Active radar system and method

• US 8,797,208 B2
• Filed: 11/23/2011
• Issued: 08/05/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 12/13/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Sony Corporation (Sony Group Corp.)
• Original Assignee: Sony Corporation (Sony Group Corp.)
• Inventors: Stirling-Gallacher, Richard, Wang, Qi
• Primary Examiner(s): Sotomayor, John B
• Application Number:
  US13/303,549
• Publication Number:
  US 20120146844A1
• Time in Patent Office: 986 Days
• Field of Search: 342/22, 342/27, 342/85, 342/88, 342 90- 91
• US Class Current: 342/179
• 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 13/343 using sawtooth modulation
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 13/87 Combinations of radar systems, e.g. primary radar and secondary radar
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 13/931 of land vehicles

Abstract

The present invention relates to an active radar system and a corresponding method. The proposed system comprises at least two transmit antennas that each transmits radiation to a scene as a transmit signal, said transmit signal comprising a series of frequency modulated pulses, at least one receive antenna that receives radiation from said scene as a receive signal, a controller that controls said at least two transmit antennas. The transmissions of the transmit signals are subsequently initiated with time offsets, controlled to be larger than the time delay between transmission of a first transmit signal of said two transmit signals and reception of radiation of said first transmit signal by said at least one receive antenna and to be smaller than the time duration of a complete frequency modulated pulse of said first transmit signal.

Claims

1. An active radar system, comprising:

at least two transmit antennas configured to transmit radiation to a scene as at least a first transmit signal and at least a second transmit signal, respectively, each transmit signal comprising a series of frequency modulated pulses;

at least one receive antenna configured to receive radiation from said scene as at least one receive signal;

a controller configured to control at least one of said at least two transmit antennas such that a first transmission of the at least first transmit signal and the at least second transmit signal is initiated with a time offset, such that the time offset is controlled to be larger than a time delay between the transmission of the at least first transmit signal and reception of radiation of said at least first transmit signal received by said at least one receive antenna, and to be smaller than a time duration of a complete frequency modulated pulse of said at least first transmit signal; and

signal analyser configured to analyse said at least one receive signal to determine the time delay,

wherein said controller is further configured to control the time offset for at least a subsequently initiated transmission of said at least first transmit signal and said at least second transmit signal based on the determined time delay.

2. The active radar system as claimed in claim 1, wherein said at least two transmit antennas are configured to each transmit identical transmit signals.

3. The active radar system as claimed in claim 1, wherein said at least two transmit antennas are configured to each transmit a different transmit signal, in particular comprising pulses covering a different bandwidth and/or having a different frequency modulation.

4. The active radar system as claimed in claim 1, wherein said controller is configured to control the time offset for the at least subsequently initiated transmission of said at least first transmit signal and said at least second transmit signal to correspond to a frequency offset, such that the frequency offset is controlled to be larger than a frequency difference between a first frequency of said at least first transmit signal and a second frequency of radiation of said at least first transmit signal received by said at least one receive antenna, due to a length of a signal path from said at least one of said at least two transmit antennas to said at least one receive antenna and any movement of said scene reflecting said at least first transmit signal.

5. The active radar system as claimed in claim 1, wherein said controller is configured to control the time offset using a fixed time delay between the transmission of the at least first transmit signal and reception of radiation of said at least first transmit signal received by said at least one receive antenna.

6. The active radar system as claimed in claim 1, wherein said controller is configured to vary the time offset for at least the subsequently initiated transmission of said at least first transmit signal and said at least second transmit signal.

7. The active radar system as claimed in claim 1, wherein the at least one receive antenna comprises at least two receive antennas configured to receive radiation from said scene as at least a first receive signal and at least a second receive signal, respectively, wherein said controller is further configured to control the time offset to be larger than a time delay between the transmission of the at least first transmit signal and reception of the at least first receive signal by the at least two receive antennas.

8. The active radar system as claimed in claim 7, wherein a plurality of the at least two transmit antennas are configured to communicate with a corresponding plurality of receive antennas of the at least two receive antennas.

9. The active radar system as claimed in claim 8, wherein each antenna pair in said plurality and said corresponding plurality comprises a transmit antenna and a receive antenna, and are arranged distant from each other in different directions from said scene.

10. The active radar system as claimed in claim 8, wherein the plurality of the at least two transmit antennas are arranged close to each other forming a transmit antenna array, and the corresponding plurality of receive antennas are arranged close to each other forming a receive antenna array.

11. The active radar system as claimed in claim 1,

wherein said analyser comprises a plurality of mixers, including a mixer per transmit signal that is at least partly transmitted simultaneously, or a mixer per transmit antenna, and

wherein each mixer of the plurality of mixers is configured to mix the at least one receive signal with its respective transmit signal to obtain a mixer output signal per mixer and a filter per mixer that filters the respective mixer output signal to obtain a contribution of the at least one receive signal resulting from its respective transmit signal.

12. An active radar method, comprising:

transmitting radiation to a scene as at least a first transmit signal and at least a second transmit signal, respectively, each transmit signal comprising a series of frequency modulated pulses;

receiving radiation from said scene as at least one receive signal;

controlling the transmission such that a first transmission of said at least first transmit signal and said at least second transmit signal is initiated with a time offset, such that the time offset is controlled to be larger than a time delay between the transmission of the at least first transmit signal and reception of radiation of said at least first transmit signal, and to be smaller than a time duration of a complete frequency modulated pulse of said at least first transmit signal; and

analysing said receive signal to determine the time delay,

wherein controlling includes controlling the time offset for at least a subsequently initiated transmission of said at least first transmit signal and said at least second transmit signal based on the determined time delay.