mixed signal;
said signal processor receiving the mixed signal and further sensor signals, recording frequencies of maxima in a spectrum of the mixed signal separately on the basis of a rising and a falling modulation phase as object frequencies, and calculating a distance and a relative speed of a target object from the object frequencies;
the object frequencies of the target object being stored separately over a number of measurement cycles on the basis of the rising and falling modulation phases;
object tracks describing a previous time response of the object frequencies being formed from the stored object frequencies;
estimated values for the object frequencies to be expected in a next measurement cycle being formed from a previous response of the object tracks;
object frequency pairs in each case having the lowest error being assigned to one another, after calculation of an error from the object frequencies and from the estimated values obtained from the object tracks; and
correct values for a range and a relative speed of the target object being calculated from the pairs.
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Accused Products
Abstract
A cost-effective FMCW radar equipment has a digital signal processor which controls at least one antenna through an oscillator and produces a mixed signal from transmitted and received signals modulated with a triangular waveform. The mixed signal is subjected to Fast Fourier transformation for each modulation phase (up and down) of each measurement cycle in order to obtain object frequencies, which are assigned to each target object, from the determined maxima. Object tracks which are formed from the object frequencies extend back over a plurality of measurement cycles and are used to form estimated values for those measured values of the object frequencies which are to be expected in the next measurement cycle. The mutually associated object frequencies of both modulation phases of a measurement cycle are determined and the distance and relative speed of each target object are determined from them.
65 Citations
13 Claims
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1. A radar equipment, comprising:
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at least one antenna for transmitting and receiving radar signals; a signal processor for supplying said at least one antenna; and a mixer and a filter for producing a mixed signal; said signal processor receiving the mixed signal and further sensor signals, recording frequencies of maxima in a spectrum of the mixed signal separately on the basis of a rising and a falling modulation phase as object frequencies, and calculating a distance and a relative speed of a target object from the object frequencies; the object frequencies of the target object being stored separately over a number of measurement cycles on the basis of the rising and falling modulation phases; object tracks describing a previous time response of the object frequencies being formed from the stored object frequencies; estimated values for the object frequencies to be expected in a next measurement cycle being formed from a previous response of the object tracks; object frequency pairs in each case having the lowest error being assigned to one another, after calculation of an error from the object frequencies and from the estimated values obtained from the object tracks; and correct values for a range and a relative speed of the target object being calculated from the pairs. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6)
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7. A method for operating a radar equipment, which comprises:
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transmitting and receiving with at least one antenna; supplying the at least one antenna from a signal processor; producing a mixed signal and feeding the mixed signal to the signal processor with a mixer and a filter; separately subjecting digital samples of the mixed signals being detected and recorded in each modulation cycle during two modulation phases to Fast Fourier transformation in successive measurement cycles including a rising and a falling modulation phase in the digital signal processor and a subsequent evaluation pause for determining object frequencies from maxima contained in spectra; separately forming object tracks describing a previous time response of the object frequencies having been stored over a number of measurement cycles for a target object, on the basis of rising and falling modulation phases from the object frequencies; forming estimated values for the object frequencies to be expected in the next measurement cycle from a previous response of the object tracks; assigning object frequency pairs having the lowest error in each case to one another, after calculation of an error from the object frequencies and from the estimated values obtained from the object tracks; and calculating correct values for a range and a relative speed of the target object from the pairs. - View Dependent Claims (8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13)
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Specification