WO2022203815A1

WO2022203815A1 - Parallel processing in a radar system

Info

Publication number: WO2022203815A1
Application number: PCT/US2022/018035
Authority: WO
Inventors: Khai Quan TRINH; Andreas Falkenberg; Raymond Anthony HAYNES
Original assignee: Metawave Corporation
Priority date: 2021-03-23
Filing date: 2022-02-25
Publication date: 2022-09-29

Abstract

A system of parallel processors for processing a radar data stream to increase throughput. Provided are multiple processors in parallel, with each running on the same software processes. A subset of the data is processed on each processor. In one embodiment, where there are two processors, each processor processes half the data and so forth. Even steering angles are processed on the first processor and odd angles are processed on the second processor. Each processor processes half the angles and as the processors work in parallel; this effectively doubles the throughput of the system.

Description

PARALLEL PROCESSING IN A RADAR SYSTEM

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION [0001] This application claim priority from U.S. Provisional Application No. 63/164,983, filed March 23, 2021, which is incorporated by reference in its entirety.

BACKGROUND

[0002] Radar systems and other sensors are used for autonomous automotive systems and others. There are a variety of mechanisms for managing radar systems and a variety of operational formats. The goal is to scan the field of view in a given direction and process the reflected signals quickly so as to provide a clear operational path for the vehicle.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS [0003] The present application may be fully appreciated in connection with the following detailed description taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, which are not drawn to scale and in which like reference characters refer to like parts throughout, and wherein:

[0004] FIG. 1 illustrates an example environment in which a beam steering radar in an autonomous vehicle is used to detect and identify objects, according to various implementations of the subject technology;

[0005] FIG. 2 illustrates a receive portion of a radar system in accordance with various implementations of the subject technology;

[0006] FIG. 3 illustrates a signal flow diagram for operation of a radar system may be implemented in accordance with one or more implementations of the subject technology; and [0007] FIG. 4 illustrates a flow diagram of a radar system in accordance with some implementations of the subject technology.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0008] Traditional two-dimensional (2D) phased array antennas offer pencil beams with scanning capabilities in both U and V planes. To achieve a specific beam width in the azimuth and elevation planes, antenna elements are formed in a grid with N and M elements in the azimuth and elevation directions for a total of NxM elements. The transmit and receive incorporate pencil beams to scan a large field of view area within which targets are detected with a small angular resolution to distinguish items close together.

[0009] FIG. 1 illustrates an environment 100 within which vehicle 150 uses radar systems 160, 162 to understand the environment. The radar system 160 is illustrated having a transmit antenna 106 and a receive antenna 110, which are not necessarily positioned as illustrated but are drawn for understanding each individually. A transceiver 104 is coupled to the transmit antenna 106 and the receive antenna 110. Transmit signals are processed from a transmit processor 114 and receive signals are processed by a receive processor 102.

[0010] The radar system 160 is a beam sweeping radar that provides transmit beams over a field of view at incremental angles of transmission. The signals reflect off targets or objects in the field of view which are then received at the receive antenna 110. The receive antenna 110 is also adjusted to effectively sweep the field of view and thereby identify an angle of arrival of each received signal. The information received at each receive angle of arrival is processed to capture information from the signal, such as range, velocity, and so forth.

[0011] FIG. 2 illustrates a receive portion 200 of the radar system 160 wherein signals are received from the receive antenna 110 at a plurality of transceiver elements 210, 212 through 230, wherein there are N transceiver modules, wherein N may be a single transceiver or a multiple transceiver. The transceiver module(s) 210, 212 through 230 are coupled to a switching mechanism 214 which is coupled to a processor 1 (216), a processor 2 (220) through processor M (232). The number of processors may be equal to or different from the number of transceivers. Each of the processors 216, 220 through 232 is coupled to an interface 218, 222 through 234 or port to a detection processing unit 224. The switching mechanism 214 provides receive data to the processors 216, 220 through 232 in parallel, such that successive data may be processed concurrently. In this way, processor 1 216 processes a first set of data and prior to processing completion, a next set of data begins processing in processor 2220 and so forth. In some embodiments, the first set of data corresponds to data received at a first angle of arrival and a second set of data corresponds to data received at a second angle of arrival. This reduces the processing time for successive angles of arrival.

[0012] FIG. 3 illustrates a signal flow diagram for operation of a radar system may be implemented in accordance with one or more implementations of the subject technology. As shown in FIG. 3, processor 1 216 processes a first frame at time tl. At the next time frame t2, a subsequent second frame is processed by processor 2220 and the first frame is also processed by detection processing 224. At the next time frame t3, processor 1 216 processes a subsequent third frame, and the second frame is also processed by detection processing 224. At the next time frame t4, a subsequent fourth frame is processed by processor 2220, and the third frame is processed by detection processing 224. [0013] FIG. 4 illustrates a flow diagram 300 of a radar system in accordance with some implementations of the subject technology. At step or operation 302, radar data is received at a first angle of arrival. The angle data is then processed, at step or operation 304, with a first path. Next, the processed angle data is provided, at step or operation 306, to a detection processing, such as detection processing 224 of FIG. 2. The system receives, at step or operation 308, radar data at a second angle of arrival. This radar data is then processed, at step 310, on a second path. Then, at step or operation 312, the processed data at the second angle of arrival is provided to a detection processing, such as detection processing 224 of FIG.2. [0014] The present invention provides multiple processors in parallel and each running on the same software processes. A subset of the data is processed on each processor. Where N=2, each processor processes half the data and so forth. For this case of N=2, even steering angles are processed on the first processor and odd angles are processed on the second processor. Each processor processes half the angles and as the processors work in parallel; this effectively doubles the throughput of the system. [0015] A switch or signal splitter is implemented between the transceivers and processors wherein such splitting may be done “virtually” which means all the data is transferred to both processors, whereas the processors by software select that portion of the data on which it works. A combiner is positioned at the processor outputs. Hardware solutions may be used to combine of the outputs which can also be performed as a software task. The outputs in some embodiments are ethernet connections which different ethernet addresses. The process is generalized to N processors designed to achieve optimal throughput. Such a mapping may be given as: angle(0) => processor(0) angle(1) => processor(1) … angle(n-1) => processor(n-1) angle(n) => processor(0) angle(n+1) => processor(1) … As there will generally be more angles than processors, the relationship is given as angle(xx) => processorixx mod n) . The design and parameters determine how the data stream is divided and the number of processors in relation to the number of steering angles.

[0016] The present inventions reduce the throughput processing which increases the number of steering angles. This processing of additional angles effectively corresponds to increased data to be processed which may incur a latency. This is balanced by the dramatic refinement of data processed improving the sensor capabilities and import.

[0017] In an example having 16 channels at the receiver, two transceivers are implemented. Each transceiver is coupled to a switching mechanism, which may be a controller or implemented by software control of a data processor, such as processor 1 216 of FIG. 2. The number of transceivers is determined by the number of channels, where the multiple processors each handle data for a steering angle. An FPGA is positioned within the system to enable communications between the various components and thus satisfy the various bus and signaling standards required to split and combine data.

[0018] It is also appreciated that the previous description of the disclosed examples is provided to enable any person skilled in the art to make or use the present disclosure. Various modifications to these examples will be readily apparent to those skilled in the art, and the generic principles defined herein may be applied to other examples without departing from the spirit or scope of the disclosure. Thus, the present disclosure is not intended to be limited to the examples shown herein but is to be accorded the widest scope consistent with the principles and novel features disclosed herein.

[0019] As used herein, the phrase “at least one of’ preceding a series of items, with the terms “and” or “or” to separate any of the items, modifies the list as a whole, rather than each member of the list (i.e., each item). The phrase “at least one of’ does not require selection of at least one item; rather, the phrase allows a meaning that includes at least one of any one of the items, and/or at least one of any combination of the items, and/or at least one of each of the items. By way of example, the phrases “at least one of A, B, and C” or “at least one of A, B, or C” each refer to only A, only B, or only C; any combination of A, B, and C; and/or at least one of each of A, B, and C.

[0020] Furthermore, to the extent that the term “include,” “have,” or the like is used in the description or the claims, such term is intended to be inclusive in a manner similar to the term “comprise” as “comprise” is interpreted when employed as a transitional word in a claim. [0021] A reference to an element in the singular is not intended to mean “one and only one” unless specifically stated, but rather “one or more.” The term “some” refers to one or more. Underlined and/or italicized headings and subheadings are used for convenience only, do not limit the subject technology, and are not referred to in connection with the interpretation of the description of the subject technology. All structural and functional equivalents to the elements of the various configurations described throughout this disclosure that are known or later come to be known to those of ordinary skill in the art are expressly incorporated herein by reference and intended to be encompassed by the subject technology. Moreover, nothing disclosed herein is intended to be dedicated to the public regardless of whether such disclosure is explicitly recited in the above description.

[0022] While this specification contains many specifics, these should not be construed as limitations on the scope of what may be claimed, but rather as descriptions of particular implementations of the subject matter. Certain features that are described in this specification in the context of separate implementations can also be implemented in combination in a single implementation. Conversely, various features that are described in the context of a single implementation can also be implemented in multiple implementations separately or in any suitable sub combination. Moreover, although features may be described above as acting in certain combinations and even initially claimed as such, one or more features from a claimed combination can in some cases be excised from the combination, and the claimed combination may be directed to a sub combination or variation of a sub combination.

[0023] The subject matter of this specification has been described in terms of particular aspects, but other aspects can be implemented and are within the scope of the following claims. For example, while operations are depicted in the drawings in a particular order, this should not be understood as requiring that such operations be performed in the particular order shown or in sequential order, or that all illustrated operations be performed, to achieve desirable results. The actions recited in the claims can be performed in a different order and still achieve desirable results. As one example, the processes depicted in the accompanying figures do not necessarily require the particular order shown, or sequential order, to achieve desirable results. Moreover, the separation of various system components in the aspects described above should not be understood as requiring such separation in all aspects, and it should be understood that the described program components and systems can generally be integrated together in a single hardware product or packaged into multiple hardware products. Other variations are within the scope of the following claim.

Claims

CLAIMS WHAT IS CLAIMED IS:

1. A radar system, comprising: a transmit antenna array; a receive antenna array; at least one transceiver coupled to the receive antenna array; a plurality of processors; and a switching means coupled between the at least one transceiver and the plurality of processors.

2. The radar system of claim 1, wherein the number of the plurality of processors is a function of a number of steering angles of the receive antenna array.

3. The radar system of claim 2, wherein the radar system is a beam steering radar adapted to steer transmit and receive beams over a field of view.

4. The radar system of claim 3, wherein the beam steering radar is further adapted to steer the transmit beams over the field of view at incremental angles of transmission.

5. The radar system of claim 3, wherein the receive antenna array is adapted to sweep the field of view.

6. The radar system of claim 1, further comprising: a plurality of interface ports coupled to the plurality of processors.

7. The radar system of claim 6, further comprising: a detection processing unit coupled to the plurality of interface ports.

8. The radar system of claim 1, wherein a received data stream from the receive antenna array is processed by the plurality of processors in parallel such that each processor of the plurality of processors processes a different portion of the data stream.

9. The radar system of claim 1, wherein the radar system is on a vehicle.

10. A radar system for a vehicle, comprising: a first radar system located at a front of the vehicle, the first radar system comprising: a first transmit antenna array; a first receive antenna array; a first transceiver coupled to the first receive antenna array; a plurality of first processors; a first switching means coupled between the first transceiver and the plurality of first processors; and a first detection processing unit coupled to outputs of the plurality of first processors; and a second radar system located at a back of the vehicle, the second radar system comprising: a second transmit antenna array; a second receive antenna array; a second transceiver coupled to the second receive antenna array; a plurality of second processors; a second switching means coupled between the second transceiver and the plurality of second processors; and a second detection processing unit coupled to outputs of the plurality of second processors.

11. The radar system of claim 10, wherein a first number of the plurality of first processors is a function of a number of steering angles of the first receive antenna array, and a second number of the plurality of second processors is a function of a number of steering angles of the second receive antenna array.

12. The radar system of claim 10, wherein the first radar system comprises a first beam steering radar adapted to steer transmit and receive beams over a first field of view, and the second radar system comprises a second beam steering radar adapted to steer transmit and receive beams over a second field of view.

13. The radar system of claim 10, further comprising: a plurality of first interface ports coupled to the plurality of first processors; and a plurality of second interface ports coupled to the plurality of second processors.

14. The radar system of claim 10, wherein a received data stream from the first receive antenna array is processed by the plurality of first processors in parallel such that each processor of the plurality of first processors processes a different portion of the data stream.

15. A method comprising: receiving first radar data at a first angle of arrival; processing the first radar data on a first path; providing the processed first radar data for detection processing; receiving second radar data at a second angle of arrival; processing the second radar data on a second path different than the first path; and providing the processed second radar data for detection processing.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein the first radar data and the second radar data are associated with a vehicle.

17. The method of claim 15, further comprising performing the detection processing on the processed first radar data and the processed second radar data.

18. The method of claim 17, where the performing the detection processing on the processed second radar data is after the performing the detection processing on the processed first radar data.