KR101921949B1 - Super-close target sensing apparatus using uwb pulse signal and method thereof - Google Patents

Abstract

According to the present invention, a proximity target sensing device comprises: an antenna arranged along a periphery of the proximity target sensing device; a transmitting and receiving part receiving a signal from a target through the antenna; and a signal processing part processing the signal from the target, accumulating the received signal of a constant false alarm rate (CFAR) level or more for M times, and obtaining a distance of the target. Therefore, the super-proximity target sensing device using an ultra-wide band (UWB) pulse signal and a sensing method thereof can sense a position of the target with in a super-proximity distance.

Description

TECHNICAL FIELD [0001] The present invention relates to a device for detecting a proximity target using a UWB pulse signal and a method for detecting the proximity target using the UWB pulse signal.

The present invention relates to a device for ultra close proximity target detection and a method thereof. And more particularly, to an apparatus and method for detecting a proximity target using a UWB pulse signal.

 With respect to the invention, in the case of a propagation type target sensing device (proximity fist), a technique of acquiring distance information between a target and a target sensing device using a frequency modulated continuous wave (FMCW) signal of an RF (Radio Frequency) have. Frequency-modulated continuous waves have been used extensively in spread-spectrum radar and are advantageous for long-range target detection, but they are difficult to detect in near-near targets and have a disadvantage of lower resolution.

  The detection distance of a conventional propagation type target sensing device (a technology such as registration No. US741758282, hereinafter referred to as " A technology ") is usually from several meters to several tens of meters. Accordingly, the transmitter of the RF system generates a high-power signal in order to detect the target from a long distance and continuously track its position. However, some of the signals generated by the transmitter are not radiated through the antenna and flow into the receiver, which is called a leakage signal. This leakage signal is frequency downconverted along with the target signal in a down-conversion process to produce a signal similar to that at a very close distance. Therefore, if there is a target in the near range, the detection probability of the near target is lowered because the target signal and the leakage signal can not be distinguished at the receiving terminal.

  The existing prior art (registration number 1012391660000, hereinafter referred to as " B technology ") uses a delay device (delay cable) having an effective delay time in the receive path to avoid such a problem, Respectively. This method is effective for a device using a FMCW signal having a relatively narrow bandwidth, but a UWB (Ultra Wide Band) signal has a wide band width, which may cause a group delay due to a phase difference of each frequency, It is difficult to apply to devices using UWB signals.

  Another prior art (Application No. 1996-054187, hereinafter referred to as " C technology ") relates to an altitude detection distance adjustment circuit for a proximity incinerator. In order to cope with an increasing noise as the altitude becomes lower, The output signal size of the signal and the amplifier is compared in the reference level detector, and an output proportional to the difference is generated, and a method of adjusting the gain of the amplifier in the adjustment section is proposed. Such a scheme has a problem in that the system configuration is complicated due to a negative feed-back structure, and in the case of UWB signals, a large amount of broadband elements are required for a Doppler signal detector.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION It is an object of the present invention to provide an apparatus and method for sensing a near-proximity target using a UWB pulse signal.

It is also an object of the present invention to provide an apparatus and method for detecting proximity proximity targets that can precisely detect a near-near approach target of several centimeters.

According to an aspect of the present invention, there is provided a proximity target sensing device including: an antenna disposed along a periphery of the proximity target sensing device; A transceiver for receiving a signal from a target via the antenna; And a signal processing unit for processing a signal from the target to accumulate the received signal at a constant false false alarm rate (CFAR) or higher level M times to acquire the distance of the target, It is possible to provide a device for sensing a proximity target using a UWB pulse signal and a method of detecting the proximity target.

In one embodiment, when the target is a remote target, the signal processing unit may increase the transmission power of the transmission / reception unit to detect the remote target, thereby sampling the reception signal only in a section that is not affected by the leakage signal. In addition, when the target is a near target, the signal processing unit may minimize the influence of the leakage signal by reducing the transmission power so as to detect the near target, and may sample the received signal in an area corresponding to the near target.

In one embodiment, the signal processor may determine the distance between the target and the target sensing device through the target reflected signal sampled through a high-speed ADC (Analog-to-Digital Converter) to directly control the gain of the transceiver have.

In one embodiment, the antenna is arranged so that each antenna element is equidistantly spaced 90 [deg.] Along the side, or each antenna element has a length And may be disposed at the upper and lower portions.

In one embodiment, in order to eliminate the ambiguity of the detection distance of the target as the heterogeneous signal received through the two transmitting and receiving units flows through the signal processing unit, the signal processing unit can perform synchronization between the two transmitting and receiving units have.

According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a method of detecting a target of a proximity target sensing apparatus, the method comprising: performing initialization of the target sensing apparatus, CFAR level 1 generation step between scan for reference signal acquisition and target detection for each channel; Determining whether the target detection is possible by summing information processed for each channel; A target signal acquisition step for each channel; Generating inter-scan CFAR level 1 for target detection and generating CFAR level 2 in the scan; A target reception signal identification that exceeds the CFAR level 1 and the CFAR level 2, and accumulation of the reception signal M times; Determining M> N whether the cumulative number M is N or more; And a distance checking step of obtaining distance information of the target if M> N even in one of the channels.

According to the present invention, it is possible to provide a device for sensing a proximity target using a UWB pulse signal capable of detecting a position of a target in a near vicinity and a sensing method thereof.

In addition, according to the present invention, the system is designed so that the gain of the transmission signal and the reception signal can be directly controlled by the signal processor according to the distance of the target, thereby minimizing the size of the leakage signal by reducing the gain of the transceiver in the near- Can be detected.

In addition, according to the present invention, reliable distance information can be obtained by a detection algorithm that confirms the target distance only when the target is identified more than N times by applying the CFAR algorithm between the scan and the scan for each reception channel.

FIG. 1 shows an operational concept and a configuration diagram of a sensor for sensing a proximity target using a UWB pulse signal according to the present invention.
2 shows a graph of a received signal and a leakage signal with respect to distance and time according to the present invention.
3 shows a method of arranging antennas according to the present invention.
4 shows an internal structure of a target detection apparatus according to the present invention.
5 shows a flowchart of the target detection signal processing process.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS The above and other features and advantages of the present invention will become more apparent from the following detailed description of the present invention when taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, It will be possible.

While the invention is susceptible to various modifications and alternative forms, specific embodiments thereof are shown by way of example in the drawings and will herein be described in detail. It is to be understood, however, that the invention is not to be limited to the specific embodiments, but includes all modifications, equivalents, and alternatives falling within the spirit and scope of the invention.

Like reference numerals are used for similar elements in describing each drawing.

The terms first, second, etc. may be used to describe various components, but the components should not be limited by the terms. The terms are used only for the purpose of distinguishing one component from another.

For example, without departing from the scope of the present invention, the first component may be referred to as a second component, and similarly, the second component may also be referred to as a first component. And / or < / RTI > includes any combination of a plurality of related listed items or any of a plurality of related listed items.

Unless otherwise defined, all terms used herein, including technical or scientific terms, have the same meaning as commonly understood by one of ordinary skill in the art to which this invention belongs.

Terms such as those defined in commonly used dictionaries are to be interpreted as having a meaning consistent with the contextual meaning of the related art and are to be interpreted as either ideal or overly formal in the sense of the present application Should not.

The suffix modules, blocks, and parts for the components used in the following description are given with or taken into consideration only for ease of specification, and do not have their own meaning or role.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Hereinafter, preferred embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the accompanying drawings. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS In the following description of the present invention, detailed description of known functions and configurations incorporated herein will be omitted when it may make the subject matter of the present invention rather unclear.

Hereinafter, an apparatus and method for sensing a proximity target using a UWB pulse signal according to the present invention will be described with reference to the accompanying drawings. In this regard, FIG. 1 illustrates an operation concept and a configuration diagram of a near-object detection apparatus using a UWB pulse signal according to the present invention. More specifically, FIG. 1 (a) shows an operation concept of a proximity target detection apparatus using a UWB pulse signal, and FIG. 1 (b) shows a configuration diagram of a proximity target detection apparatus using a UWB pulse signal.

Referring to FIG. 1 (b), the super proximity target sensing device 10 includes a safety loading device 11, a UWB antenna 20, a transmitting / receiving unit 30, a signal processing unit 40, and a power source unit 50 do. In the present invention, a high power UWB signal for a target at a long distance and a low power UWB signal for a target at a short distance are generated in the transmitting and receiving unit 30 and transmitted through a UWB antenna 20 on the side of the target sensing apparatus .

Specifically, the UWB antenna 20 is configured to be disposed along the periphery of the proximity target sensing device. On the other hand, the transceiver 30 transmits a signal to the target via the antenna 20 and receives a signal from the target. On the other hand, the signal processing unit 40 processes the signal from the target and accumulates the received signal equal to or higher than CFAR (Constant False Alarm Rate) level M times to acquire the target distance. A detailed process of acquiring a target distance in the signal processing unit 40 will be described in detail with reference to FIG.

2 shows a graph of a received signal and a leakage signal with respect to distance and time according to the present invention. Specifically, FIG. 2A shows a received signal and a leakage signal graph with respect to distance, time, and the like. 2 (b) and 2 (c) show a received signal or a leak signal graph at a distance and a near sampling interval with respect to distance, time, and the like.

In this regard, in the case of Prior Art A, a high-power signal was transmitted in order to detect a distant target regardless of the position of the target. This generates a large leak signal as shown in FIG. 2 (a) It was not easy to do. However, the present invention controls the magnitude of the leakage signal by controlling the gain of the transmission signal and the reception signal according to the detection distance. In particular, since the method of reducing the minimum detection distance by minimizing the size of the leakage signal is used in the near short distance, the existing difficulties can be solved without a delay device (delay cable) having an effective delay time as in the prior art B.

  The gain of the transmitter / receiver according to the detection distance is directly controlled by the signal processor 40. When the target signal sampled through a high-speed ADC (analog-to-digital converter) is transmitted to the signal processor 40, the signal processor 40 determines the distance between the target and the target sensor, . That is, the distance between the target and the target sensing device is determined through the target reflection signal sampled through the high-speed ADC (Analog-to-Digital Converter) in the signal processing unit 40 and the gain of the transmitting and receiving unit 30 can be directly controlled have. Therefore, the present invention has the advantage that the detection distance adjustment circuit and the RF feedback structure required in the prior art C are not required.

On the other hand, in FIG. 2, the concept of gain control of the transmitting / receiving unit according to distance is also shown. First, the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of the remote target is lowered due to a decrease in the received power. This can improve the signal-to-noise ratio by increasing the transmission power. However, the size of the leakage signal also increases due to the high transmission power. As shown in FIG. 2 (b), since the long distance target is sampled only in the section where there is no influence of the leakage signal, there is no influence of the leakage signal.

  When the target is in close proximity, it is important to reduce the influence of the leakage signal, so it is necessary to gradually decrease the transmission power as the distance between the target and the target sensing device decreases. As shown in (c) of FIG. 2, the present invention for this purpose can reduce the size of the leakage signal as the transmission power is reduced, so that the near-near approach target can be detected. In the proposed method, the sampling interval is divided into N portions (only the near sampling and the long distance sampling interval are shown as an example in FIGS. 2B and 2C). By varying the transmission power, Can be detected.

Referring to FIGS. 1 and 2, when the target is a remote target, the signal processor 40 increases the transmission power of the transmitter / receiver to detect the remote target and samples the received signal only in a section that is not affected by the leakage signal . On the other hand, when the target is a short distance target, the signal processing unit 40 minimizes the influence of the leakage signal by reducing the transmission power so as to detect the near target, and samples the received signal in a region corresponding to the short distance.

3 shows a method of arranging antennas according to the present invention. 4 also shows the sensing range (front and rear) of the antenna according to the present invention.

FIG. 3 shows the arrangement and detection range of the proposed antenna of the present invention. Since the UWB antenna 20 of the proposed target sensing apparatus should be able to sense 360 ° all directions, the antenna can be arranged along the circumference of the apparatus as shown in FIG. 3 (a) according to the characteristics of the beam width and the beam pattern. Alternatively, it can be arranged in the longitudinal direction of the apparatus as shown in Fig. 3 (b). Meanwhile, the number of the UWB antennas 20 can be changed according to the characteristics of the antenna.

Therefore, the UWB antenna 20 can be arranged at equal intervals of 90 [deg.] Along the side in order to obtain the distance information of the target passing sideways in the 360 [deg.] Direction. Alternatively, the UWB antenna 20 may be disposed at the upper portion and the lower portion, with each antenna element being spaced apart by a predetermined distance in the longitudinal direction.

4 shows an internal structure of a target detection apparatus according to the present invention. Referring to FIG. 4, there is shown an internal structure of an ultra-proximity target sensing device 10 including various combinations of a UWB antenna 20, a transceiver 30, and a signal processing unit 40. 4A and 4B, four antennas are used, and a transmitting antenna and a receiving antenna are separated from each other. In FIG. 4A, In (c) and (d), two antennas are used and the antenna is used for transmission and reception. In order to use the antenna for transmission and reception, an element for isolating the transmitter, the receiver and the antenna is required. In this case, a device 31 such as a circulator or a coupler can be used.

  As shown in Fig. 4, the number of transmission / reception units is two in Fig. 4 (a) and (c), and one in Fig. 4 (b) and (d) is used. In the case of a system using two transmission / reception units, it is necessary to synchronize the two transmission / reception units in order to eliminate the target distance ambiguity due to the influx of the target reflection signal of the transmitter 1 to the receiver 2 and vice versa May be added. When one transceiver is used, various types of power distributor / combiner 32 may be used between the transceiver and the antenna for effective antenna placement.

The signals received through the first and second receive antennas are combined by the power divider / combiner 32 or the transceiver 30 to detect the target in 360 omni-directional directions. At this time, the signal processing unit 40 can process a signal received through one or two transmitting and receiving units 30. [

4A to 4D, the UWB antenna 20 may include a first transmission antenna, a second transmission antenna, a first reception antenna, and a second reception antenna. Here, the first transmission antenna and the first reception antenna may be disposed adjacent to each other as shown in FIG. 4 (a).

Alternatively, the first transmission antenna and the second transmission antenna may be arranged adjacent to each other as shown in FIG. 4 (b). When the first transmission antenna and the second transmission antenna are disposed adjacent to each other, the transmission signal can be distributed through the power distributor / combiner 32. At this time, the first and second reception antennas can be combined with each other through the power divider / combiner 32. [

Alternatively, as shown in FIGS. 4 (c) and 4 (d), one antenna operates as a first transmit antenna and a first receive antenna, and the other antenna operates as a second transmit antenna and a second receive antenna have.

Meanwhile, FIG. 5 shows a flowchart of the target detection signal processing process. First, when the target sensing apparatus is turned on, initialization is performed for the normal operation of the apparatus, and an initial value and N are input (S10). Thereafter, a reference signal is collected through the reception antenna of the reception UWB antenna 20, and a CFAR (Constant False Alarm Rate) level 1 between scans for acquiring a target signal that changes (occurs or disappears) with time changes Step is performed in parallel for each reception channel when there are a plurality of reception channels (n) (S20).

  If it is not enabled (S20), it is repeatedly performed. If it is enabled, the process proceeds to the next algorithm step. If the process goes to the next step, the signal is processed for each channel again from S40 to S70. First, the target signal is acquired (S40) to generate the CFAR level 1 and generate the CFAR level 2 in the scan (S50) . Through this, the reception signal exceeding the CFAR level 1, 2 is accumulated M times (S60), and the steps (S40) to (S70) are repeatedly performed until the accumulated number exceeds N times. If it is determined that M is larger than N (S70), the target distance information is obtained.

Specifically, the initialization of the target sensing apparatus is performed (S10), and a CFAR level 1 generation step (S20) for collecting reference signals and detecting a target for each channel is performed. In addition, an enable determination step (S30) is performed to determine whether the target detection is possible by integrating the information processed for each channel. Accordingly, the target signal acquisition step S40 is performed for each of the channels.

Meanwhile, generation of inter-scan CFAR level 1 for target detection and generation of CFAR level 2 in scan (S50) are additionally performed. In addition, a target reception signal identification exceeding the CFAR level 1 and the CFAR level 2 and accumulating the reception signal M times are further performed (S50). In addition, if M> N even in one of the channels through the M> N determination step S60, whether the cumulative number M is N or more, the distance checking step S70 for obtaining the distance information of the target .

In the foregoing, an apparatus and method for sensing a proximity target using a UWB pulse signal according to the present invention have been described.

According to at least one embodiment of the present invention, there can be provided an apparatus for sensing a proximity target using a UWB pulse signal capable of sensing a position of a target in a near vicinity and a sensing method thereof.

Also, according to at least one embodiment of the present invention, a system is designed to control a gain of a transmission signal and a reception signal directly by a signal processor according to a distance of a target, thereby reducing a gain of a transceiver in a near- And can detect the proximity target in the second direction.

Also, according to at least one embodiment of the present invention, reliable distance information is obtained by a detection algorithm that confirms the target distance only when the target is identified more than N times by applying the CFAR algorithm between the scan and the scan for each reception channel .

According to a software implementation, the design and parameter optimization for each component as well as the procedures and functions described herein may be implemented as separate software modules. Software code can be implemented in a software application written in a suitable programming language. The software code is stored in a memory and can be executed by a controller or a processor.

10: proximity target detection device
11: Safety Loading Device
20: UWB antenna
30: Transmitting /
31: Circulator or coupler
32: Power distribution / combiner
40: Signal processor
50:

Claims (7)

A proximity target sensing device comprising:
An antenna disposed along the periphery of the proximity target sensing device;
A transceiver for receiving a signal from a target via the antenna; And
And a signal processor for processing a signal from the target to accumulate the received signal at a level equal to or higher than the CFAR (Constant False Alarm Rate) level M times to obtain the distance of the target,
Wherein the signal processing unit determines the distance between the target and the target sensing device through the target reflection signal and directly controls the gain of the transmission / reception unit. The method according to claim 1,
The signal processing unit,
If the target is a remote target, sampling the received signal only in a section that is not influenced by a leakage signal by increasing the transmission power of the transmitter / receiver to detect the remote target,
Wherein when the target is a near target, the transmission power is reduced to minimize the influence of the leakage signal to detect the near target, and the received signal is sampled in a region corresponding to the near target. delete The method according to claim 1,
In order to obtain distance information of a target passing through 360 degrees in all directions from side to side, each antenna element is arranged at equal intervals of 90 degrees along the side, or each antenna element is arranged at a predetermined distance in the longitudinal direction Wherein the sensor is spaced apart and disposed at an upper portion and a lower portion. The method according to claim 1,
The antenna includes a first transmission antenna, a second transmission antenna, a first reception antenna, and a second reception antenna,
The signals received through the first and second receive antennas are coupled by the power divider / combiner or the transceiver to detect the target in 360 omni-direction,
Wherein the signal processing unit processes signals received through one or two transceivers. 6. The method of claim 5,
Characterized in that the signal processor performs synchronization between the two transceivers in order to eliminate the ambiguity of the detection distance of the target as heterogeneous signals received through the two transceivers are input through the signal processor. Proximity target detection device. A method for detecting a proximity target detection device,
Performing initialization of the target sensing device;
CFAR level 1 generation step between scan for reference signal acquisition and target detection for each channel;
Determining whether the target detection is possible by summing information processed for each channel;
A target signal acquisition step for each channel;
Generating inter-scan CFAR level 1 for target detection and generating CFAR level 2 in the scan;
A target reception signal identification that exceeds the CFAR level 1 and the CFAR level 2, and accumulation of the reception signal M times;
Determining M> N whether the cumulative number M is N or more; And
And a distance checking step of obtaining distance information of the target if M> N even in one of the channels.

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