Vehicular radar sensing system utilizing high rate true random number generator

• US 9,575,160 B1
• Filed: 07/07/2016
• Issued: 02/21/2017
• 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., Lovberg, John
• Primary Examiner(s): Windrich, Marcus
• Application Number:
  US15/204,003
• Time in Patent Office: 229 Days
• Field of Search: 342 70- 72
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 13/325 using transmission of coded signals, e.g. P.S.K. signals
• 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
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 2013/9321 Velocity regulation, e.g. cruise control
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 2013/93271 in the front of the vehicles
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 2013/93272 in the back of the vehicles
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 2013/93274 on the side of the vehicles
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 7/35 Details of non-pulse systems
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 7/352 Receivers
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 7/358 using I/Q processing
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 7/36 Means for anti-jamming , e.g. ECCM, i.e. electronic counter-counter measures

Abstract

A radar sensing system for a vehicle includes transmit and receive pipelines. The transmit pipeline includes transmitters able to transmit radio signals. The receive pipeline includes receivers able to receive signals. The received signals are transmitted signals that are reflected from an object. The transmit pipeline phase modulates the signals before transmission, as defined by a first binary sequence. The receive pipeline comprises an analog to digital converter (ADC) for sampling the received signals. The transmit pipeline includes a pseudorandom binary sequence (PRBS) generator for outputting a second binary sequence of bits with an equal probability of 1 and 0. The first binary sequence is defined by least significant bit (LSB) outputs from the ADC and the second binary sequence of bits. The first binary sequence comprises a truly random unbiased sequence of bits with an equal probability of 1 and 0.

Claims

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

a transmit pipeline comprising a plurality of transmitters configured for installation and use on a vehicle, and operable to transmit radio signals;

a receive pipeline comprising a plurality of receivers configured for installation and use on the vehicle, and operable to receive radio signals, wherein the received radio signals are transmitted radio signals that are reflected from an object;

wherein the transmit pipeline is further operable to phase modulate the radio signals before transmission, and wherein the phase modulation is defined by a first binary sequence;

wherein the receive pipeline comprises at least one analog to digital converter (ADC) operable to sample the received radio signals;

wherein the transmit pipeline further comprises a pseudorandom binary sequence (PRBS) generator operable to output a second binary sequence of bits with an equal probability of 1 and 0; and

wherein the transmit pipeline is further operable to define the first binary sequence at least in part by (a) least significant bit (LSB) outputs from the at least one ADC and (b) the second binary sequence of bits output from the PRBS generator, and wherein the first binary sequence comprises a truly random unbiased sequence of bits with an equal statistical probability of 1 and 0.

2. The radar sensing system of claim 1, wherein the transmit pipeline comprises a phase modulator operable to phase modulate a continuous wave radio signal.

3. The radar sensing system of claim 2, wherein the phase modulator receives LSB outputs from the at least one ADC and a second binary sequence of bits output from the PRBS generator.

4. The radar sensing system of claim 2, wherein LSB outputs from the at least one ADC and a second binary sequence of bits output from the PRBS generator are XORed and the output provided to the phase modulator.

5. The radar sensing system of claim 2, wherein the phase modulator is operable to modulate the radio signal by one of +π

and −

π

as defined by the first binary sequence.

6. The radar sensing system of claim 1, wherein the phase modulation is non-periodic.

7. The radar sensing system of claim 1, wherein the PRBS generator comprises one of a Fibonacci-style m-sequence generator and a Galois-style m-sequence generator, and wherein a seed for the PRBS generator is defined by the LSB outputs from the at least one ADC.

8. The radar sensing system of claim 1, wherein the output of the first binary sequence is unpredictable.

9. The radar sensing system of claim 1, wherein LSB outputs from the at least one ADC and a second binary sequence of bits output from the PRBS generator are compared and random bit values, as defined by the sequence of LSB outputs and the sequence of the second binary sequence of bits, are output to the phase modulator.

10. The radar sensing system of claim 1, wherein the output of the first binary sequence is used as the input to a data compression algorithm.

11. A method for generating random binary values for a vehicle radar sensing system, said method comprising:

providing a radar sensing system comprising a transmit pipeline comprising a plurality of transmitters configured for installation and use on a vehicle, and operable to transmit radio signals, and a receive pipeline comprising a plurality of receivers configured for installation and use on the vehicle, and operable to receive radio signals, wherein the received radio signals are transmitted radio signals that are reflected from an object;

phase modulating the radio signals before transmission, as defined by a first binary sequence;

sampling the received radio signals, wherein the sampling is performed by at least one analog to digital converter (ADC), and wherein the sampling produces least significant bit (LSB) outputs from the ADC;

outputting a second binary sequence of bits with an equal probability of 1 and 0, wherein the second binary sequence of bits comprises a pseudorandom binary sequence; and

defining the first binary sequence at least in part by (a) the least significant bit (LSB) outputs from the at least one ADC and (b) the second binary sequence of bits, wherein the first binary sequence comprises a truly random unbiased sequence of bits with an equal statistical probability of 1 and 0.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the transmit pipeline further comprises a phase modulator operable to perform the phase modulating of the radio signals, and wherein the radio signals are continuous wave radio signals.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein the transmit pipeline further comprises a PRBS generator operable to output the second binary sequence of bits, and wherein the phase modulator receives the LSB outputs and the second binary sequence of bits.

14. The method of claim 12 further comprising XORing the LSB outputs and the second binary sequence of bits to produce the first binary sequence.

15. The method of claim 14 further comprising providing the first binary sequence to the phase modulator.

16. The method of claim 11, wherein phase modulating comprises modulating a phase of a radio signal by one of +π

and −

π

, as defined by the first binary sequence.

17. The method of claim 13, wherein the PRBS generator comprises one of a Fibonacci-style m-sequence generator and a Galois-style m-sequence generator.

18. The method of claim 13 further comprising reseeding contents of the PRBS generator with values from the LSB outputs.

19. The method of claim 11 further comprising comparing the LSB outputs and the second binary sequence of bits to produce the first binary sequence.

20. A radar sensing system for a vehicle, the radar sensing system comprising:

a transmit pipeline comprising a plurality of transmitters configured for installation and use on a vehicle, and operable to transmit radio signals;

a receive pipeline comprising a plurality of receivers configured for installation and use on the vehicle, and operable to receive radio signals, wherein the received radio signals are transmitted radio signals that are reflected from an object;

wherein the transmit pipeline further comprises a phase modulator operable to phase modulate the radio signals before transmission, and wherein the phase modulation is defined by a first binary sequence;

wherein the receive pipeline comprises at least one analog to digital converter (ADC) operable to sample the received radio signals, wherein the receive pipeline comprises at least one ADC for each receiver of the plurality of receivers;

wherein the transmit pipeline further comprises a pseudorandom binary sequence (PRBS) generator operable to output a second binary sequence of bits with an equal probability of 1 and 0;

wherein the transmit pipeline further comprises at least one logical operator;

wherein least significant bit (LSB) outputs from the at least one ADC and the second binary sequence of bits are provided to the at least one logical operator;

wherein the at least one logical operator is operable to at least XOR the LSB outputs and the second binary sequence of bits, and wherein an output of the at least one logical operator defines the first binary sequence; and

wherein the first binary sequence comprises a truly random unbiased sequence of bits with an equal statistical probability of 1 and 0.