Processing radar signals

Abstract

To enable appropriate radar signal processing.SOLUTION: It is suggested to process radar signals at a first radar unit as follows: (i) receiving the radar signals via at least one receiving antenna; (ii) selecting a portion of the radar signals or of data that is based on the radar signals for further processing; and (iii) conveying a reduced amount of data to a second radar unit, where the reduced amount of data is based on the portion of the radar signals or of data that is based on the radar signals.SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 1

Description

[Technical field]

[0001] Embodiments of the present invention relate to radar signal processing, and in particular to units that enable or utilize this type of signal processing. [Background technology]

[0002] In this respect, radar signal processing refers in particular to radar signals received by a sensor or antenna, each sensor may comprise multiple antennas.

[0003] Several radar variants are used in cars for different applications. For example, radar can be used for blind spot detection (parking assistance, pedestrian protection, cross traffic), collision mitigation, lane change assistance and adaptive cruise control. Numerous use case scenarios for radar equipment may be aimed in different directions (e.g., rear, side, front), at various angles (e.g., azimuth) and / or at different distances (short, medium or long distances). For example, adaptive cruise control may utilize azimuth angles reaching ±18 degrees, with the radar signal emitted from the front of the car, allowing a detection range of up to several hundred meters. Summary of the Invention [Problem to be solved by the invention]

[0004] The aim is to improve existing solutions and in particular to increase the efficiency of radar systems having distributed components. [Means for solving the problem]

[0005] This problem is solved according to the features of the independent claims. Further embodiments arise from the dependent claims.

[0006] The examples suggested herein may in particular be based on at least one of the following solutions: In particular, a combination of the following features may be utilized to reach the desired result: Features of the method may be combined with any features of the device, apparatus, system or computer product, and vice versa.

[0007] A method is disclosed for processing a radar signal in a first radar unit, the method comprising: - receiving a radar signal via at least one receiving antenna; - selecting a portion of the radar signal or a portion of data based on the radar signal for further processing; - transmitting the reduced amount of data to the second radar unit, the reduced amount of data being based on a portion of the radar signal or a portion of the data based on the radar signal.

[0008] Therefore, this method makes it possible to efficiently address a limited bandwidth connection between the first and second radar units.

[0009] According to one embodiment, the first radar unit is a radar sensor electronic control unit.

[0010] According to one embodiment, the second radar unit is a central electronic control unit.

[0011] According to one embodiment, the portion of the radar signal or the portion of the data based on the radar signal comprises: - Randomly, - Pseudo-randomly, - deterministic selection scheme, is selected based on at least one of

[0012] According to one embodiment, information about the portion of the radar signal or the portion of the data based on the radar signal is transmitted to a second radar unit.

[0013] This information may be information about the diminution scheme or selection code, so that the second radar unit can be aware of the diminution and / or the scheme of the diminution.

[0014] According to one embodiment, the selection of the portion of the radar signal or the portion of the data based on the radar signal comprises: -Chirp selection, -Selection of FFT results, in particular the first stage FFT results, - selection of at least one receiving channel, - Analog signal selection, -Digital signal selection, The present invention is provided with at least one of the following:

[0015] According to one embodiment, the portion of the radar signal or the portion of the data based on the radar signal comprises output data of the interference detection.

[0016] It is optional for the selection or additional selection to utilize the output of the interference detection (which may be obtained by the interference detection unit) to remove (at least a part of) the interfered signals, such that interference signals are omitted, which can reduce the overall communication load between the first and second radar units.

[0017] Also suggested is a device for processing a radar signal, the device comprising a processing unit, the processing unit comprising: - receiving a radar signal via at least one receiving antenna; - selecting portions of the radar signal or portions of data based on the radar signal for further processing; - configured to transmit a reduced amount of data to the second radar unit, the reduced amount of data being based on a portion of the radar signal or a portion of the data based on the radar signal.

[0018] It is noted that the steps of the methods described herein may be executable on this processing unit. It is further noted that the processing unit may comprise at least one means, in particular several means, configured to execute the steps of the methods described herein. The means may be logically or physically separated, in particular several logically separated means may be combined in at least one physical unit. The processing unit may comprise at least one of a processor, a microcontroller, a hardwired circuit, an ASIC, an FPGA, a logic device.

[0019] According to one embodiment, the device is a first radar unit.

[0020] Furthermore, a computer program product directly loadable into the memory of a digital processing device is provided, the computer program product comprising software code portions for performing the steps of the methods described herein.

[0021] The embodiments are illustrated and described with reference to the drawings. The drawings serve to illustrate basic principles, so that only those aspects necessary to understand the basic principles are shown. The drawings are not to scale. In the drawings, the same reference numbers refer to similar features. [Brief description of the drawings]

[0022] [Figure 1] An exemplary radar component is shown, which may be a radar (sensor) ECU in communication with a central ECU. [Diagram 2] 1 illustrates an example radar processing flow. [Diagram 3] 1 illustrates an exemplary division of radar processing flow between a (non-central) radar sensor ECU and a central ECU. [Figure 4] 1 shows an exemplary diagram visualizing data reduction within a MMIC. [Diagram 5]1 shows an exemplary diagram visualizing the data reduction occurring in the first stage FFT unit. [Figure 6] An alternative solution is presented to visualize the data reduction that occurs within the MMIC. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

[0023] In a radar processing environment, a radar source emits a signal and a sensor detects the return signal. The return signal may be acquired in the time domain by at least one antenna, and in particular by several antennas. The return signal may then be transformed into the frequency domain by performing a Fast Fourier Transform (FFT), resulting in a signal spectrum, i.e., a signal distributed across frequencies. Frequency peaks may be used to determine potential targets, for example along the vehicle's direction of travel.

[0024] The Discrete Fourier Transform (DFT) may be implemented in a computer by a numerical algorithm or dedicated hardware. Such implementations may use the FFT algorithm. Therefore, the terms "FFT" and "DFT" may be used interchangeably.

[0025] The signal emitted by each of the antennas may have a ramp shape, each ramp having a linear increasing slope of frequency with respect to time. The reflected ramps are received by the radar system and further processed. An acquisition period may comprise several ramps. Each of the ramps is also called a chirp. A chirp therefore has a certain bandwidth and duration. The frequency slope may be linear, but may also have a different shape.

[0026] In vehicles, and especially in cars, electronic architectures more frequently comprise at least one high-performance electronic control unit (ECU) acting as a central ECU. With the decreasing cost of computing resources, e.g. processing power and / or memory, the overall cost can be optimized by shifting processing from distributed components, e.g. sensors, towards an increasingly powerful central ECU. This also makes it possible to use more complex methods, e.g. higher resolution processing algorithms or improved interference mitigation, to achieve the goal of better overall performance in radar applications.

[0027] The problem with this method is the amount of data that is sent towards the central ECU.

[0028] The exemplary solutions described herein are directed to overall data reduction (also referred to as "data compression") that efficiently addresses the bottleneck of connections between non-central ECUs and the central ECU.

[0029] For example, the transmission (data rate) may be adjusted to achieve an appropriate compression that takes into account a compromise between the following conflicting objectives: - Non-central components for providing radar data, e.g., processing power (and memory) of a radar sensor; and -Advantages provided by the output of the central ECU based on data obtained for non-central components.

[0030] FIG. 1 shows an exemplary radar component 101, which may be a radar (sensor) ECU, comprising radio frequency (RF) processing 102, signal processing 103 and signal compression and transmission 104.

[0031] The output of the radar component 101 is connected to a central ECU 110 which comprises signal decompression 111 and signal processing 112 .

[0032] In an exemplary scenario, several radar components 101 communicate data to at least one central ECU 110. The processing power of the central ECU 110 may in particular be significantly higher than the processing power (and memory) available at each of the non-central radar components 101. Applications running on the central ECU 110 can therefore take advantage of the higher computing power, resulting in improved results (e.g., higher resolution, faster recognition of objects, etc.).

[0033] 2 shows an example radar processing flow. A monolithic microwave integrated circuit (MMIC) 201 receives radar data, for example, via several antennas. The MMIC 201 outputs analog-to-digital converted (ADC) data to a sensor pre-processing unit (SPU) 202.

[0034] SPU 202 provides a sensor pre-processing stage and may, among other things, process the received ADC data as follows. Interference may be mitigated in unit 203. The direct current (DC) offset is compensated for in the DC offset compensation unit 204 . - The first stage FFT is performed in unit 205 and the results are stored in radar memory 206. - A second stage FFT is performed in unit 207 and the results are stored in a range / doppler (R / D) map 208. -Threshold detection is performed by unit 209 based on the R / D map 208 and the output of unit 207. The output of unit 209 is multiplied by the output from the second stage FFT unit 207 and the result of this multiplication is fed to a digital signal processor (DSP) 210 .

[0035] The DSP 210 may, for example, determine the direction of arrival (eg, based on parabolic interpolation) and provide its output to another DSP 211 .

[0036] The DSP 211 may be or may comprise (at least one) microcontroller unit (MCU) and may perform classification 212, tracking 213, decision making 214 and provide data to a vehicle interface 215.

[0037] DSP210 and DSP211 may be arranged as a single device or as multiple devices.

[0038] In FIG. 2, the output of MMIC 201 is 100% (uncompressed) and the output of first stage FFT unit 205 is 100% (uncompressed), but the output of DSP 210 may be only 2% to 5% due to the processing provided by DSP 210.

[0039] FIG. 3 shows an example division of radar processing flow between a (non-central) radar sensor ECU 301 and a central ECU 302 (e.g., connected via line 303 (which may be implemented as a parallel or serial bus)). In a vehicle, several radar sensor ECUs 301 may be connected to one central ECU 302.

[0040] The radar sensor ECU 301 comprises the components MMIC 201, an interference unit 203, a DC offset compensation unit 204, a first stage FFT unit 205 and a radar memory 206 as described above with respect to FIG.

[0041] In addition, the radar sensor ECU 301 includes an interface 311 connected to the line 303 .

[0042] The central ECU 302 also comprises an interface 312 connected to the line 303. Optionally, the interface 312 may be connected to several lines from other ECUs (not shown in FIG. 3).

[0043] The interface 312 provides data to the second stage FFT unit 207. Further processing within the central ECU 302 comprises an R / D map 208, a unit 209, a DSP 210 and a DSP / MCU 211, which correspond to the components shown and described in FIG.

[0044] Therefore, in contrast to the radar processing flow of FIG. 2, FIG. 3 splits the processing into a part performed by the radar sensor ECU 301 and another part performed by the central ECU 302, both of which are connected via interfaces 311, 312 by said line 303.

[0045] The bottleneck may be the amount of data that has to be processed by the ECU 301 and communicated to the central ECU 302 .

[0046] An exemplary solution to overcome this obstacle proposes reducing the amount of data that must be communicated from the non-central ECU 301 across line 303 to the central ECU 302 .

[0047] This kind of reduction (or compression) is particularly - selective omission of at least one signal or at least a part of such signals, - a decrease in memory allocated by at least one signal, may comprise at least one of:

[0048] The selective omission of at least one signal is also referred to as selection of the signal. This type of omission may follow a random, pseudorandom or deterministic approach. It should be noted that random selection may mean a true random selection or any selection that may have at least some degree of randomness, for example, generated by a random generator of a deterministic machine such as a microcontroller or processor.

[0049] For example, seven of the twelve signals may be selected for further processing. In other words, five signals are omitted. This selection may be made randomly, pseudorandomly or due to a deterministic law (for example according to a predefined pattern stored in a table). As a result, only seven signals (instead of twelve signals) are transmitted towards the central ECU 302, resulting in a reduction of the data transmitted across the line 303. This reduction of data may be referred to as compression.

[0050] The data reduction can be achieved at various stages within the radar sensor ECU 301. For example, the reduction may occur within the MMIC 201 and / or the first stage FFT unit 205.

[0051] Optionally, the reduction may use a reduction scheme known to the central ECU 302 so that the ECU 302 is aware of which data has arrived and which data has been omitted. The reduction scheme may be known to the ECU in advance or (at least partially) after the fact. For example, the radar sensor ECU 301 and the central ECU 302 may dynamically agree on the reduction scheme or modifications thereof (e.g., by communicating over line 303 or via different communication means).

[0052] The solution may allow for example a reduction of up to 75% of the data traffic from the radar sensor ECU 301 to the central ECU 302 .

[0053] Example 1: Reduction by Selecting Chirp Data 4 shows an exemplary diagram visualizing the data reduction in a MMIC 401. The MMIC 401 may be a schematic simplification of the MMIC 201 shown in FIGS.

[0054] According to the example shown in FIG. 4, the MMIC 401 comprises three receive branches, each for one receive antenna (RX Antenna 1 to RX Antenna 3). Each branch operates as follows: The signal from the receive antenna is multiplied by a local oscillator signal and fed to an amplifier and filter ("amplifier+filter"). The amplified and filtered result is analog-to-digital converted (using an analog-to-digital converter (ADC) with an ADC clock) and optionally downsampled. The resulting digital signals from all branches are then further processed.

[0055] 4, the resulting digital signal is compressed by selecting which chirps are to be processed (see step 402). A random, pseudorandom or deterministic sequence can be used to select the chirps.

[0056] Next, in step 403, the selected chirps undergo a first stage FFT and, in step 404, the first stage FFT results are communicated from the non-central ECU 301 to the central ECU 302. Optionally, a selection code can be communicated along with the FFT results to inform the central ECU 302 which chirps have been omitted and / or which chirps have been processed.

[0057] Example 2: Reduction by selecting FFT results Figure 5 shows an exemplary diagram visualizing the data reduction occurring in the first stage FFT unit 502. The MMIC 501 may be a schematic simplification of the MMIC 201 shown in Figures 2 and 3. The receive branch of the MMIC 501 corresponds to the receive branch of the MMIC 401 described above.

[0058] The resulting digital signal provided by the MMIC 501 is processed in a first stage FFT unit 502 as follows: In step 503, a first stage FFT is applied to the (all) chirps. In the next step 504, reduction is achieved by selecting only a portion of the FFT results to be processed. A random, pseudorandom or deterministic sequence can be used to select the FFT results.

[0059] In step 505, these selected FFT results are communicated from the non-central ECU 301 to the central ECU 302. Optionally, a selection code can be communicated along with the FFT results to inform the central ECU 302 which chirps have been omitted and / or which chirps have been processed.

[0060] Example 3: Reduction by Selecting Receive Channels FIG. 6 shows an exemplary diagram visualizing the data reduction occurring within a MMIC 601, which may be a schematic simplification of the MMIC 201 shown in FIGS.

[0061] According to the example shown in FIG. 6, MMIC 601 comprises three receive branches, each for one receive antenna (RX Antenna 1 to RX Antenna 3). Each branch operates as follows: The signal from the receive antenna is multiplied by a local oscillator signal and fed to an amplifier and a filter ("amplifier+filter"). The amplified and filtered result is communicated to multiplexer 605. In this example, multiplexer 605 has three inputs and a single output. Signal 606 controls which input of multiplexer 605 is connected to its output. Signal 606 therefore selects one of the receive channels for a given time.

[0062] Signal 606 is provided by selection signal 602, which allows for random, pseudo-random or deterministic selection of the RX channels, for example, each of the receive channels can be selected with substantially the same probability.

[0063] The output of the multiplexer 605 is communicated to an analog-to-digital converter (ADC) that is driven by an ADC clock.

[0064] The output of the ADC is provided to a first stage FFT unit, which determines the FFT result, see step 603. Next, in step 604, the FFT result is communicated from the non-central ECU 301 to the central ECU 302.

[0065] Further Embodiments and Advantages It should be noted that preferably, all the chirps emitted and the signals received at the various antennas of the radar sensor ECU 301 are further processed by reducing the overall data transmitted towards the central ECU 302.

[0066] The reduction may be achieved by reducing the number of chirps that undergo further processing (in other words, not all chirps are further processed). The selection may be made according to a random or deterministic scheme.

[0067] In an exemplary use case, in a vehicle, several radar sensor ECUs are provided together with at least one central ECU.

[0068] In one or more examples, the functions described herein may be implemented, at least in part, in hardware, e.g., specific hardware components or processors. More generally, the techniques may be implemented in hardware, processors, software, firmware, or any combination thereof. If implemented in software, the functions may be stored on or transmitted through one or more instructions or codes on a computer-readable medium and executed by a hardware-based processing unit. The computer-readable medium may include a computer-readable storage medium corresponding to a tangible medium of expression, such as a data storage medium, or a communication medium, including any medium that facilitates the transfer of a computer program from one place to another, e.g., according to a communication protocol. Thus, the computer-readable medium may generally correspond to (1) a tangible computer-readable storage medium that is non-transitory, or (2) a communication medium, such as a signal or carrier wave. The data storage medium may be any available medium that is accessible by one or more computers or one or more processors to retrieve instructions, codes, and / or data structures for implementation of the techniques described in this disclosure. A computer program product may include a computer-readable medium.

[0069] By way of example, and not limitation, such computer-readable storage media may comprise RAM, ROM, EEPROM, CD-ROM or other optical disk storage, magnetic disk storage or other magnetic storage, flash memory, or any other medium that can be used to store desired program code in the form of instructions or data structures and that can be accessed by a computer. Also, any connection is properly referred to as a computer-readable medium, i.e., a computer-readable transmission medium. For example, if instructions are transmitted from a website, server or other remote source using coaxial cable, fiber optic cable, twisted pair, digital subscriber line (DSL), or wireless technologies such as infrared, wireless communication, and microwave, the coaxial cable, fiber optic cable, twisted pair, DSL, or wireless technologies such as infrared, wireless communication, and microwave are included in the definition of the medium. However, it should be understood that computer-readable storage media and data storage media do not include connections, carrier waves, signals, or other transitory media, but are instead directed to non-transitory, tangible storage media. As used herein, disk and disc include compact discs (CDs), laser discs, optical discs, digital versatile discs (DVDs), floppy disks and Blu-ray discs, where disks typically reproduce data magnetically while discs reproduce data optically with a laser. Combinations of the above are also included within the scope of computer readable media.

[0070] The instructions may be executed by one or more processors, such as one or more central processing units (CPUs), digital signal processors (DSPs), general-purpose microprocessors, application specific integrated circuits (ASICs), field programmable logic arrays (FPGAs), or other equivalent integrated or discrete logic circuitry. Thus, the term "processor" as used herein may refer to any of the above structures or any other structure suitable for implementing the techniques described herein. Additionally, in some aspects, the functionality described herein may be provided in dedicated hardware and / or software modules configured for encoding and decoding or incorporated into a composite codec. Also, the techniques may be fully embodied in one or more circuits or logic elements.

[0071] The techniques of this disclosure may be implemented in a wide variety of devices or apparatuses, including a wireless handset, an integrated circuit (IC) or a set of ICs (e.g., a chipset). The various components, modules or units are described in this disclosure to highlight functional aspects of a device configured to perform the disclosed techniques, but do not necessarily require realization by different hardware units. Rather, as described above, the various units may be incorporated within a single hardware unit or may be provided by a collection of interoperating hardware units, including one or more processors as described above in conjunction with appropriate software and / or firmware.

[0072] Although various exemplary embodiments of the present invention have been disclosed, it will be apparent to those skilled in the art that various changes and modifications can be made to achieve some of the advantages of the present invention without departing from the spirit and scope of the present invention. It will be apparent to those skilled in the art that other components performing the same functions may be optimally substituted. It should also be mentioned that features described with reference to a particular drawing may be combined with features of other drawings, even if not explicitly mentioned. Furthermore, the method of the present invention may be achieved in all software embodiments using appropriate processor instructions, or in hybrid embodiments that utilize a combination of hardware and software logic to achieve the same result. Such modifications to the inventive concept are intended to be covered by the appended claims.

Claims

1. A method for processing radar signals in a first radar unit, wherein the method is - The step of receiving the radar signal via at least one receiving antenna, - A step of selecting a portion of the radar signal or a portion of the data based on the radar signal for further processing, - A step of transmitting the reduced amount of data to the second radar unit, Includes, The reduced amount of data is based on the portion of the radar signal, or the portion of the data based on the radar signal. method.

2. The first radar unit is a radar sensor electronic control unit. The method according to claim 1.

3. The second radar unit is a central electronic control unit. The method according to claim 1.

4. The portion of the radar signal, or the portion of the data based on the radar signal, - Randomly, - In a pseudo-random manner, - Deterministic choice scheme, Selected based on at least one of the following: The method according to claim 1.

5. Information relating to the portion of the radar signal or the portion of the data based on the radar signal is transmitted to the second radar unit. The method according to claim 1.

6. The selection of the portion of the radar signal or the portion of the data based on the radar signal is as follows: - Chirp selection, - FFT results, in particular, selection of the first-stage FFT results, - Selection of at least one receiving channel, - Selection of analog signals, - Selection of digital signals, comprising at least one of the following: The method according to claim 1.

7. The portion of the radar signal, or the portion of the data based on the radar signal, comprises interference detection output data. The method according to claim 1.

8. A device for processing radar signals, The device comprises a processing unit, and the processing unit is - The radar signal is received via at least one receiving antenna, - Select a portion of the radar signal or a portion of the data based on the radar signal for further processing. - The reduced amount of data is transmitted to the second radar unit. It is configured in such a way, The reduced amount of data is based on the portion of the radar signal, or the portion of the data based on the radar signal. device.

9. The aforementioned device is a first radar unit. The device according to claim 8.

10. A computer program that can be directly loaded into the memory of a digital processing device, wherein the computer program comprises a software code portion for performing a step of the method according to any one of claims 1 to 7. Computer program.

Images