JP2010230519A - Pulse radar device - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a pulse radar device for reducing a necessary memory capacity, and shortening greatly a time required for a one-time detection cycle. <P>SOLUTION: An auxiliary operation processing part 120 includes four switches 131-134 in order to perform reading and writing alternately by using two memories, a first memory and a second memory. The output side of a pre-sum processing part 123 is connected to a contact point a of a first switch 131, and the input side of a determination part 111 is connected to a contact point a of a second switch. Further, the input side and the output side of a complex FET processing part 124 are connected respectively to each contact point a of a third switch 131 and a fourth switch. In addition, the first memory 125 is connected to each contact point b of the switches 131-134, and the second memory 126 is connected to a contact point c. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2011,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to a pulse radar device that simultaneously detects a distance to a target and its relative velocity.

  2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, as an in-vehicle pulse radar device that detects a distance and a relative speed, for example, a device described in Patent Document 1 is known. A block diagram of the on-vehicle pulse radar device described in Patent Document 1 is shown in FIG. In Patent Document 1, the transmission / reception changeover switch 901 is switched to the transmission amplifier 902 side to emit a pulse, and then the transmission / reception changeover switch 901 is switched to the reception amplifier 903 side to receive the reflected wave reflected by the target. Yes.

  The received reflected wave is sampled for each distance gate (or range bin) by the AD converter 904, and the sampled data is output to the signal processing device 905. In the signal processing device 905, the data input from the AD converter 904 is subjected to presum processing, and the result is subjected to FFT (Fast Fourier Transform) processing. The distance and relative speed between the host vehicle and the target are obtained from the frequency and amplitude information of the spectrum as a result of the FFT process. Furthermore, in order to improve the S / N ratio, it has been proposed to perform presum processing across a plurality of distance gates in the receiving circuit. In Patent Document 1, all processing after conversion to digital data by the AD converter 904 is performed by the signal processing device 905.

  An outline of signal processing in a conventional pulse radar apparatus will be described with reference to FIG. A transmission pulse having a pulse width tg shown in FIG. 9A radiated from the transmission antenna is reflected as a received pulse shown in FIG. The received pulse is down-converted and converted into a beat signal as shown in FIG. 6C, and this is sampled by a distance gate as shown in FIG. Here, an example is shown in which a distance gate is provided with the same time width tg as the pulse width of the transmission pulse. Sampling for each distance gate is performed at the timing of a clock signal that is emitted with a delay time that is an integral multiple of the time width tg, based on the time of emission of the transmission pulse.

  A schematic configuration of a conventional signal processing apparatus will be described with reference to a block diagram shown in FIG. The signal processed by the transmission / reception unit 911 is sampled by the AD conversion unit 912 and output to the presum processing unit 913 of the signal processing device 910. The FFT processing unit 914 receives the data processed by the presum processing unit 913, performs FFT processing, and writes the result in the memory 915. The determination unit 916 reads the data written in the memory 915 by the FFT processing unit 914 and compares the data with a predetermined threshold value to determine the presence or absence of the target. When the target is detected by the determination unit 916, the distance and relative speed to the target detected by the distance / speed detection unit 917 are calculated. Note that the clock signal generation unit 918 outputs a clock signal at the timing of sampling by the AD conversion unit 912, and the delay time generation unit 919 gives a delay time corresponding to the distance gate to the clock signal.

  In the signal processing device 910 having the above-described configuration, when the writing to the memory 915 by the FFT processing unit 914 ends after the predetermined write time tw1 has elapsed, the determination unit 916 starts reading data from the memory 915. FIG. 14 shows a cycle of a write time tw1 for writing to the memory 915 and a read time tr1 for reading from the memory 915. When the period from the start of sampling by the AD converter 912 to the end of the distance / velocity detection by the distance / velocity detection unit 917 is set as a detection cycle for all the distance gates, the memory 915 performs one detection. There is one writing period and one reading period during the cycle. That is, the detection cycle is divided into two periods, a write time tw1 and a read time tr1.

  The outline of the processing in the conventional pulse radar apparatus shown in FIG. 13 will be described with reference to the flowchart shown in FIG. When measurement is started, after initialization in step S51, transmission / reception processing by the transmission / reception unit 911 in step S52, sampling by the AD conversion unit 912 in step S53, and presum processing by the presum processing unit 913 in step S54 (integration for each distance gate) Are stored in the memory 915) by the predetermined number of presum processing N1 by the processing of steps S55 and S56. Then, the presum processing of steps S52 to S56 is performed by a predetermined number of FFT points N2 by the processing of steps S57 to S59. Further, the processing for each distance gate in steps S52 to S59 is performed for all (N3) distance gates by the processing in steps S60 to S62.

  When the presum values for all the distance gates are calculated and stored in the memory 915 by the processing up to step S62, the FFT processing unit 914 reads out the presum value from the memory 915 and performs the FFT processing in step S63. Is stored again in the memory 915 in step S64. When all the FFT results are stored in the memory 915, in the next step S65, the determination unit 916 reads the FFT results from the memory 915 and determines the presence / absence of a target based on the read data. In step S66, the distance to the target and the relative speed detected by the determination unit 916 are calculated. As described above, after one detection cycle is completed and the distance gate number is initialized in step S67, it is determined whether or not the measurement is continued in step S68.

  In the flow of processing in the conventional pulse radar device described above, steps S52 to S64 are the writing time period tw1 for writing the processing result of the received reflected wave in the memory 915, and steps S65 to S68 are included. This is a read time tr1 period in which the processing result is read from the memory 915 and the target is detected.

JP 2004-125591 A

  However, in the conventional radar device, the FFT processing results for all the distance gates are stored in the memory, and the data is read from the memory during the target determination process to determine the presence / absence of the target and to calculate the distance / speed. Due to the configuration, there is a problem that the capacity required for the memory becomes large. In particular, when the number of distance gates N3 is increased in order to increase the distance detection accuracy or the number of FFT points N2 is increased in order to increase the relative speed detection accuracy, the required memory capacity is further increased. There is also a problem that the time required for writing and reading data becomes long, and the detection cycle of the radar apparatus becomes long, so that the target detection may not be in time.

  Furthermore, during the memory reading period during which the presence / absence of the target is determined and the distance / speed detection is performed, the reception processing result cannot be stored in the memory, and the period is a non-measurement period. That is, in the detection cycle shown in FIG. 14, the period of the readout time tr1 is a non-measurement period in which the reception processing result cannot be used for target determination or the like, and the performance as a radar apparatus is degraded. In particular, when the required memory capacity increases, the time for reading it also becomes longer, and there is a problem that the non-measurement period becomes longer and the performance as a radar apparatus is further deteriorated.

  Accordingly, the present invention has been made in view of the above problems, and an object of the present invention is to provide a pulse radar device that reduces the required memory capacity and significantly shortens the time required for one detection cycle. To do.

  In order to solve the above problems, a first aspect of the pulse radar apparatus of the present invention radiates a transmission pulse obtained by up-converting a pulse signal generated at a predetermined cycle with a carrier wave of a predetermined frequency into the space. The receiving unit receives the reflected pulse that has been reflected and returned by the receiving unit, down-converts it, outputs an analog baseband signal, and two or more during the predetermined period based on the generation time of the pulse signal A clock signal generation unit that outputs two or more clock signals of the same; a delay time generation unit that delays the two or more clock signals output from the clock signal generation unit by a predetermined delay time and outputs the delayed signal to the AD conversion unit; The analog baseband signal is input from the transmission / reception unit, and is delayed by the predetermined delay time from the delay time generation unit. 2 or more clock signals are input, an AD conversion unit that AD converts the analog baseband signal at the timing when the 2 or more clock signals are input, and a reception signal converted into a digital value from the AD conversion unit A presum processing unit that outputs a presum value accumulated a predetermined number of times, a complex FFT processing unit that performs frequency analysis by inputting the presum value and outputs a signal strength for each distance gate and each frequency gate, and the distance A determination unit for determining the presence or absence of a target by inputting signal intensity for each gate and frequency gate, and a distance to the target by inputting data of a distance gate and a frequency gate when the target is detected by the determination unit And a distance / speed detector for calculating relative speed, and the presum processor is connected to one of the presumers. And the determination unit is connected to the other to read the signal strength for each distance gate and each frequency gate, the first memory and the second memory, the presum processing unit and the determination A first switch and a second switch for alternately switching the connection to the unit, a third switch and a fourth switch for alternately connecting the complex FFT processing unit to one of the first memory and the second memory, A switching control unit that controls switching of the first to fourth switches, and each time the equivalent sampling delay time by the two or more clock signals delayed by the predetermined delay time is updated, the switching control unit And a switching signal generator for instructing switching of the first to fourth switches.

  According to the present invention, writing by the presum processing unit and reading by the determination unit are alternately performed in parallel using two memories, thereby reducing the required memory capacity and the time required for one detection cycle. Can be provided.

  According to another aspect of the pulse radar apparatus of the present invention, when the target is detected by the determination unit, the pulse radar device further includes a third memory that stores data of a distance gate and a frequency gate of the target, and the distance / velocity detection unit includes: The distance gate and frequency gate data are read from the third memory, and the distance to the target and the relative speed are calculated. By storing the target distance gate and frequency gate data detected by the determination unit in the third memory, the degree of freedom in selecting a time zone for the distance / speed detection unit to perform arithmetic processing increases.

  In another aspect of the pulse radar apparatus of the present invention, the third switch and the fourth switch connect the complex FFT processing unit to the first memory or the second memory to which the presum processing unit is connected. Features. Thereby, the complex FFT processing unit can be processed subsequent to the arithmetic processing of the presum processing unit.

  Another aspect of the pulse radar apparatus of the present invention is characterized in that the presum processing unit, the complex FFT processing unit, and the determination unit are executed in parallel. As a result, the processing time can be shortened by the shorter arithmetic processing time of the time required for the arithmetic processing of the presum processing unit and the complex FFT processing unit and the time required for the arithmetic processing of the determination unit.

  In another aspect of the pulse radar apparatus of the present invention, the third switch and the fourth switch connect the complex FFT processing unit to the first memory or the second memory to which the determination unit is connected. And Thereby, the processing of the determination unit can be performed immediately after the processing of the complex FFT processing unit is completed.

  In another aspect of the pulse radar device of the present invention, the presum processing unit, the complex FFT processing unit, and the determination unit are executed in parallel. As a result, the processing time can be shortened by the shorter arithmetic processing time of the time required for the arithmetic processing of the presum processing unit and the time required for the arithmetic processing of the complex FFT processing unit and the determination unit.

  Another aspect of the pulse radar device of the present invention includes a main calculation processing unit and an auxiliary calculation processing unit capable of performing higher-speed calculation processing than the main calculation processing unit, and the determination unit and the distance / speed detection unit. And the switching signal generating unit is executed by the main arithmetic processing unit, and the clock signal generating unit, the delay time generating unit, the presum processing unit, the complex FFT processing unit, and the switching control unit are used as the auxiliary arithmetic processing unit. It is characterized by being executed in a part. By causing the presum processing unit, the complex FFT processing unit, and the switching control unit to perform processing in an auxiliary calculation processing unit capable of high-speed calculation, a pulse radar device with high time resolution can be provided.

  According to the present invention, by using two memories to perform writing and reading alternately in parallel, the required memory capacity is reduced and the time required for one detection cycle is greatly shortened. A pulse radar device can be provided.

It is a block diagram which shows the structure of the pulse radar apparatus of 1st Embodiment of this invention. It is explanatory drawing for demonstrating the signal processed with the pulse radar apparatus of 1st Embodiment. It is explanatory drawing for demonstrating equivalent sampling. It is explanatory drawing which compares and demonstrates the emission timing of a transmission pulse, and the timing of a clock signal. It is a table | surface which shows the connection state of the switch in 1st Embodiment. It is a block diagram which shows the state which switched the switch of the pulse radar apparatus of 1st Embodiment. It is explanatory drawing for demonstrating the switching cycle and detection cycle of a switch. It is a flowchart for demonstrating the process in the signal processing apparatus of 1st Embodiment. It is a block diagram which shows the structure of the pulse radar apparatus of 2nd Embodiment of this invention. It is a flowchart for demonstrating the process in the signal processing apparatus of 2nd Embodiment. It is a block diagram of the conventional on-vehicle pulse radar device. It is explanatory drawing for demonstrating the outline | summary of the signal processing in the conventional pulse radar apparatus. It is a block diagram which shows schematic structure of the conventional signal processing apparatus. It is explanatory drawing for demonstrating the conventional detection cycle. It is a flowchart for demonstrating the process in the conventional pulse radar apparatus.

  A pulse radar device according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings. Each component having the same function is denoted by the same reference numeral for simplification of illustration and description. Below, the case where the pulse radar apparatus of the present invention is used in a vehicle will be described as an example.

(First embodiment)
The configuration of the pulse radar apparatus according to the first embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIG. FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration of a pulse radar device 100 according to the present embodiment. The pulse radar device 100 includes a transmission / reception unit 101, an AD conversion unit 102, and a signal processing device 103. The signal processing device 103 further includes a main arithmetic processing unit 110 and an auxiliary arithmetic processing unit 120. The auxiliary arithmetic processing unit 120 performs processing for sequentially performing presum processing and FFT processing for each distance gate, and causes the main arithmetic processing unit 110 to perform target determination and distance / speed detection processing using the result of the FFT processing. ing.

  The transmission / reception unit 101 emits a transmission pulse in the air at a predetermined pulse transmission period T, receives a reflected wave reflected by the target, performs processing such as down-conversion, and then converts the obtained analog baseband signal to AD The data is output to the conversion unit 102. A transmission pulse and a reception pulse transmitted / received by the transmission / reception unit 101 are schematically shown in FIG. FIG. 2A shows a transmission pulse having a pulse width τ transmitted at a predetermined pulse transmission period T. FIG. 2B shows a time tref that is reflected by the target after transmission of the transmission pulse. The reception pulse received at the time is schematically shown. The transmission pulse is generated by up-converting a pulse train having a pulse width τ with a carrier wave having a predetermined frequency. The received pulse is a signal obtained by down-converting the reflected wave reflected by the target and converting it into an analog baseband signal. The reception signal output from the transmission / reception unit 101 to the AD conversion unit 102 includes a reception pulse as shown in FIG.

  The AD conversion unit 102 samples the reception signal input from the transmission / reception unit 101 at a predetermined timing, and outputs the result to the signal processing device 103. In the present embodiment, a plurality of sampling pulses are generated for one transmission pulse, and an equivalent sampling process is performed to perform sampling for many distance gates by changing the generation time of the sampling pulse every moment. Yes. In order for the AD converter 102 to perform equivalent sampling, a clock signal generator 121 and a delay time generator 122 are provided in the auxiliary arithmetic processor 120. The clock signal generator 121 outputs five clock signals after emitting the transmission pulse in order to perform sampling five times for one transmission pulse here. An example of a clock signal string composed of five clock signals is shown in FIG. The clock signal is output from the clock signal generator 121 at a predetermined sampling period Ts. The sampling period Ts is determined such that the time length Ts × 5 necessary for outputting the clock signal to the AD converter 102 five times is equal to or shorter than the pulse transmission period T. Here, although five clock signals are output for one transmission pulse, the present invention is not limited to this.

  An example of equivalent sampling is shown in FIG. The figure shows a clock signal string composed of five clock signals in each stage, and this clock signal string is AD converted while its delay time td is delayed by a delay step time t1 (equivalent sampling cycle is updated). It is output to the unit 102. The delay time td of the clock signal sequence is controlled by the delay time generation unit 122, and the delay step time t1 is applied to the clock signal output from the clock signal generation unit 121 every time the equivalent sampling by the delay time td ends. Delayed. In the example shown in FIG. 3, the delay time td is delayed n times by the delay step time t1 so as to coincide with the sampling period Ts (where n is the number obtained by dividing the sampling period Ts by the delay step time t1). .) With five clock signals output every sampling period Ts, a distance gate (1st to nth distance gate) measured by the leading clock signal and a total of five distance gates separated by n from this distance gate Sampling is performed.

  FIG. 4 shows a comparison between the timing at which the transmission pulse is radiated and the timing of the clock signal output from the delay time generator 122 to the AD converter 102 in the above equivalent sampling. FIG. 4A shows a transmission pulse, and FIG. 4B shows a clock signal. In one equivalent sampling cycle, the delay time td = (i−1) × t1 (i = 1,..., N; where n is the number obtained by dividing the sampling period Ts by the delay step time t1) Is kept constant. This figure shows that each time the equivalent sampling cycle is updated, the clock signal train is output with a delay time t1.

  A configuration of the signal processing device 103 that inputs a sampling result from the AD conversion unit 102 and detects a target will be described below. The auxiliary arithmetic processing unit 120 includes a presum processing unit 123 for performing presum processing, a complex FFT processing unit 124 for performing FFT processing, a first memory 125 for storing presum processing results and FFT processing results, and a first memory 125. 2 includes a memory 126 and a clock signal generator 121 and a delay time generator 122 for instructing sampling timing in the AD converter 102. The main processing unit 110 also includes a determination unit 111 that detects a target using the FFT processing result of the complex FFT processing unit 124, a third memory 112 for storing the determination result of the determination unit 111, and the result of the determination unit 111. Is provided with a distance / speed detector 113 for calculating the distance and speed to the target.

  In one cycle of equivalent sampling, in order to improve the S / N, a presum process is performed in which a transmission pulse is emitted a plurality of times without changing the delay time td and a sampling result is accumulated a predetermined number of times in the same distance gate. In addition, it is necessary to prepare the presum results subjected to the presum processing as many as the number of FFT points necessary for the FFT processing of the complex FFT processing unit 124. The presum processing unit 123 performs such presum processing, calculates the presum value by accumulating the sampling results by a predetermined number of presum times N1, calculates the presum value by the FFT point N2, and calculates the first memory 125. Alternatively, it is stored in the second memory 126.

  The complex FFT processing unit 124 performs FFT processing using the presum result of N2 FFT points stored in the first memory 125 or the second memory 126, and the signal strength for each frequency gate equal to the number of FFT points as the FFT processing result. Is calculated. The FFT processing result is stored again in the first memory 125 or the second memory 126 in which the presum result is stored.

  In the auxiliary arithmetic processing unit 120 of the present embodiment, the above-described presum processing and FFT processing are simultaneously performed on five distance gates during one cycle of equivalent sampling. As a result, the memory capacity necessary for the first memory 125 and the second memory 126 is a capacity necessary for storing a presum value of 64 × 5 = 320 points when the number of FFT points is 64, for example. Conventionally, FFT processing is performed after performing presum processing for all distance gates, and target detection is performed using the result, so the presum values for all distance gates are stored in memory. It was necessary to keep. As a result, assuming that the number of distance gates N3 is 320, for example, it is necessary to store the presum result of 64 × 320 = 20480 points in the memory. Furthermore, assuming that the number of presums N1 for calculating one presum value is 32, the total number of presum processing performed by the presum processing unit 123 in one process is conventionally 32 × 64 × 320 = 655360 times. However, the presum processing unit 123 of the present embodiment performs only 32 × 64 × 5 = 10240 times in one process, and the amount of calculation processing per process is greatly reduced.

  As described above, in the conventional radar apparatus, after the presum processing for all the distance gates is completed and stored in the memory, the result is used to perform FFT processing, and further, target determination and distance / speed detection are performed. It was. Therefore, it is necessary to store a large amount of data as described above in a memory at a time, and a large memory capacity is required. In addition, the writing time for writing data to the memory and the reading time for reading from the memory are also long. As a result, the detection cycle becomes longer and the non-detection period becomes longer, which causes the performance of the radar apparatus to deteriorate. Therefore, the auxiliary arithmetic processing unit 120 according to the present embodiment reduces the necessary memory capacity by alternately performing reading and writing using the two memories of the first memory 125 and the second memory 126. The time length of each detection cycle Tm is greatly shortened to realize high-speed arithmetic processing.

  The auxiliary arithmetic processing unit 120 of the present embodiment uses four switches 131 to 134 and a switch for controlling the switching in order to alternately perform reading and writing using the two memories of the first memory 125 and the second memory 126. The control unit 135 is provided. In addition, as a means for requesting the switching control unit 135 to switch the switches 131 to 134, the main arithmetic processing unit 110 includes a switching signal generation unit 114.

  Hereinafter, a method of alternately performing reading and writing with respect to the first memory 125 and the second memory 126 using the switches 131 to 134 will be described. First, FIG. 1 shows the state of each switch when the first memory 125 is in a write state and the second memory 126 is in a read state. In the auxiliary arithmetic processing unit 120 of this embodiment, the output side of the presum processing unit 123 is connected to the contact point a of the first switch 131, and the input side of the determination unit 111 is connected to the contact point a of the second switch. Further, the input side and the output side of the complex FFT processing unit 124 are connected to the contact point a of the third switch 133 and the fourth switch 134, respectively. Further, the first memory 125 is connected to each contact b of the switches 131 to 134, and the second memory 126 is connected to the contact c.

  When the contacts of the switches 131 to 134 are connected as described above, the first switch 131, the third switch 133, and the second memory 126 are set in the write state and the second memory 126 in the read state. The contact a of the fourth switch 134 is connected to the contact b, and only the contact a of the second switch is connected to the contact c. That is, the first memory 125 is connected to the presum processing unit 123 and the complex FFT processing unit 124, and the second memory 126 is connected to the determination unit 111. The connection states of the switches 131 to 134 are collectively shown in FIG.

  In the connection state as described above, first, the presum processing unit 123 performs presum processing using the first memory 125. That is, the presum processing unit 123 adds the newly input sampling result to the previous integrated value stored in the first memory 125, and stores this again in the first memory 125. Such a presum process is performed for a predetermined number of presum N1 to calculate a presum value. Further, the above-described presum processing is repeated until a presum value having a predetermined FFT point number N2 is obtained, and the presum value corresponding to the FFT point number N2 is written in the first memory 125.

  When the writing to the first memory 125 by the presum processing unit 123 is completed for all five distance gates that are simultaneously sampled during one cycle of equivalent sampling, the complex FFT processing unit 124 then reads the presum value from the first memory 125. The FFT process is performed. The result of the FFT process is written into the first memory 125 again. The number of data written to the first memory 125 by the complex FFT processing unit 124 is the number obtained by multiplying the number of distance gates 5 sampled by one equivalent sampling by the number of FFT points (number of frequency gates) N2. However, in the case of complex FFT processing, since the I component and the Q component are calculated, the number of data written to the first memory 125 is further doubled.

  On the other hand, the FFT results for the five distance gates are already written in the second memory 126 in the write state in the previous equivalent sampling cycle. The determination unit 111 of the main arithmetic processing unit 110 reads the FFT result from the second memory 126 and determines the target. The determination unit 111 determines the target by comparing the FFT result read from the second memory 126 with a predetermined threshold value. Then, the information of the distance gate and the frequency gate where the target is detected is stored in the third memory 112 in the main arithmetic processing unit 110. Since the target determination process in the determination unit 111 uses only the second memory 126 in the auxiliary arithmetic processing unit 120 and does not use the first memory 125, the presum unit 123 for writing to the first memory, and Processing in parallel with the complex FFT processing unit 124 is possible.

  Only a predetermined number of distance gates and frequency gates whose targets have been detected by the determination unit 111 can be stored in the third memory 112. As an example, the FFT results of the distance gate and frequency gate in which a new target is newly detected are sequentially compared with those stored in the third memory 112 so far, and the third result is obtained by a predetermined number of points from the one with the highest signal strength. It can be stored in the memory 112. Or you may make it store a predetermined number of objects in order from the nearer target. When the determination of the target for all distance gates and frequency gates is completed in the determination unit 111, the distance / velocity detection unit 113 reads the target data stored in the third memory 112, and uses this to read up to the target. Calculate distance and relative speed.

  The first memory 125 is in a writing state until the processing of the presum processing unit 123 and the complex FFT processing unit 124 is completed, and the second memory 126 is in a reading state at least until the processing of the determination unit 111 is completed. When the time tr1 required for reading from the second memory 126 is shorter than the time tw1 required for writing to the first memory 125, the second memory 126 is in a read state until the writing to the first memory 125 is completed. Wait. Conversely, if the time tr1 required for reading from the second memory 126 is longer than the time tw1 required for writing to the first memory 125, the first memory 125 is read until the reading from the second memory 125 is completed. Waits in the write state. Hereinafter, a case where the writing time tw1 is longer than the reading time tr1 will be described.

  When the auxiliary sampling unit 120 finishes the equivalent sampling cycle under the delay time td and finishes writing to the first memory 125, the delay time td of the clock signal in the delay time generator 122 is updated (delay time). The delay step time t1 is added to td), and the equivalent sampling distance gate shown in FIG. 3 is advanced one by one. At the same time, the switching control unit 135 switches the connection state of the switches 131 to 134 to the state shown in FIG. 6 according to an instruction from the switching signal generation unit 114 provided in the main arithmetic processing unit 110. That is, in order to place the first memory 125 in the read state and the second memory 126 in the write state, the contact a of the first switch 131, the third switch 133, and the fourth switch 134 is connected to the contact c, and the second Only switch contact a is connected to contact b. That is, the second memory 126 is connected to the presum processing unit 123 and the complex FFT processing unit 124, and the first memory 125 is connected to the determination unit 111. The connection states of the switches 131 to 134 are collectively shown in FIG.

Similarly, the equivalent sampling delay time td is updated by the delay step time t1 every time one cycle of the equivalent sampling is completed until the processing of all the distance gates is completed, and the switches 131 to 134 described above. Repeat switching. Thus, the first memory 125 and the second memory 126 can be used by alternately switching between the writing state and the reading state, and the processing of the presum processing unit 123 and the complex FFT processing unit 124 in the auxiliary arithmetic processing unit 120 can be performed. It is possible to perform at least the processing of the determination unit 111 in the arithmetic processing unit 110 in parallel. As a result, the longer write time tw1 becomes the switching cycle tc for switching the switches 131 to 134. As shown in FIG. 7, the detection cycle Tm is the number of updates of the delay time td (the sampling cycle Ts is divided by the delay step time t1). The number of times (see FIGS. 2 and 3)) is multiplied by the write time tw1.
Tm = n × tc
= N × tw1

  In the first switching cycle, only the write process is performed because the FFT result is not stored in the memory in the read state. Further, in order to process the FFT result stored in any of the memories in the nth switching cycle, it is necessary to perform the reading process once more. As a result, the time required for (n−1) readings, that is, the processing time for at least (n−1) times of the determination unit 111 is shortened as compared with the conventional radar device. When the detection cycle is continued, the FFT result of the last (n-th) write process of the first detection cycle can be processed by the read process of the first switching cycle of the next detection cycle.

  The processes in the main arithmetic processing unit 110 and the auxiliary arithmetic processing unit 120 described above will be described in more detail with reference to FIG. FIG. 8 illustrates a process performed by the presum processing unit 123 and the complex FFT processing unit 124 of the auxiliary arithmetic processing unit 120 using the first memory 125 or the second memory 126 in one cycle of equivalent sampling, and the main arithmetic processing unit 110. 12 is a flowchart for explaining processing performed by the determination unit 111 and the distance / speed detection unit 113 using the second memory 126 or the first memory 125 and the third memory. Hereinafter, a case where the first memory 125 is in a writing state and the second memory 126 is in a reading state will be described. In this case, in the next equivalent sampling cycle, the first memory 125 is in the read state and the second memory 126 is in the write state, and the same processing as in FIG. 8 is performed.

  When measurement is started in the pulse radar device 100, the equivalent sampling counter (or switch switching counter) K is initialized to 1 in step S1, and then the switches 131 to 134 are switched in step S2 to write the first memory 125. The second memory 126 is selected to be in a read state. In the next steps S3 to S14, the flow of processing (write processing) performed using the first memory 125 in the write state is shown, and in steps S15 to S19, processing (read processing) performed using the second memory 126 in the read state. ). The writing process and the reading process are performed in parallel.

  In the writing process, the presum processing counter I and the FFT processing counter J are initialized to 1 in step S3, and then the transmission pulse is emitted in step S4 to perform processing of the transmission / reception unit 101. In step S5, sampling by the AD conversion unit 102 is performed. I do. In subsequent step S <b> 6, the integrated value of the sampling result by the presum processing unit 123 is stored in the first memory 125. In step S7, it is determined whether the presum processing counter I has reached a predetermined number of presums N1, and if the presum number N1 has not been reached, 1 is added to the presum processing counter I in step S8, and then steps S4 to S4 are performed again. The process of S6 is performed. On the other hand, if it is determined that the presum processing counter I has reached the predetermined number of presum N1, the presum processing counter I is initialized to 1 in step S9, and then the FFT processing counter J is set to the FFT score N2 in step S10. Determine if it has been reached.

  If it is determined in step S10 that the FFT processing counter J has not reached the FFT score N2, 1 is added to the FFT processing counter J in step S11, and then the processing in steps S4 to S9 is performed again. On the other hand, if it is determined that the FFT processing counter J has reached the number of FFT points N2, the presum result is read from the first memory 125 in step S12, and the FFT processing by the complex FFT processing unit 124 is performed in step S13. The FFT processing result is written to the first memory 125 in step S14. Thereby, the writing process is finished and the process proceeds to step S20.

  On the other hand, in the reading process, the FFT result written in the previous equivalent sampling cycle (switch switching cycle) is read from the second memory 126 in step S15, and the target is determined by the determination unit 111 in step S16. In step S17, the FFT result of the target detected by the determination unit 111 is written in the third memory 112, and the distance and relative speed are calculated by the distance / speed determination unit 113 in step S18. Thereafter, in step S19, the process waits until the writing process in steps S3 to S14 is completed. When the writing process is completed, the process proceeds to step S20. In the first reading process of the detection cycle, since the FFT result is not stored in the second memory 126, the reading process is not performed. In addition, the FFT result of the memory 125 or 126 stored in the n-th writing process needs to be processed in the reading process of the next equivalent sampling cycle or processed separately.

  When the writing process and the reading process are completed, the FFT processing counter J is initialized to 1 in step S20, and then in step S21, the equivalent sampling counter K updates the delay time td (the sampling period Ts is divided by the delay step time t1). Number: number of times of switch switching) It is determined whether or not n has been reached, and if the number of updates n of the delay time td has not been reached, 1 is added to the equivalent sampling counter K in step S22 and the delay step time is added to the delay time td. t1 is added and updated, and then the process of the next equivalent sampling cycle (the process of step S2 to step S20) is performed again. On the other hand, if it is determined that the equivalent sampling counter K has reached the update count n of the delay time td, it is determined whether or not the measurement is stopped in step S23, and if the measurement is not stopped, the process returns to step S1 and described 1 above. The detection cycle process is repeated. If it is determined in step S23 that the measurement is to be stopped, all the processes are terminated.

(Second Embodiment)
The configuration of the pulse radar device according to the second embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIG. FIG. 9 is a block diagram showing the configuration of the pulse radar device 200 of the present embodiment. In the pulse radar device 200 of the present embodiment, the connection state of the third switch 133 and the fourth switch 134 is different from that of the first embodiment. In the first embodiment, the connection state of the third switch 133 and the fourth switch 134 is set so that the FFT processing unit 124 is connected to the memory in the write state. On the other hand, in the present embodiment, the connection state of the third switch 133 and the fourth switch 134 is set so that the FFT processing unit 124 is connected to the memory in the read state. In FIG. 9, the first memory 125 is in a write state, and only the presum processing unit 123 is connected to the first memory 125 via the first switch 131. On the other hand, the FFT processing unit 124 is connected to the second memory 126 in the read state via the third switch 133 and the fourth switch 134, and the determination unit 111 is connected via the second switch 132. .

  In the present embodiment, by making the connection state of the switches 131 to 134 as shown in FIG. 9, only the presum processing by the presum processing unit 123 is performed using the first memory 125 in the writing state. In addition, using the second memory 126 in the read state, the FFT processing unit 124 first reads the presum result from the second memory 126 and performs the FFT process, and writes the result in the second memory 126 again. Subsequently, the determination unit 111 reads the FFT result from the second memory 126 and determines the target. When the target is determined, the FFT result of the distance gate and the frequency gate at that time is written in the third memory 112. Further, when the process of the determination unit 111 is completed, the distance / speed detection unit 113 detects the distance to the target and the relative speed using the data in the third memory 112.

  Processing in the main arithmetic processing unit 110 and the auxiliary arithmetic processing unit 120 of the present embodiment will be described with reference to FIG. FIG. 10 is a flowchart for explaining the flow of processing in this embodiment, similarly to the flowchart according to the first embodiment shown in FIG. In the writing process of this embodiment, the processes up to step S11 are the same as those of the first embodiment, but the processes of steps S12 to S14 are not included in the branch process on the left side of FIG. In the present embodiment, the processes in steps S12 to S14 are performed by the branch process on the right side of FIG.

  As described above, the processing of the FFT processing unit 124 can be performed using a memory in a write state as in the first embodiment, or in a read state as in the second embodiment. It is also possible to use a certain memory. Therefore, it is preferable to select which processing of the FFT processing unit 124 is performed so that the time required for the writing process and the time required for the reading process are as equal as possible. Thereby, the time length of a detection cycle can be further shortened, and a suitable pulse radar apparatus can be provided.

  Note that the description in the present embodiment shows an example of the pulse radar apparatus according to the present invention, and the present invention is not limited to this. The detailed configuration and detailed operation of the pulse radar device according to the present embodiment can be changed as appropriate without departing from the spirit of the present invention.

100, 200 Pulse radar device 101 Transmission / reception unit 102 AD conversion unit 103 Signal processing device 110 Main operation processing unit 111 Determination unit 112 Third memory 113 Distance / speed detection unit 114 Switching signal generation unit 120 Auxiliary operation processing unit 121 Clock signal generation unit 122 delay time generation unit 123 presum processing unit 124 complex FFT processing unit 125 first memory 126 second memory 131 first switch 132 second switch 133 third switch 134 fourth switch 135 switching control unit

Claims (7)

A transmission pulse obtained by up-converting a pulse signal generated at a predetermined cycle with a carrier wave of a predetermined frequency is radiated to the space, and the reception unit receives the reflected pulse returned by the reflection of the transmission pulse and down-converts it. A transmission / reception unit for outputting an analog baseband signal;
A clock signal generator for outputting two or more clock signals during the predetermined period with reference to the generation time of the pulse signal;
A delay time generator for delaying the two or more clock signals output from the clock signal generator by a predetermined delay time;
The analog baseband signal is input from the transmitter / receiver, the two or more clock signals delayed by the predetermined delay time are input from the delay time generator, and the two or more clock signals are input. An AD converter for AD converting the analog baseband signal;
A presum processing unit for inputting a reception signal converted into a digital value from the AD conversion unit and outputting a presum value obtained by integrating a predetermined number of times;
A complex FFT processing unit that inputs the presum value, performs frequency analysis, and outputs a signal strength for each distance gate and each frequency gate;
A determination unit that inputs the signal strength for each distance gate and each frequency gate to determine the presence or absence of a target,
A distance / velocity detection unit that calculates distance and relative speed to the target by inputting data of a distance gate and a frequency gate when the target is detected by the determination unit; and
Furthermore, the presum processing unit is connected to one side to write the presum value, and the determination unit is connected to the other side to read the signal strength for each distance gate and each frequency gate, and a second memory,
A first switch and a second switch for alternately switching connections between the first memory and the second memory and the presum processing unit and the determination unit;
A third switch and a fourth switch for alternately connecting the complex FFT processing unit to one of the first memory and the second memory;
A switching control unit for controlling switching of the first to fourth switches;
A switching signal generating unit that instructs the switching control unit to switch the first to fourth switches each time an equivalent sampling delay time by the two or more clock signals delayed by the predetermined delay time is updated; A pulse radar device comprising: When a target is detected by the determination unit, the memory further includes a third memory that stores data of a distance gate and a frequency gate of the target,
2. The pulse radar device according to claim 1, wherein the distance / velocity detection unit reads the data of the distance gate and the frequency gate from the third memory and calculates a distance and a relative velocity to the target. 3. 3. The pulse according to claim 1, wherein the third switch and the fourth switch connect the complex FFT processing unit to the first memory or the second memory to which the presum processing unit is connected. 4. Radar device. The pulse radar device according to claim 3, wherein the presum processing unit, the complex FFT processing unit, and the determination unit are executed in parallel. 3. The pulse radar according to claim 1, wherein the third switch and the fourth switch connect the complex FFT processing unit to the first memory or the second memory to which the determination unit is connected. apparatus. The pulse radar device according to claim 5, wherein the presum processing unit, the complex FFT processing unit, and the determination unit are executed in parallel. A main arithmetic processing unit, and an auxiliary arithmetic processing unit capable of high-speed arithmetic processing than the main arithmetic processing unit,
The determination unit, the distance / speed detection unit, and the switching signal generation unit are executed in the main arithmetic processing unit,
7. The clock signal generation unit, the delay time generation unit, the presum processing unit, the complex FFT processing unit, and the switching control unit are executed by the auxiliary arithmetic processing unit. The pulse radar device according to claim 1.

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