SiRad MIMO
Contents
Specifications / Features
indie Radar Sensors & Systems’s MIMO evaluation kit is a fully embedded system providing the user with a number of methods for visualizing and working with MIMO radar data through the use of a GUI. This gives the user the ability to change a number of system parameters and see the resulting system performance.
First Steps
Network Configuration:
The Evaluation Kit interfaces with the PC through an Ethernet connection. This connection is managed by a DHCP protocol.
On startup, the kit will search for a DHCP server to become a client of. Once the kit is subscribed to the DHCP server, any client running the GUI will be able to connect to it and run the Kit.
If there is no DHCP server present, the kit will time out searching for the server after approximately 60 seconds and become a DHCP server itself. Once this happens any client connected to the kit (i.e. a user PC) will be assigned an IP address by the kit and will be able to connect to and run the kit via. the GUI.
Starting the Kit
Power and Network Connection
Connect the 5V power block to the kit. Once successfully powered, LED D2 located near the SD card should blink green for a few seconds.
Ensure an Ethernet cable connects the kit to the laptop. Use ipconfig to verify the network settings as described in the previous section.
Using the GUI
Start the GUI via the executable file provided.
To connect to the Kit, simply click the “connect” button. A green light should appear to signify a successful connection to the kit.
Once a configuration has been chosen via the radar settings panel on the left, use the green “Send configuration” button to configure the kit.
Clicking the red “Start acquisition” button to begin measurements and display. If you to change the configuration, first click the “Stop acquisition” button before choosing new settings, sending the new configuration, and restarting the acquisition.
Data Visualization
The two primary data views are Range – Doppler (plotting distance against speed data, shown left in figure above) and Range – Azimuth (plotting range against angular data, shown right in figure above) heat maps. By default they appear as shown in the figure above, but the user has additional options:
- Clicking and dragging anywhere on the heat map will change its perspective and allow the user to view a 3D representation of the heat map.
- Choosing appropriate option in the dialog box below each heat map allows the user to view individual slices along Range, Doppler or Azimuth axis.
The kit processes all displayed information on kit, needing very little resources from a user’s machine, and achieves a minimum update rate of approximately 10Hz.
The GUI also provides a status window giving up-to-date system information to a user based on the current system setup. Vital information including the resolution of range, azimuth and doppler estimation, and other performance statistics are reflected there.
Finally, if target detection is applied, any targets that meet the target detection parameters will appear in the target list. Each target is numbered and displayed with its associated speed, range, and azimuth in a target list, placed in the bottom right of the GUI.
Adjustable System Parameters
Using the GUI the user can have the ability to adjust a great number of system parameters Using the GUI the user can have the ability to adjust a great number of system parameters
- RF Parameters
- Central Frequency between 22GHz - 26GHz,
- Bandwidth selectable from 500MHz - 3GHz
- Pulse Repetition Frequency selectable from 60Hz – 2200Hz
- Adjustable Receiver Gain.
- Range – Doppler Parameters
- Choice of Maximum Range, Minimum Range selectable to limit the field of view.
- Integration Time, Zero Padding and Windowing Function.
- Achievable range resolution of at least 7.5cm.
- Range – Azimuth Parameters
- Maximum Azimuth, Minimum Azimuth selectable to limit the field of view.
- Selectable Azimuth Estimation Algorithm.
- Achievable angular resolution of at least 0.75 degrees.
Signal Processing
The Kit implements a number of signal processing algorithms for user evaluation. In windowing data, the user can select between Rectangular, Hamming and Blackman functions.
The user is also provided with the choice of angular estimation algorithms. Classical Beamforming is implemented as well as more computationally intensive subspace methods of MUSIC and CAPON algorithms to illustrate the relative performance of traditional methods with the improvements possible through greater computational resources.
The option to apply CFAR-based target detection to the heat map data is also implemented on the Kit with selectable CFAR mode, false alarm probability, guard cells, reference cells, and dilation bins. Of the CFAR modes implemented on the kit, the user can select any one of Call Averaging (CA), Smallest of CA, Greatest of CA or Ordered Statistical CFAR. All targets detected according to the user setting get collated to a target list which can be exported separately
Requirements
- MS Windows 7/10
- ST-LINK USB driver (STSW-LINK009)[1]
- Software Package by indie Radar Sensors & Systems
- 5V Barrel Jack Power Supply (5.5mm)
- Ethernet Connection & Cable
MIMO GUI Software
With the SiRad MIMO, a GUI which provides multiple ways to illustrate data is provided and it can be seen below.
