Short-Range Frequency-Modulated Continuous Wave (FMCW) Radar Using Universal Software-Defined Radio Peripheral (USRP)

Author(s):  
Munesh Singh ◽  
Sourav Kumar Bhoi ◽  
Pabitra Mohan Khilar
2014 ◽  
Vol 6 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 379-387 ◽  
Author(s):  
Reinhard Feger ◽  
Herman Jalli Ng ◽  
Clemens Pfeffer ◽  
Andreas Stelzer

We present a heterodyne frequency-modulated continuous-wave (FMCW) radar, applicable in short-range applications. Owing to a modulation of the transmit (TX) signal, the intermediate frequency (IF) signal can be shifted away from zero frequency to reduce the influence of dc-offsets and low-frequency disturbances like, e.g. flicker noise existing in components like mixers, amplifiers and analog-to-digital converters. The presented system is based on E-band transceivers realized in SiGe technology, which are fully integrated with antennas in a plastic package. A sinusoidal modulation of the TX signal is realized by a binary phase-shift keying modulator, which is controlled by a Delta–Sigma sequence. The choice of a sinusoidal modulation allows to reuse signal processing blocks which are typically available in FMCW radars. Measurements show that the achievable signal-to-noise ratio is comparable to a homodyne realization since the Delta–Sigma noise can be filtered in the IF stage. Experiments with a bandwidth of 8 GHz demonstrate measurements down to 12 cm with standard deviations of the measured ranges lower than 60 µm. Compared to a homodyne realization the blocking distance could be reduced by approximately 40 mm.


2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (4) ◽  
pp. 616
Author(s):  
Rafael Alonso ◽  
José María García del Pozo ◽  
Samuel T. Buisán ◽  
José Adolfo Álvarez

Snow makes a great contribution to the hydrological cycle in cold regions. The parameter to characterize available the water from the snow cover is the well-known snow water equivalent (SWE). This paper presents a near-surface-based radar for determining the SWE from the measured complex spectral reflectance of the snowpack. The method is based in a stepped-frequency continuous wave radar (SFCW), implemented in a coherent software defined radio (SDR), in the range from 150 MHz to 6 GHz. An electromagnetic model to solve the electromagnetic reflectance of a snowpack, including the frequency and wetness dependence of the complex relative dielectric permittivity of snow layers, is shown. Using the previous model, an approximated method to calculate the SWE is proposed. The results are presented and compared with those provided by a cosmic-ray neutron SWE gauge over the 2019–2020 winter in the experimental AEMet Formigal-Sarrios test site. This experimental field is located in the Spanish Pyrenees at an elevation of 1800 m a.s.l. The results suggest the viability of the approximate method. Finally, the feasibility of an auxiliary snow height measurement sensor based on a 120 GHz frequency modulated continuous wave (FMCW) radar sensor, is shown.


Sensors ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (3) ◽  
pp. 780
Author(s):  
Kazunori Takahashi ◽  
Takashi Miwa

The paper discusses a way to configure a stepped-frequency continuous wave (SFCW) radar using a low-cost software-defined radio (SDR). The most of high-end SDRs offer multiple transmitter (TX) and receiver (RX) channels, one of which can be used as the reference channel for compensating the initial phases of TX and RX local oscillator (LO) signals. It is same as how commercial vector network analyzers (VNAs) compensate for the LO initial phase. These SDRs can thus acquire phase-coherent in-phase and quadrature (I/Q) data without additional components and an SFCW radar can be easily configured. On the other hand, low-cost SDRs typically have only one transmitter and receiver. Therefore, the LO initial phase has to be compensated and the phases of the received I/Q signals have to be retrieved, preferably without employing an additional receiver and components to retain the system low-cost and simple. The present paper illustrates that the difference between the phases of TX and RX LO signals varies when the LO frequency is changed because of the timing of the commencement of the mixing. The paper then proposes a technique to compensate for the LO initial phases using the internal RF loopback of the transceiver chip and to reconstruct a pulse, which requires two streaming: one for the device under test (DUT) channel and the other for the internal RF loopback channel. The effect of the LO initial phase and the proposed method for the compensation are demonstrated by experiments at a single frequency and sweeping frequency, respectively. The results show that the proposed method can compensate for the LO initial phases and ultra-wideband (UWB) pulses can be reconstructed correctly from the data sampled by a low-cost SDR.


Sensors ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 19 (6) ◽  
pp. 1331
Author(s):  
Massimiliano Pieraccini ◽  
Lapo Miccinesi ◽  
Neda Rojhani

Step-frequency continuous-wave (SFCW) modulation can have a role in the detection of small unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) at short range (less than 1–2 km). In this paper, the theory of SFCW range detection is reviewed, and a specific method for correcting the possible range shift due to the Doppler effect is devised. The proposed method was tested in a controlled experimental set-up, where a free-falling target (i.e., a corner reflector) was correctly detected by an SFCW radar. This method was finally applied in field for short-range detection of a small UAV.


Diversity ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (9) ◽  
pp. 452
Author(s):  
Alexey Noskov ◽  
Sebastian Achilles ◽  
Jörg Bendix

Systematic, practicable, and global solutions are required for insect monitoring to address species decline and pest management concerns. Compact frequency-modulated continuous-wave (FMCW) radar can facilitate these processes. In this work, we evaluate a 60 GHz low-range FMCW radar device for its applicability to insect monitoring. Initial tests showed that radar parameters should be carefully selected. We defined optimal radar configuration during the first experiment and developed a methodology for individual target observation. In the second experiment, we tried various individual-insect targets, including small ones. The third experiment was devoted to mass-insect-target detection. All experiments were intentionally conducted in very uncertain conditions to make them closer to a real field situation. A novel parameter, the Sum of Sequential Absolute Magnitude Differences (SSAMD), has been proposed for uncertainty reduction and noisy data processing. SSAMD enables insect target presence detection and biomass estimation. We have defined ranges of SSAMD for distinguishing noise, insects, and other larger targets (e.g., bats, birds, or other larger objects). We have provided evidence of the high correlation between insect numbers and the average of SSAMD values proving the biomass estimation possibility. This work confirms that such radar devices can be used for insect monitoring. We plan to use the evaluated system assembled with a light trap for real fieldwork in the future.


In the recent past, the software defined radio (SDR) using Multiple-Input-Multiple-Output Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplex (OFDM) is implemented to improve the data rate and channel estimation with high spectrum and maximum throughput for short range communication. The short range of communication is established to communicate the data between different nodes placed in the appropriate position using localization technique using SDR MIMO OFDM. The 256-M Array Quadrature Amplitude Modulation (256 M-Ary Quartrature Amplitude Modulation) is applied to SDR MIMO OFDM to reduce Modulation Error Rate (MER) for efficient transmission of data through SDR. The high data rate is achieved by applying the beam-forming equalization technique by applying beam-forming between transmitter and receiver of SDR. The Zero-forcing-beam-forming (ZFBF) equalizer is used in frequency domain to correlate transmitter and receiver to improve the spectrum efficiency better. The synchronization error is reduced in the transceiver of SDR by reducing Carrier Frequency Offset (CFO) mismatch and Sampling Time Offset (STO). The simulation results have proved that the proposed algorithm have better performance in data rate improvement with elimination of CFO mismatch problem to improve the spectrum efficiency and higher range of channel estimation.


Sensors ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (19) ◽  
pp. 6443
Author(s):  
Jinmoo Heo ◽  
Yongchul Jung ◽  
Seongjoo Lee ◽  
Yunho Jung

This paper presents the design and implementation results of an efficient fast Fourier transform (FFT) processor for frequency-modulated continuous wave (FMCW) radar signal processing. The proposed FFT processor is designed with a memory-based FFT architecture and supports variable lengths from 64 to 4096. Moreover, it is designed with a floating-point operator to prevent the performance degradation of fixed-point operators. FMCW radar signal processing requires windowing operations to increase the target detection rate by reducing clutter side lobes, magnitude calculation operations based on the FFT results to detect the target, and accumulation operations to improve the detection performance of the target. In addition, in some applications such as the measurement of vital signs, the phase of the FFT result has to be calculated. In general, only the FFT is implemented in the hardware, and the other FMCW radar signal processing is performed in the software. The proposed FFT processor implements not only the FFT, but also windowing, accumulation, and magnitude/phase calculations in the hardware. Therefore, compared with a processor implementing only the FFT, the proposed FFT processor uses 1.69 times the hardware resources but achieves an execution time 7.32 times shorter.


2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Shintaro Hisatake ◽  
Junpei Kamada ◽  
Yuya Asano ◽  
Hirohisa Uchida ◽  
Makoto Tojo ◽  
...  

Abstract The higher the frequency, the more complex the scattering, diffraction, multiple reflection, and interference that occur in practical applications such as radar-installed vehicles and transmitter-installed mobile modules, etc. Near-field measurement in “real situations” is important for not only investigating the origin of unpredictable field distortions but also maximizing the system performance by optimal placement of antennas, modules, etc. Here, as an alternative to the previous vector-network-analyzer-based measurement, we propose a new asynchronous approach that visualizes the amplitude and phase distributions of electric near-fields three-dimensionally without placing a reference probe at a fixed point or plugging a cable to the RF source to be measured. We demonstrate the visualization of a frequency-modulated continuous wave (FMCW) signal (24 GHz ± 40 MHz, modulation cycle: 2.5 ms), and show that the measured radiation patterns of a standard horn antenna agree well with the simulation results. We also demonstrate a proof-of-concept experiment that imitates a realistic situation of a bumper installed vehicle to show how the bumper alters the radiation patterns of the FMCW radar signal. The technique is based on photonics and enables measuring in the microwave to millimeter-wave range.


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