610 research outputs found
3-D Motion Capture of an Unmodified Drone with Single-chip Millimeter Wave Radar
Accurate motion capture of aerial robots in 3-D is a key enabler for
autonomous operation in indoor environments such as warehouses or factories, as
well as driving forward research in these areas. The most commonly used
solutions at present are optical motion capture (e.g. VICON) and Ultrawideband
(UWB), but these are costly and cumbersome to deploy, due to their requirement
of multiple cameras/sensors spaced around the tracking area. They also require
the drone to be modified to carry an active or passive marker. In this work, we
present an inexpensive system that can be rapidly installed, based on
single-chip millimeter wave (mmWave) radar. Importantly, the drone does not
need to be modified or equipped with any markers, as we exploit the Doppler
signals from the rotating propellers. Furthermore, 3-D tracking is possible
from a single point, greatly simplifying deployment. We develop a novel deep
neural network and demonstrate decimeter level 3-D tracking at 10Hz, achieving
better performance than classical baselines. Our hope is that this low-cost
system will act to catalyse inexpensive drone research and increased autonomy.Comment: Submitted to The 2021 International Conference on Robotics and
Automation (ICRA 2021
Backscatter Transponder Based on Frequency Selective Surface for FMCW Radar Applications
This paper describes an actively-controlled frequency selective surface (FSS) to implement a backscatter transponder. The FSS is composed by dipoles loaded with switching PIN diodes. The transponder exploits the change in the radar cross section (RCS) of the FSS with the bias of the diodes to modulate the backscattered response of the tag to the FMCW radar. The basic operation theory of the system is explained here. An experimental setup based on a commercial X-band FMCW radar working as a reader is proposed to measure the transponders. The transponder response can be distinguished from the interference of non-modulated clutter, modulating the transponderâs RCS. Some FSS with different number of dipoles are studied, as a proof of concept. Experimental results at several distances are provided
Edge Artificial Intelligence for Real-Time Target Monitoring
The key enabling technology for the exponentially growing cellular communications sector is location-based services. The need for location-aware services has increased along with the number of wireless and mobile devices. Estimation problems, and particularly parameter estimation, have drawn a lot of interest because of its relevance and engineers' ongoing need for higher performance. As applications expanded, a lot of interest was generated in the accurate assessment of temporal and spatial properties.
In the thesis, two different approaches to subject monitoring are thoroughly addressed. For military applications, medical tracking, industrial workers, and providing location-based services to the mobile user community, which is always growing, this kind of activity is crucial.
In-depth consideration is given to the viability of applying the Angle of Arrival (AoA) and Receiver Signal Strength Indication (RSSI) localization algorithms in real-world situations. We presented two prospective systems, discussed them, and presented specific assessments and tests. These systems were put to the test in diverse contexts (e.g., indoor, outdoor, in water...). The findings showed the localization capability, but because of the low-cost antenna we employed, this method is only practical up to a distance of roughly 150 meters. Consequently, depending on the use-case, this method may or may not be advantageous. An estimation algorithm that enhances the performance of the AoA technique was implemented on an edge device.
Another approach was also considered. Radar sensors have shown to be durable in inclement weather and bad lighting conditions. Frequency Modulated Continuous Wave (FMCW) radars are the most frequently employed among the several sorts of radar technologies for these kinds of applications. Actually, this is because they are low-cost and can simultaneously provide range and Doppler data. In comparison to pulse and Ultra Wide Band (UWB) radar sensors, they also need a lower sample rate and a lower peak to average ratio. The system employs a cutting-edge surveillance method based on widely available FMCW radar technology. The data processing approach is built on an ad hoc-chain of different blocks that transforms data, extract features, and make a classification decision before cancelling clutters and leakage using a frame subtraction technique, applying DL algorithms to Range-Doppler (RD) maps, and adding a peak to cluster assignment step before tracking targets. In conclusion, the FMCW radar and DL technique for the RD maps performed well together for indoor use-cases. The aforementioned tests used an edge device and Infineon Technologies' Position2Go FMCW radar tool-set
A Review of Indoor Millimeter Wave Device-based Localization and Device-free Sensing Technologies and Applications
The commercial availability of low-cost millimeter wave (mmWave)
communication and radar devices is starting to improve the penetration of such
technologies in consumer markets, paving the way for large-scale and dense
deployments in fifth-generation (5G)-and-beyond as well as 6G networks. At the
same time, pervasive mmWave access will enable device localization and
device-free sensing with unprecedented accuracy, especially with respect to
sub-6 GHz commercial-grade devices. This paper surveys the state of the art in
device-based localization and device-free sensing using mmWave communication
and radar devices, with a focus on indoor deployments. We first overview key
concepts about mmWave signal propagation and system design. Then, we provide a
detailed account of approaches and algorithms for localization and sensing
enabled by mmWaves. We consider several dimensions in our analysis, including
the main objectives, techniques, and performance of each work, whether each
research reached some degree of implementation, and which hardware platforms
were used for this purpose. We conclude by discussing that better algorithms
for consumer-grade devices, data fusion methods for dense deployments, as well
as an educated application of machine learning methods are promising, relevant
and timely research directions.Comment: 43 pages, 13 figures. Accepted in IEEE Communications Surveys &
Tutorials (IEEE COMST
LOCAL POSITIONING SYSTEMS VERSUS STRUCTURAL MONITORING: A REVIEW
SUMMARY Structural monitoring and structural health monitoring could take advantage from different devices to record the static or dynamic response of a structure. A positioning system provides displacement information on the location of moving objects, which is assumed to be the basic support to calibrate any structural mechanics model. The global positioning system could provide satisfactory accuracy in absolute displacement measurements. But the requirements of an open area position for the antennas and a roofed room for its data storage and power supply limit its flexibility and its applications. Several efforts are done to extend its field of application. The alternative is local positioning system. Non-contact sensors can be easily installed on existing infrastructure in different locations without changing their properties: several technological approaches have been exploited: laser-based, radar-based, vision-based, etc. In this paper, a number of existing options, together with their performances, are reviewed. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd
Analysis and Design of Silicon based Integrated Circuits for Radio Frequency Identification and Ranging Systems at 24GHz and 60GHz Frequency Bands
This scientific research work presents the analysis and design of radio frequency (RF) integrated circuits (ICs) designed for two cooperative RF identification (RFID) proof of concept systems. The first system concept is based on localizable and sensor-enabled superregenerative transponders (SRTs) interrogated using a 24GHz linear frequency modulated continuous wave (LFMCW) secondary radar. The second system concept focuses on low power components for a 60GHz continuous wave (CW) integrated single antenna frontend for interrogating close range passive backscatter transponders (PBTs).
In the 24GHz localizable SRT based system, a LFMCW interrogating radar sends a RF chirp signal to interrogate SRTs based on custom superregenerative amplifier (SRA) ICs. The SRTs receive the chirp and transmit it back with phase coherent amplification. The distance to the SRTs are then estimated using the round trip time of flight method. Joint data transfer from the SRT to the interrogator is enabled by a novel SRA quench frequency shift keying (SQ-FSK) based low data rate simplex communication. The SRTs are also designed to be roll invariant using bandwidth enhanced microstrip patch antennas. Theoretical analysis is done to derive expressions as a function of system parameters including the minimum SRA gain required for attaining a defined range and equations for the maximum number of symbols that can be transmitted in data transfer mode. Analysis of the dependency of quench pulse characteristics during data transfer shows that the duty cycle has to be varied while keeping the on-time constant to reduce ranging errors. Also the worsening of ranging precision at longer distances is predicted based on the non-idealities resulting from LFMCWchirp quantization due to SRT characteristics and is corroborated by system level measurements. In order to prove the system concept and study the semiconductor technology dependent factors, variants of 24GHz SRA ICs are designed in a 130nm silicon germanium (SiGe) bipolar complementary metal oxide technology (BiCMOS) and a partially depleted silicon on insulator (SOI) technology. Among the SRA ICs designed, the SiGe-BiCMOS ICs feature a novel quench pulse shaping concept to simultaneously improve the output power and minimum detectable input power. A direct antenna drive SRA IC based on a novel stacked transistor cross-coupled oscillator topology employing this concept exhibit one of the best reported combinations of minimum detected input power level of â100 dBm and output power level of 5.6 dBm, post wirebonding. The SiGe stacked transistor with base feedback capacitance topology employed in this design is analyzed to derive parameters including the SRA loop gain for design optimization. Other theoretical contributions include the analysis of the novel integrated quench pulse shaping circuit and formulas derived for output voltage swing taking bondwire losses into account. Another SiGe design variant is the buffered antenna drive SRA IC having a measured minimum detected input power level better than â80 dBm, and an output power level greater than 3.2 dBm after wirebonding. The two inputs and outputs of this IC also enables the design of roll invariant SRTs. Laboratory based ranging experiments done to test the concepts and theoretical considerations show a maximum measured distance of 77m while transferring data at the rate of 0.5 symbols per second using SQ-FSK. For distances less than 10m, the characterized accuracy is better than 11 cm and the precision is better than 2.4 cm. The combination of the maximum range, precision and accuracy are one of the best reported among similar works in literature to the authorâs knowledge.
In the 60GHz close range CW interrogator based system, the RF frontend transmits a continuous wave signal through the transmit path of a quasi circulator (QC) interfaced to an antenna to interrogate a PBT. The backscatter is received using the same antenna interfaced to the QC. The received signal is then amplified and downconverted for further processing. To prove this concept, two optimized QC ICs and a downconversion mixer IC are designed in a 22nm fully depleted SOI technology. The first QC is the transmission lines based QC which consumes a power of 5.4mW, operates at a frequency range from 56GHz to 64GHz and occupies an area of 0.49mm2. The transmit path loss is 5.7 dB, receive path gain is 2 dB and the tunable transmit path to receive path isolation is between 20 dB and 32 dB. The second QC is based on lumped elements, and operates in a relatively narrow bandwidth from 59.6GHz to 61.5GHz, has a gain of 8.5 dB and provides a tunable isolation better than 20 dB between the transmit and receive paths. This QC design also occupies a small area of 0.34mmÂČ while consuming 13.2mW power. The downconversion is realized using a novel folded switching stage down conversion mixer (FSSDM) topology optimized to achieve one of the best reported combination of maximum voltage conversion gain of 21.5 dB, a factor of 2.5 higher than reported state-of-the-art results, and low power consumption of 5.25mW. The design also employs a unique back-gate tunable intermediate frequency output stage using which a gain tuning range of 5.5 dB is attained. Theoretical analysis of the FSSDM topology is performed and equations for the RF input stage transconductance, bandwidth, voltage conversion gain and gain tuning are derived. A feasibility study for the components of the 60GHz integrated single antenna interrogator frontend is also performed using PBTs to prove the system design concept.:1 Introduction 1
1.1 Motivation and Related Work . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
1.2 Scope and Functional Specifications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
1.3 Objectives and Structure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
2 Features and Fundamentals of RFIDs and Superregenerative Amplifiers 9
2.1 RFID Transponder Technology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
2.1.1 Chipless RFID Transponders . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
2.1.2 Semiconductor based RFID Transponders . . . . . . . . . . 11
2.1.2.1 Passive Transponders . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
2.1.2.2 Active Transponders . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
2.2 RFID Interrogator Architectures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
2.2.1 Interferometer based Interrogator . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
2.2.2 Ultra-wideband Interrogator . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
2.2.3 Continuous Wave Interrogators . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
2.3 Coupling Dependent Range and Operating Frequencies . . . . . . . 25
2.4 RFID Ranging Techniques . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
2.4.0.1 Received Signal Strength based Ranging . . . . . 28
2.4.0.2 Phase based Ranging . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
2.4.0.3 Time based Ranging . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
2.5 Architecture Selection for Proof of Concept Systems . . . . . . . . 32
2.6 Superregenerative Amplifier (SRA) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
2.6.1 Fundamentals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
2.6.2 Modes of Operation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
2.6.3 Frequency Domain Characteristics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
2.7 Semiconductor Technologies for RFIC Design . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
2.7.1 Silicon Germanium BiCMOS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
2.7.2 Silicon-on-Insulator . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
3 24GHz Superregenerative Transponder based Identification and Rang-
ing System 51
3.1 System Design . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
3.1.1 SRT Identification and Ranging . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
3.1.2 Power Link Analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
3.1.3 Non-idealities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
3.1.4 SRA Quench Frequency Shift Keying for data transfer . . . 61
3.1.5 Knowledge Gained . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
3.2 RFIC Designs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64
3.2.1 Low Power Direct Antenna Drive CMOS SRA IC . . . . . . 66
3.2.1.1 Circuit analysis and design . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66
3.2.1.2 Characterization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69
3.2.2 Direct Antenna Drive SiGe SRA ICs . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71
3.2.2.1 Stacked Transistor Cross-coupled Quenchable Oscillator
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72
3.2.2.1.1 Resonator . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72
3.2.2.1.2 Output Network . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75
3.2.2.1.3 Stacked Transistor Cross-coupled Pair and
Loop Gain . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77
3.2.2.2 Quench Waveform Design . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85
3.2.2.3 Characterization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89
3.2.3 Antenna Diversity SiGe SRA IC with Integrated Quench
Pulse Shaping . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91
3.2.3.1 Circuit Analysis and Design . . . . . . . . . . . . 91
3.2.3.1.1 Crosscoupled Pair and Sampling Current 94
3.2.3.1.2 Common Base Input Stage . . . . . . . . 95
3.2.3.1.3 Cascode Output Stage . . . . . . . . . . . 96
3.2.3.1.4 Quench Pulse Shaping Circuit . . . . . . 96
3.2.3.1.5 Power Gain . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99
3.2.3.2 Characterization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102
3.2.4 Knowledge Gained . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103
3.3 Proof of Principle System Implementation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106
3.3.1 Superregenerative Transponders . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106
3.3.1.1 Bandwidth Enhanced Microstrip Patch Antennas 108
3.3.2 FMCW Radar Interrogator . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114
3.3.3 Chirp Z-transform Based Data Analysis . . . . . . . . . . . 116
4 60GHz Single Antenna RFID Interrogator based Identification System 121
4.1 System Design . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121
4.2 RFIC Designs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125
4.2.1 Quasi-circulator ICs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125
4.2.1.1 Transmission Lines based Quasi-Circulator IC . . 126
4.2.1.2 Lumped Elements WPD based Quasi-Circulator . 130
4.2.1.3 Characterization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 134
4.2.1.4 Knowledge Gained . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135
4.2.2 Folded Switching Stage Downconversion Mixer IC . . . . . 138
4.2.2.1 FSSDM Circuit Design . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 138
4.2.2.2 Cascode Transconductance Stage . . . . . . . . . . 138
4.2.2.3 Folded Switching Stage with LC DC Feed . . . . . 142
4.2.2.4 LO Balun . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 145
4.2.2.5 Backgate Tunable IF Stage and Offset Correction 146
4.2.2.6 Voltage Conversion Gain . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147
4.2.2.7 Characterization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 150
4.2.2.8 Knowledge Gained . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151
4.3 Proof of Principle System Implementation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 154
5 Experimental Tests 157
5.1 24GHz System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 157
5.1.1 Ranging Experiments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 157
5.1.2 Roll Invariance Experiments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 158
5.1.3 Joint Ranging and Data Transfer Experiments . . . . . . . 158
5.2 60GHz System Detection Experiments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 165
6 Summary and Future Work 167
Appendices 171
A Derivation of Parameters for CB Amplifier with Base Feedback Capac-
itance 173
B Definitions 177
C 24GHz Experiment Setups 179
D 60 GHz Experiment Setups 183
References 185
List of Original Publications 203
List of Abbreviations 207
List of Symbols 213
List of Figures 215
List of Tables 223
Curriculum Vitae 22
Multi-Sensor Methods for Mobile Radar Motion Capture and Compensation.
Ph.D. Thesis. University of HawaiÊ»i at MÄnoa 2017
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