Cooperative and Crowd-Sourced Multifunctional Automotive Radar

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2016349365-A1
Application number	US-201615167539-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	May 27, 2016
Priority date	May 29, 2015
Publication date	Dec 1, 2016
Grant date	—

Abstract

A system comprises a multifunction radar receiver that in turn comprises processing circuitry and front-end circuitry. The front-end circuitry is operable to receive a millimeter wave burst via a plurality of antennas to generate a plurality received signals. The processing circuitry is operable to receive a first scene representation that is an aggregate of scene representations generated by one or more other radar receivers. The processing circuitry is operable to process the received signals to generate a second scene representation. The processing circuitry is operable to compare the first scene representation and the second scene representation and generate a difference scene based on the comparison. The processing circuitry is operable to generate a control signal based on the difference scene.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1 . A system comprising:
a multifunction radar receiver that comprises processing circuitry and front-end circuitry, wherein:
the front-end circuitry is operable to receive a millimeter wave burst via a plurality of antennas to generate a plurality received signals; and
the processing circuitry is operable to:
receive a first scene representation that is an aggregate of scene representations generated by one or more other radar receivers;
process the received signals to generate a second scene representation;
compare the first scene representation and the second scene representation and generate a difference scene based on the comparison; and
generate a control signal based on the difference scene.

2 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the multifunction receiver resides in a passenger vehicle and the control signal controls, at least in part, one or more of: brakes, an accelerator, steering system, turn signals, and dashboard instrumentation.

3 . The system of claim 1 , wherein:
multifunction radar receiver comprises bus interface circuitry; and the multifunction receiver is operable to output the first scene representation via the bus interface circuitry.

4 . The system of claim 1 , wherein:
the multifunction radar receiver comprises bus interface circuitry; and the multifunction receiver is operable to output the difference scene via the bus interface circuitry.

5 . The system of claim 1 , wherein:
the first scene representation is modulated on the millimeter wave radar burst; and the processing circuitry is operable to demodulate the millimeter wave radar burst to recover the first scene representation.

6 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the multifunction radar receiver is operable to receive the first scene representation via the bus interface circuitry.

7 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the multifunction receiver resides in a passenger vehicle and the control signal controls transmissions of a transmitter of the passenger vehicle.

8 . The system of claim 1 , comprising a multifunction radar transmitter communicatively coupled to the multifunction radar receiver via bus interface circuitry.

9 . The system of claim 8 , wherein the multifunction radar transmitter is operable to:
receive one or both of the first scene representation and the difference scene via the bus interface circuitry; and modulate the one or both of the first scene representation and the difference scene onto a millimeter wave radar burst.

10 . The system of claim 8 , wherein the multifunction radar transmitter is operable to:
receive one or both of the first scene representation and the difference scene via the bus interface circuitry; and transmit the one or both of the first scene representation and the difference scene into a network destined for a server of a roadside data service.

11 . A method comprising:
receiving, by circuitry of a multifunction radar receiver, a millimeter wave radar burst via a plurality of antenna elements; receiving, by the circuitry of the multifunction radar receiver, a first scene representation that is an aggregate of scene representations generated by one or more other radar receivers; processing, by the circuitry of the multifunction radar receiver, the millimeter wave radar burst to generate a second scene representation; comparing, by the circuitry of the multifunction radar receiver, the first scene representation and the second scene representation; generating, by the circuitry of the multifunction radar receiver, a difference scene based on the comparison; and generating, by the circuitry of the multifunction radar receiver, a control signal based on the difference scene.

12 . The method of claim 11 , wherein the multifunction receiver resides in a passenger vehicle and the method comprises the circuitry of the multifunction radar transceiver controlling, via the control signal, one or more of: brakes, an accelerator, steering system, turn signals, and dashboard instrumentation.

13 . The method of claim 11 , comprising the circuitry of the multifunction radar receiver outputting the first scene representation onto a data bus.

14 . The method of claim 11 , comprising the circuitry of the multifunction radar receiver outputting the difference scene onto a data bus.

15 . The method of claim 11 , wherein the first scene representation is modulated on the millimeter wave signals, and the method comprises the circuitry of the multifunction radar receiver demodulating the baseband signals to recover the first scene representation.

16 . The method of claim 11 , comprising receiving, by the circuitry of the multifunction radar receiver, the first scene representation via a data bus.

17 . The method of claim 11 , wherein the multifunction receiver resides in a passenger vehicle and the method comprises the circuitry of the multifunction radar receiver controlling, via the control signal, a transmissions of a transmitter of the passenger vehicle.

18 . The method of claim 11 , comprising the circuitry of the multifunction radar receiver communicating, via a data bus, with a multifunction radar transmitter.

19 . The method of claim 18 , comprising:
the circuitry of the multifunction radar transmitter receiving one or both of the first scene representation and the difference scene via a data bus; and the circuitry of the multifunction radar transmitter modulating the one or both of the first scene representation and the difference scene onto a millimeter wave radar burst.

20 . The method of claim 18 , wherein:
the circuitry of the multifunction radar transmitter receiving one or both of the first scene representation and the difference scene via a data bus; and the circuitry of the multifunction radar transmitter transmitting the one or both of the first scene representation and the difference scene into a network destined for a server of a roadside data service.

Assignees

• Maxlinear Inc

Inventors

• Ling Curtis

Classifications

• G01S2013/9318

  Controlling the steering · CPC title

• G01S13/106

  using transmission of pulses having some particular characteristics (G01S13/12, G01S13/22, G01S13/24, G01S13/26, G01S13/28 and G01S13/30 take precedence) · CPC title

• G01S13/284

  using coded pulses · CPC title

• G01S2013/93273

  on the top of the vehicles · CPC title

• G01S7/006

  using shared front-end circuitry, e.g. antennas (G01S13/765, G01S13/825 take precedence) · CPC title