KR102351551B1 - Multi function radar system and signal processing method thereof - Google Patents

Abstract

To a multi-function radar system and a signal processing method thereof, the antenna unit for transmitting a radar signal to the surroundings and receiving a signal reflected from a target, the radar transmission and reception for generating the transmission signal and processing the data of the signal received through a reception channel It is provided as a common hardware platform including a sub and a signal processing processor for generating a control signal to generate the transmission signal and signal processing the received signal to detect radar detection information, and various functions using one common hardware platform of the radar, and by optimizing the radar detection performance for each vehicle type, the software can be precisely tuned without changing the hardware for the radar detection area for various required functions.

Description

Multifunctional radar system and signal processing method thereof

The present invention relates to a multi-function radar system and a signal processing method thereof, and more particularly, to a multi-function radar system implementing various required functions of external and internal radar by applying a common hardware platform, and a signal processing method thereof.

A radar sensor is a sensing means that transmits radio waves using microwaves and receives some reflection signals reflected from a target to measure distance, speed, and angle information.

Recently, a radar sensor is applied to a vehicle radar device to prevent a collision while driving a vehicle and to support safe driving.

The present applicant disclosed a radar sensor technology in a number of patent documents 1 and 2, such as the following, and has applied for and registered a patent.

On the other hand, the vehicle radar device selectively applies an external radar sensor for detecting the surroundings of the vehicle and a built-in radar sensor for detecting the inside of the vehicle according to a required function.

The external radar sensor is a long-range radar (LRR), a middle-range radar (MRR), a short-range radar (SRR), a corner radar (Corner Radar), a BSD radar, and a side collision radar (Side). Impact Radar).

The built-in radar sensor may be classified into a Rear Occupant Alert (ROA) and a Health Care System Radar (HCS).

As described above, there are many different types of radars used in vehicles, and the configurations of radar systems for each type are also varied. In addition, the configuration of the shape and arrangement of antennas for each type of radar is varied, and the radar signal processing method is also varied.

In addition, recently, a multi-function radar that performs two or more functions on one hardware platform is required.

That is, the recently developed external radar applies two or more multi-functions such as long-range, medium-range, and short-range detection with one radar, and applies three or more multi-functions such as BCS, LCA, and RCTA with one rear-side corner radar.

In this way, in order to apply two or more multi-functions to one radar to perform each required function, the structure of the transmit and receive antennas becomes complex, and as the antenna and system design becomes difficult, the development resource increases. there was a problem with

In addition, the hardware platform of the radar according to the location installed in the vehicle, such as the front side of the vehicle, the front side, the rear side, etc., is variously applied to each development company or manufacturing company. As the types of products increase due to the diversity of products and functions, there is a problem in that development resources and mass production management resources increase.

Republic of Korea Patent Registration No. 10-1513878 (published on April 22, 2015) Republic of Korea Patent Registration No. 10-1505044 (Announced on March 24, 2015)

It is an object of the present invention to solve the above problems, and to provide a multi-function radar system capable of implementing multi-function using a single common hardware platform and a signal processing method thereof.

delete

Another object of the present invention is to provide a multifunctional radar system capable of optimizing radar detection performance for various vehicle types without changing hardware in a radar detection area in response to various required functions, and a signal processing method thereof.

In order to achieve the above object, the radar system according to the present invention includes an antenna unit that transmits a radar signal to the surroundings and receives a signal reflected from a target, generates the transmission signal and receives data of a signal through a reception channel. It is provided as a common hardware platform including a radar transceiver for processing and a signal processing processor for generating a control signal to generate the transmission signal, and signal processing the received signal to detect radar detection information. It is characterized in that it is possible to implement different functions through corresponding signal processing.

In addition, in order to achieve the above object, the signal processing method of the multi-function radar system according to the present invention comprises the steps of (a) receiving a parameter of a detection space area through communication with an external device in a communication unit, and (b) a signal Implementation of different functions using one common hardware platform, including the step of generating radar detection information by selectively overlapping and combining data corresponding to the received detection space area among the data stored in the data processing unit in the processing processor characterized as possible.

As described above, according to the multi-function radar system and the signal processing method thereof according to the present invention, the effect that multi-function can be implemented using one common hardware platform is obtained.

That is, according to the present invention, there is an effect that a wide detection area can be secured using one common hardware platform to which a transmission and reception antenna having a wide-angle characteristic is applied.

In addition, according to the present invention, external radar functions such as long-range, medium-range, short-range and corner radar and built-in radar functions such as rear seat passenger detection radar and HCS radar can be implemented based on one common hardware platform, and hardware development resources And the effect that the product cost can be reduced is obtained.

And, according to the present invention, it is possible to implement various radar functions by changing the software corresponding to each function, thereby obtaining the effect of reducing product development resources.

In addition, according to the present invention, by optimizing various radar detection performance for each vehicle type, it is possible to precisely tune software without changing hardware for radar detection areas for various required functions.

1 is a block diagram of a multi-function radar system according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention;
2 is a view for explaining a received signal processing process in the multi-function radar system shown in FIG. 1;
3 is a detailed configuration diagram illustrating the received signal processing process shown in FIG. 2;
4 is a view showing the structure of the radar signal processing unit shown in FIG. 1;
5 is a graph illustrating beam pattern characteristics implemented by an auxiliary array antenna;
6 is a flowchart illustrating a signal processing method of a multi-function radar system according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention step by step;
7 and 8 are diagrams illustrating a vehicle radar to which a multi-function radar system according to the present invention is applied, respectively.

Hereinafter, a multi-function radar system and a signal processing method thereof according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

1 is a block diagram of a multi-function radar system according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention. And FIG. 2 is a view for explaining a received signal processing process in the multi-function radar system shown in FIG. 1 , and FIG. 3 is a detailed configuration diagram illustrating the received signal processing process shown in FIG. 2 .

As shown in FIG. 1, the multi-function radar system 10 according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention includes an antenna unit 11 that transmits a radar signal around a vehicle and receives a signal reflected from a target such as another vehicle or structure; A radar transceiver unit 12 that generates the transmission signal and processes data of a signal received through a reception channel, and generates a control signal to generate the transmission signal and signal-processes the received signal to determine the distance to the target and the speed of the target and a processor 14 for signal processing that generates radar detection information including angle information.

The multi-function radar system 10 configured as described above may be applied to a vehicle radar device using various frequency bands such as 24 GHz, 60 GHz, 77 GHz, and 79 GHz.

As described above, the antenna unit 11 , the radar transceiver unit 12 , and the signal processing processor 14 applied to the multi-function radar system 10 may be configured as a single piece of hardware or may be configured as separate pieces of hardware.

That is, the present invention implements various functions, ie, multi-functions, using a single common hardware platform, and at the same time, converts each part into separate hardware so that each part constituting the common hardware platform can be selectively replaced if necessary. configurable.

The antenna unit 11 may include a plurality of transmission antennas 21 for transmitting a transmission signal and a plurality of reception antennas 22 for receiving a reception signal.

The radar transceiver 12 may function to output a transmission signal of a desired oscillation frequency according to a control signal of the signal processing processor 14 and amplify the received signal.

The radar transceiver 12 may include a data processing unit 13 for data processing the received signal.

The signal processing processor 14 is processed by the transmission/reception control unit 41 for controlling the driving of the radar transmission/reception unit 12, the CAN communication unit 42 for CAN communication with each device provided outside, for example, the vehicle, and the data processing unit 13 It may include a data storage unit 43 for storing the stored data, and a radar signal processing unit 44 for generating radar detection information including information on the distance to the target, speed and angle of the target by using the stored data.

In detail, the antenna unit 11 includes a plurality of transmit antennas 21 and a receive antenna 22 as shown in FIGS. 1 to 3 .

The transmit antenna 21 may be provided as a plurality of physical transmit antennas or may be configured as a virtual array transmit antenna using a virtual array method.

The reception antenna 22 may be provided with a plurality of physical reception antennas or may be configured as a virtual array reception antenna using a virtual array method.

For example, the total number of virtual arrays (N _tot ) = the number of transmit antennas (N _tx ) * the number of receive antennas (N _rx ).

The number of each antenna, the number of physical antennas, or the number of virtual array antennas may be variously changed for the transmitting and receiving antennas 21 and 22 according to a function to be implemented.

For example, the transmit and receive antennas 21 and 22 may be configured in a one-dimensional or two-dimensional linear array method having one or more columns and rows, or a planar array according to the number of transmit and receive antennas and an antenna arrangement structure. array) can be configured in various virtual array methods.

Hereinafter, in order to reduce the manufacturing cost of the multi-function radar system 10, a plurality of transmit and receive antennas 21 and 22 will be described as applying a virtual array antenna, respectively. Of course, in the present invention, a plurality of transmit and receive antennas may be provided as a plurality of physical antennas, respectively.

Each of the transmitting and receiving antennas 21 and 22 is basically a wide FOV characteristic to realize the multifunctionality of detecting a spatial area having various distances and angles using the radar system 10 having one common hardware platform. It may be provided as an antenna having

For example, each of the transmit and receive antennas 21 and 22 has a wide beam width to cover various functions by applying a single patch or single patched array antenna to have a wide angle characteristic. A single antenna structure with

As shown in FIGS. 2 and 3, the data processing unit 13 is an analog-to-digital converter (hereinafter referred to as 'ADC') 31 that converts a received signal in the form of an analog signal into a digital signal or pre-processes the received signal. -processing) may include a preprocessing unit.

That is, the data processing unit 13 is provided with ADCs corresponding to the number of virtual array receiving antennas 22 , and can ADC-process the received signals received through each receiving antenna.

Therefore, the data storage unit 43 stores data converted by each ADC 31 or data preprocessed by the preprocessor.

For example, FIG. 4 is a diagram showing the structure of the radar signal processing unit shown in FIG. 1 .

As shown in FIG. 4 , the data storage unit 43 stores data converted by the ADC 31 or data preprocessed by the preprocessor with a virtual channel for Fast Time and Slow Time. It can be stored in the form of a radar data cube with

Here, the virtual channel is reception channel information of each virtual array reception antenna 22 and may correspond to the total number of virtual arrays.

The radar signal processing unit 44 superimposes data corresponding to a plurality of reception channels in the ADC data or preprocessed data stored in the data storage unit 43 to form a sub array (Digital Beam Forming, It may include a DBF) processing unit 45 and a precision angle detection signal processing unit 46 for detecting a precise angle by post-processing the DBF-processed data.

The DBF processing unit 45 may increase the total number of reception channels by combining a preset number, for example, three in all reception channels to form 10 sub-arrays.

For example, when 12 receiving channels are provided, the DBF processing unit 45 may be provided with 10 DBF processing units by combining 3 receiving channels, respectively.

That is, the first DBF processing unit 45 performs DBF processing by combining ADC-processed data with the reception signals received through the first to third reception channels, and the second DBF processing unit 45 performs DBF processing on the reception signals received through the second to fourth reception channels. DBF processing is possible by combining ADC-processed data.

The ten DBF processing units 45 combine three ADC-processed data of the received signal received through the shifted receiving channel by one for all the receiving channels, respectively, and perform DBF processing, so that the data of the received signal is processed. By overlapping to form 10 sub-arrays, the number of final reception channels can be increased to 10.

However, in the present invention, when detecting a wide angle, ADC-processed data may be used as it is without overlapping sub-arrays.

Meanwhile, the present invention is not necessarily limited thereto, and the number of overlapping sub-arrays may be changed according to the function and performance to be implemented in the radar system.

For example, according to the function to be implemented, the present invention may further increase the number of sub-arrangements by providing two or more 10 DBF processing units each.

Here, each DBF processing unit 45 may implement a different function (Function #1) with respect to the distance and angle of the detection spatial region.

Then, the precision angle detection signal processing unit 46 may combine a function to implement the data processed by each DBF processing unit 45, that is, a function corresponding to the distance and angle information of the detection space area.

5 is a graph illustrating beam pattern characteristics implemented by an auxiliary array antenna.

As shown in FIG. 5, the beam pattern z(θ) of the sub-array antenna is a wide-angle antenna beam pattern a(θ) * a beam pattern by DBF channel combination (y(θ)) * sub-array phase component (array factor) can be expressed.

That is, the beam pattern z(θ) of the sub-array antenna can be summarized by Equation 1 below.

[Equation 1]

Here, N is the number of sub-sequences, and d is the sub-sequence interval. k0 is the phase constant, θ is the target angle of incidence, k ₀ =2π/λ, and the target angle of incidence θ=±π/2.

That is, the wide-angle antenna beam pattern a(θ) is a beam pattern by a wide-angle single antenna structure for multi-function, and has wide-angle characteristics to correspond to ±90° as shown in FIG. 5 .

The beam pattern y(θ) by the DBF channel combination is a beam pattern corresponding to a radar function to be implemented, such as long-range, medium-range, short-range, and corner radar.

은 정밀 각도탐지를 위한 최종 수신 채널의 위상 특성일 수 있다. sub-array factor, i.e.

may be a phase characteristic of the final reception channel for precise angle detection.

The precision angle detection signal processing unit 46 can precisely detect the angle of the target with respect to a specific detection spatial area by applying a high-resolution angle detection algorithm.

The high-resolution angle detection algorithm may be any one of angle detection algorithms such as Conventional BeamForming (CBF), Minimum Variance Distortionless Response (MVDR), Multiple SIgnal Classification (MUSIC), and Estimation of Signal Parameters via Rotational Invariance Technique (ESPRIT). .

Here, the sub-array spacing d may be equal to the distance d between each antenna.

Therefore, the precision angle detection signal processing unit 46 varies the number of reception channels and the number of combined reception channels according to the function and performance to be implemented, varies the number of sub-array overlapping, and selectively applies a high-precision angle detection algorithm Therefore, it is possible to control to precisely detect radar detection information for a specific detection space area.

Meanwhile, the signal processing processor 44 may receive the radar required function parameter, that is, the detection space area data, through communication with the outside, for example, the main control unit of the vehicle through the CAN communication unit 42 .

In this way, the present invention can implement multifunctionality using one common hardware platform.

That is, the present invention can secure a wide detection area using one common hardware platform to which transmit and receive antennas having wide-angle characteristics are applied.

In addition, the present invention can implement external radar functions such as long-range, medium-range, short-range and corner radars and built-in radar functions such as rear-seat passenger detection radar and HCS radar based on one common hardware platform, and hardware development resources and product cost can save

In addition, the present invention can implement various radar functions by changing the software corresponding to each function, thereby reducing product development resources.

In addition, by optimizing various radar detection performance for each vehicle type, the present invention can precisely tune software without changing hardware for a radar detection area for various required functions.

Next, a signal processing method of a multi-function radar system according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to FIG. 6 .

6 is a flowchart illustrating a signal processing method of a multi-function radar system according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention step by step.

In step S10 of FIG. 6 , the CAN communication unit 42 provided in the signal processing processor 14 communicates a function to be implemented through communication with the main control unit provided in the vehicle, that is, a parameter including distance and angle information of the detection space area. receive

In step S12, the signal processing processor 14 checks whether the received distance and angle information exceeds a preset range.

If, as a result of the inspection in step S12, the received distance and angle information exceeds the set range, the signal processing processor 14 transmits an alarm of exceeding the detection spatial area range to the main control unit through the CAN communication unit 42, , the detection space area information is received again (S14).

On the other hand, if the received distance and angle information is within the set range as a result of the inspection in step S12, the signal processing processor 14 stores ADC data or pre-processing data stored in the data storage unit 43 corresponding to the received detection space area. Select (S16).

In this case, the data storage unit 43 stores data obtained by ADC processing or pre-processing of the reception signal received through each reception channel in the data processing unit 13 .

In step S18, the signal processing processor 14 selects a DBF channel combination and overlapping method.

Then, in step S20 , each DBF processing unit 45 combines and overlaps data for a plurality of reception channels according to the selected DBF channel combination and overlapping method, and performs DBF signal processing to form a sub-array.

In step S22, the precision angle detection signal processing unit 46 combines a function to implement the data processed by each DBF processing unit 45, that is, a function corresponding to the distance and angle information of the detection space area.

And, the precision angle detection signal processing unit 46 detects the precise angle of the detection spatial region by applying a high-resolution angle detection algorithm, and controls the detection spatial region function.

In step S26, the precision angle detection signal processing unit 46 post-processes the detected data to generate radar detection information for a specific detection area corresponding to a function to be implemented.

In this case, the generated radar detection information may be various information such as speed detection information, target tracking information, and biosignal detection information.

Thereafter, the signal processing processor 46 returns to step S10 and repeats the subsequent process.

For example, FIGS. 7 and 8 are diagrams illustrating a vehicle radar to which a multi-function radar system according to the present invention is applied, respectively.

7 exemplifies a forward radar having a mid-range and short-range detection function, and FIG. 8 exemplifies a rear-facing radar having RCTA, BSD and LCA functions.

When the multi-function radar system according to the present invention is applied to a front radar, the front radar can simultaneously implement a medium-range detection function indicated by area A and a short-range detection function indicated by area B as shown in FIG. 7 .

And when the multi-function radar system according to the present invention is applied to the rear-facing radar, the rear-facing radar has a blind spot detection function for the C area and a rear cross-vehicle alarm for the D area, as shown in FIG. 8 . (Rear Cross Traffic Alert, RCTA) function and Lane Change Assist (LCA) function for E area can be implemented at the same time.

That is, a separate hardware platform and a radar signal processing configuration for each function are applied to the front radar or the rear radar according to the prior art, respectively.

On the other hand, in the present invention, as a multi-function radar signal processing method is applied by applying a common hardware platform, a multi-function radar can be implemented using a single platform, such as a front radar and a rear radar.

As such, the present invention can implement various functions, such as external radar functions such as long-range, medium-range, short-range and corner radars, and built-in radar functions such as rear-seat passenger detection radar and HCS radar, using a single common hardware platform. Development resources and product cost can be reduced.

In addition, the present invention can implement various radar functions by changing the software corresponding to the function to be implemented, thereby reducing product development resources.

In addition, by optimizing various radar detection performance for each vehicle type, the present invention can precisely tune software without changing hardware for radar detection areas for various required functions.

Although the invention made by the present inventors has been described in detail according to the above embodiments, the present invention is not limited to the above embodiments, and various modifications can be made without departing from the gist of the present invention.

The present invention provides a multi-function radar system that implements radars of various functions using a single common hardware platform, optimizes radar detection performance for each vehicle type, and precisely tunes software without changing hardware for radar detection areas for various required functions and It is applied to his signal processing method technique.

10: Radar system
11: antenna unit 12: transceiver unit
13: data processing unit 14: signal processing processor
21: transmit antenna 22: receive antenna
31: analog-to-digital converter (ADC)
41: transmit/receive control unit 42: CAN communication unit
43: data storage unit 44: radar signal processing unit
45: digital beam forming (DBF) processing unit
46: precision angle detection signal processing unit

Claims (10)

An antenna unit that transmits a radar signal to the surroundings and receives a signal reflected from a target;
A radar transceiver for transmitting a radar signal and processing data of a received signal received through a reception channel; and
It is provided as one common hardware platform including a signal processing processor for generating a control signal to generate the radar signal and signal processing the received signal to generate radar detection information,
The transmitting and receiving antennas of the antenna unit are provided with a plurality of physical antennas or a plurality of virtual array antennas each having wide-angle characteristics,
The one common hardware platform secures a detection area by using the transmit and receive antennas having wide-angle characteristics, and through signal processing, an external radar function including long-range, medium-range, short-range and corner radar, and a rear-seat passenger detection radar; It is possible to implement a plurality of functions including the built-in radar function including the HCS radar by changing the software corresponding to each function,
The radar transceiver includes a data processing unit for data processing the received signal,
The signal processing processor includes a transceiver control unit for controlling driving of the radar transceiver unit;
A communication unit for receiving a parameter of a detection space area corresponding to a function to be implemented through communication with an external device;
a data storage unit for storing the data processed by the data processing unit in the form of a radar data cube having a virtual channel, a fast time, and a slow time;
and a radar signal processing unit for generating radar detection information by using the data stored in the data storage unit,
The radar signal processing unit includes: a digital beamforming processing unit forming a sub-array by overlapping data corresponding to a plurality of reception channels corresponding to the detection space area in the data stored in the data storage unit;
It includes a precision angle detection signal processing unit that detects a precise angle by post-processing the digital beamforming-processed data,
The digital beamforming processing unit forms a sub-array by combining a preset number of data from all reception channels to increase the number of total reception channels,
The precision angle detection signal processing unit varies the number of reception channels and the number of combined reception channels so as to correspond to the detection space region in which the data processed by the digital beamforming processing unit is to be implemented, and the number of overlapping sub-arrays is varied. A multi-function radar system characterized in that it selectively combines and processes signals. According to claim 1,
The multi-function radar system, characterized in that the antenna unit, the radar transceiver unit, and the signal processing processor are configured as one single piece of hardware or are configured as separate pieces of hardware to be selectively replaced based on a function to be implemented. delete delete delete delete delete In the signal processing method of the multi-function radar system according to claim 1 or 2,
(a) receiving a parameter of a detection space region through communication with an external device in an antenna unit including a plurality of transmit and receive antennas having wide-angle characteristics;
(b) generating radar detection information by selectively overlapping and combining data corresponding to the received detection space area among the data stored in the data processing unit in the signal processing processor; and
(c) comparing the detection spatial region information received from the signal processing processor with a preset setting range, transmitting an alarm exceeding the detection spatial region range based on the comparison result, and re-receiving the detection spatial region information So
It uses one common hardware platform to secure a detection area, and through signal processing, it includes an external radar function including long-range, medium-range, short-range and corner radar, and a built-in radar function including rear-seat passenger detection radar and HCS radar. Multiple functions can be implemented by changing the software corresponding to each function,
The step (b) comprises the steps of (b1) storing the data processed in the data processing unit using the data storage unit;
(b2) sub-arrangement by selectively overlapping data corresponding to a plurality of reception channels corresponding to the detection space area in the data stored in the data storage unit to increase the total number of reception channels by using the digital beamforming processing unit forming step and
(b3) using the precision angle detection signal processing unit to vary the number of reception channels and the number of combined reception channels so as to correspond to a detection space region in which the data processed by the digital beamforming processing unit is to be implemented, and overlapping of sub-arrays Signal processing method of a multi-function radar system, characterized in that it comprises the step of processing the signal by selectively combining the number of variable. delete delete

Images