Radar signal processing device, radar apparatus, and method of processing radar signal

Abstract

A radar signal processing device is provided, which performs a scan correlation in a polar coordinate system to secure accuracy of the scan correlation, and prevents a suppression of a target object moving at high speed due to the scan correlation. A polar coordinate correlator performs, in a polar coordinate system, a correlation between reception data and previous correlated data stored in a previous data storage. A trend curve calculating module calculates a trend curve of a distance-direction signal level of the reception data in the polar coordinate system. A target detecting module detects a target based on the signal level of the reception data and the trend curve. Further, the polar coordinate correlator changes the contents of the correlation of the reception data based on the target detection result from the target detecting module.

Claims

1. A radar signal processing device, comprising: a signal acquirer configured to acquire reception data in a polar coordinate system based on a reception signal; a previous data storage configured to store previous correlated data in the polar coordinate system; a polar coordinate correlator configured to generate correlated data by performing, in the polar coordinate system, a correlation between the reception data and the previous correlated data stored in the previous data storage; a trend curve calculating module configured to calculate a trend curve of a distance-direction signal level of the reception data in the polar coordinate system; and a target detecting module configured to detect a target based on the signal level of the reception data and the trend curve, wherein the polar coordinate correlator changes the contents of the correlation of the reception data, based on the target detection result from the target detecting module.

2. The radar signal processing device of claim 1, wherein when the signal level of the reception data is higher than the trend curve by a predetermined level, the target detecting module detects the target, and wherein when the target detecting module detects the target, the polar coordinate correlator outputs a value of the reception data without being correlated.

3. The radar signal processing device of claim 1, wherein when the signal level of the reception data is higher than the trend curve by a predetermined level, the target detecting module detects the target, and wherein the polar coordinate correlator changes weight coefficients of the reception data and the previous correlated data for the case where the target is detected by the target detecting module and the case where the target is not detected.

4. The radar signal processing device of claim 1, wherein the target detecting module outputs a gate signal indicating whether the target is detected, and wherein the polar coordinate correlator changes the contents of the correlation according to the gate signal.

5. The radar signal processing device of claim 1, comprising a detection result storage configured to store at least the detection result from the target detecting module in a scan immediately previous to a current scan, wherein the polar coordinate correlator uses at least one of the detection result from the immediately previous scan stored in the detection result storage and the detection result from the current scan outputted from the target detecting module.

6. The radar signal processing device of claim 1, wherein the target detecting module detects the target when the signal level of the reception data is higher than a curve that is the trend curve with an offset added thereto.

7. The radar signal processing device of claim 1, wherein the signal acquirer has a log amplifier and a linear amplifier, and wherein the signal acquirer outputs an output of the log amplifier to the trend curve calculating module and the target detecting module and outputs an output of the linear amplifier to the polar coordinate correlator.

8. A radar apparatus, comprising: the radar signal processing device of claim 1; a radar antenna configured to receive the reception signal; and a display unit configured to display a radar image based on the result of the scan correlation performed by the polar coordinate correlator.

9. A method of processing a radar signal, comprising: acquiring reception data in a polar coordinate system based on a reception signal; acquiring previous correlated data in the polar coordinate system; generating correlated data by performing, in the polar coordinate system, a correlation between the reception data and the previous correlated data; calculating a trend curve of a distance-direction signal level of the reception data in the polar coordinate system; and detecting a target based on the signal level of the reception data and the trend curve, wherein in the generating the correlated data, the contents of the correlation of the reception data is changed based on the target detection result from the detecting the target.

10. The method of claim 9, further comprising detecting the target when the signal level of the reception data is higher than the trend curve by a predetermined level, and outputting a value of the reception data without being correlated.

11. The method of claim 9, further comprising detecting the target when the signal level of the reception data is higher than the trend curve by a predetermined level, and changing weight coefficients of the reception data and the previous correlated data for the case where the target is detected and the case where the target is not detected.

12. The method of claim 9, further comprising outputting a gate signal indicating whether the target is detected, and changing the contents of the correlation according to the gate signal.

13. The method of claim 9, further comprising storing at least the detection result from a scan immediately previous to a current scan, and further using at least one of the detection result from the immediately previous scan stored and the detection result from the current scan.

14. The method of claim 9, further comprising detecting the target when the signal level of the reception data is higher than a curve that is the trend curve with an offset added thereto.

15. The method of claim 9, further comprising outputting an output from a log amplifier for calculation of a trend curve and target detection, and outputting an output from a linear amplifier for scan correlation.

Description

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS

(1) FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a radar apparatus according to one embodiment of the present invention.

(2) FIGS. 2(a) and 2(b) show views for describing a target relatively moving at high speed.

(3) FIGS. 3(a) and 3(b) show views in which part (a) is a schematic view illustrating a radar image in which the target moving at high speed is suppressed by a conventional scan correlation, and part (b) is a schematic view illustrating a radar image based on an output of a radar signal processing device of the present invention.

(4) FIG. 4 shows charts for describing a detection of the target by a target detecting module.

(5) FIG. 5 is a schematic view illustrating a radar image with a remained image appeared by the conventional scan correlation.

(6) FIG. 6 is a block diagram of a radar apparatus according to a second embodiment.

MODE(S) FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION

(7) Next, embodiments of the present invention are described with reference to the drawings. As illustrated in FIG. 1, a radar apparatus 10 according to a first embodiment of the present invention is a radar apparatus for a ship, and displays situations of target(s) (e.g., other ship(s) and land(s)) in the surroundings of the ship. This radar apparatus 10 includes a radar antenna 11, a transceiver 12, a transmission signal output unit 13, a radar signal processing device 14, and a display unit 15.

(8) The radar antenna 11 is an antenna having a directivity, and rotates 360 degrees on a plane at a predetermined cycle. In the description below, a direction to which a main lobe of the radar antenna 11 is oriented is simply referred to as an orientation of the radar antenna 11. The transmission signal output unit 13 outputs a pulse signal for a plurality of times while the radar antenna 11 performs one full rotation. The pulse signal is applied to the radar antenna 11 via the transceiver 12, and is discharged from the radar antenna 11.

(9) The pulse signal discharged from the radar antenna 11 reflects on the target in the surroundings and is again received by the radar antenna 11. Here, the signal received by the radar antenna 11 is referred to as the reception signal in the description below. The reception signal received by the radar antenna 11 is inputted to the radar signal processing device 14 via the transceiver 12. An operation that the radar antenna 11 performs one full rotation while transceiving the signals is referred to as the scan, and an operation of transmitting the pulse signal and then receiving the reception signal(s) before transmitting the next pulse signal is referred to as the sweep. Note that, the detailed description of the configurations of the radar antenna 11, the transmission signal output unit 13, and the transceiver 12 is omitted since they are known.

(10) The radar signal processing device 14 includes a signal acquirer 20, a polar coordinate correlator 21, a trend curve calculating module 22, a delay processing module 23, a target detecting module 24, and an image processing module 25.

(11) The signal acquirer 20 receives the reception signal from the transceiver 12. The signal acquirer 20 includes a log amplifier 26 for amplifying the reception signal, and an A/D converter (analog-to-digital converter) 27 for sampling the reception signal amplified by the log amplifier 26 and converting it into digital data. The digital data outputted from the A/D converter 27 is referred to as reception data. The value of each reception data indicates a signal level of the reception signal when the reception data is sampled. Note that, the signal level of the reception signal received by the radar antenna 11 is within an extremely wide range from a high signal level (e.g., corresponding to the reflection signal from near the radar antenna 11) to a low signal level (e.g., corresponding to the reflection signal from a distance). Thus, by using the log amplifier 26 to amplify the reception signal as described above, a saturation of the output is prevented when the signal level is high, and the sampling can be performed by the A/D converter 27 at a wide dynamic range.

(12) When the reflection signal from the target is not received by the radar antenna 11, the signal level of the reception becomes a noise level, the value of the reception data acquired in this case becomes low. When the reflection signal from the target is received, the signal level of the reception signal becomes larger than the noise level, and the value of the reception data acquired in this case also becomes high. A distance r from the radar antenna 11 to the target can be obtained based on a time length required from the transmission of a pulse signal by the radar antenna 11 to the reception of the reflection signal thereof. Moreover, the direction of the target can be obtained based on the orientation of the radar antenna 11 when receiving the reflection signal. As described above, the reception data acquired by the signal acquirer 20 can be associated with a point on a plane by coordinates (r, ) in a polar coordinate system. Therefore, it can be said that the signal acquirer 20 of the radar signal processing device 14 acquires each reception data in the polar coordinate system (r, ).

(13) The polar coordinate correlator 21 performs a scan correlation in the polar coordinate system. Specifically, the polar coordinate correlator 21 includes a calculation processing module 28 and a previous data storage 29. The previous data storage 29 is a memory region where correlated data for one previous scan (one full rotation of the radar antenna 11) can be saved.

(14) The calculation processing module 28 performs the scan correlation in which latest reception data inputted from the signal acquirer 20 and correlated data from an immediately previous scan stored in the previous data storage 29 are weighted and combined to create new correlated data and output it. Specifically, a calculation performed by the calculation processing module 28 can be expressed by the following equation.
S.sub.r,=(1)D.sub.r,+S.sub.r,(1)
Note that, D.sub.r, is the value of the latest reception data (signal level) inputted from the signal acquirer 20, and the subscripts r and indicate that the reception data corresponds to a location (r, ) in the polar coordinate system. S.sub.r, indicates data corresponding to the position of the reception data D.sub.r, (correlated data from the immediately previous scan) among the correlated data for one scan stored in the previous data storage 29. The coefficient is a weight coefficient (filter coefficient) used in the weight combining and takes a value within a range between 0 and 1.

(15) As it can be understood from Equation 1, the scan correlation is a kind of IIR filtering and acts to suppress unstable signals between scans. On the other hand, stable signals between the scans (reflection signals from a steady target) remain without being suppressed by the IIR filtering.

(16) The previous data storage 29 stores the correlated data for one scan in the polar coordinate system. Specifically, a write-and-read address of the correlated data S.sub.r, in the memory of the previous data storage 29 corresponds to the coordinates (r, ) in the polar coordinate system associated with the correlated data S.sub.r, on a one-on-one basis. Therefore, when performing the calculation of Equation 1, the correlated data S.sub.r, can be read from the previous data storage 20 while it remains in the polar coordinate system, and the coordinate conversion is not necessary. Therefore, a processing result with higher accuracy compared to the configuration of performing the scan correlation after the coordinates are converted into the orthogonal coordinate system can be obtained, and the target is easily discriminated from clutter.

(17) The polar coordinate correlator 21 outputs the result of the scan correlation to the image processing module 25. The image processing module 25 generates a two-dimensional image (radar image) showing the situation of the target(s) in the surroundings of the radar signal processing device based on the result of the scan correlation inputted from the polar coordinate correlator 21. Since clutter and noise are suppressed by the scan correlation, the image processing module 25 can generate the radar image with suppressed clutter and noise. The image processing module 25 outputs the radar image to the display unit 15. The display unit 15 displays the radar image. Thus, an operator of the radar apparatus 10 can find out the situation of the target object(s) in the surroundings.

(18) Next, problems of the scan correlation are briefly described.

(19) The scan correlation described above has a disadvantage of suppressing the signal level of the reception data indicating the target moving at high speed in relation to the radar antenna 11. For example, a case where a target 30 is moving at high speed in relation to the ship as illustrated in FIGS. 2(a) and 2(b) are considered. The chart in part (a) of FIG. 2 schematically indicates the reception data in the distance direction in an immediately previous scan, and the chart in part (b) of FIG. 2 schematically indicates the reception data in the distance direction acquired in the latest sweep. Moreover, a virtual radar image based on the reception data is shown in the upper rightward part of each chart.

(20) In the example of FIGS. 2(a) and 2(b), the target 30 exists at a location at a distance r1 in the immediately previous scan. On the other hand, in the latest reception data, the target 30 has moved to a location of a distance r2. As described, the position of the target 30 relatively moving at high speed changes between scans, and therefore, the correlation between the target 30 in the immediately previous scan and the target 30 in the latest scan cannot be taken. Therefore, if the scan correlation is performed, the target 30 moving at high speed is suppressed, and as a result, for example as illustrated in part (a) of FIG. 3, the target 30 which originally should be displayed at the position at the distance r2 is not displayed clearly on the radar image (or not displayed at all). As described, with the conventional scan correlation, there has been a problem of poor discriminability on the radar image of the target moving at high speed.

(21) Meanwhile, the reflection signal from the target may have a sufficient level difference compared to clutter and noises. In such a case, the target can be discriminated from clutter and noise easily without performing the scan correlation.

(22) Therefore, the radar signal processing device 14 of this embodiment detects the target by comparing the signal level of the reception data with a trend curve, and changes the contents of the scan correlation performed by the polar coordinate correlator 21 based on the target detection result.

(23) Hereinafter, a characteristic configuration of the radar signal processing device 14 of this embodiment is described in detail. Specifically, the radar signal processing device 14 of this embodiment incudes the trend curve calculating module 22 and the target detecting module 24.

(24) The trend curve calculating module 22 receives the reception data from the signal acquirer 20. The trend curve calculating module 22 calculates a trend curve of the value (signal level) of the reception data in the distance direction. In this embodiment, as the trend curve, the trend curve calculating module 22 obtains a moving average line of the value of the reception data in the distance direction. The trend curve calculating module 22 outputs the obtained trend curve to the target detecting module 24.

(25) The target detecting module 24 detects the target based on the reception data and the trend curve. Specifically, the target detecting module 24 compares the signal level of the reception data with a curve that is the trend curve with a constant offset added thereto (offset curve), and when the signal level of the reception data exceeds the offset curve, it detects the target. As illustrated in FIG. 4, by giving the offset value to the trend curve, noise and clutter do not exceed the offset curve easily, and a false detection of noise and clutter as the target can be prevented. Note that, since the trend curve is a moving average, it is delayed by a fixed time length from the latest reception data outputted from the signal acquirer 20. Thus, to perform the comparison by the target detecting module 24 suitably, the delay processing module 23 is provided, for delaying the reception data from the signal acquirer 20 by a time length corresponding to the delay time length of the trend curve, and outputting it to the target detecting module 24.

(26) Note that, as described above, since the reception data outputted from the signal acquirer 20 is data amplified by the log amplifier 26 and sampled, even if it is a reception signal with a high level (e.g., the reflection signal from a close distance), the signal level thereof does not easily saturate and the dynamic range is wide. Therefore, the target detecting module 24 can accurately compare the signal level of the reception data with the trend curve, and can detect the target accurately.

(27) Moreover, the target detecting module 24 outputs a gate signal indicating whether the target is detected (whether the signal level of the reception data exceeds the offset curve). For example, the target detecting module 24 of this embodiment outputs 0 when the target is not detected and outputs 1 when the target is detected. The gate signal is inputted to the polar coordinate correlator 21.

(28) The polar coordinate correlator 21 changes the contents of the processing performed by the polar coordinate correlator 21 based on the gate signal. Specifically, when the inputted gate signal is 0 (when the target is not detected), the polar coordinate correlator 21 outputs the correlated data obtained by the calculation processing module 28 as the result of the scan correlation. Since the result of the scan correlation is outputted as conventionally when the target is not detected as described above, the radar image with suppressed unnecessary signal, such as clutter and noise, can be obtained.

(29) On the other hand, when the inputted gate signal is 1 (the target is detected), the polar coordinate correlator 21 outputs the reception data inputted from the signal acquirer 20 as it is (the value without being scan-correlated) as the result of the scan correlation. Therefore, even with the target moving at high speed, the target is not suppressed by the scan correlation. As a result, even with regard to the target 30 moving at high speed, which is suppressed with the conventional scan correlation as illustrated in part (a) of FIG. 3, according to the configuration of this embodiment, as illustrated in part (b) of FIG. 3, the target 30 can be displayed clearly on the radar image. Thus, the discriminability of the target 30 can be improved.

(30) As described above, the radar signal processing device 14 of this embodiment includes the signal acquirer 20, the previous data storage 29, the polar coordinate correlator 21, the trend curve calculating module 22, and the target detecting module 24. Further, a method of processing the radar signal by the radar signal processing device 14 of this embodiment is performed as follows.

(31) Specifically, first, the signal acquirer 20 acquires the reception data in the polar coordinate system based on the reception signal. Next, the trend curve calculating module 22 calculates the distance-direction trend curve of the signal level of the reception data in the polar coordinate system. Subsequently, the target detecting module 24 detects the target based on the signal level of the reception data and the trend curve.

(32) Before or after this, the polar coordinate correlator 21 acquires the previous correlated data stored in the previous data storage 29 in the polar coordinate system. Further, the polar coordinate correlator 21 performs the correlation between the reception data and the previous correlated data in the polar coordinate system to create the correlated data. Here, the polar coordinate correlator 21 changes the contents of the correlation of the reception data based on the target detection result from the target detecting module 24.

(33) By changing the contents of the scan correlation based on whether the target is detected by the target detecting module 24 as described above, the suppression of the target due to the scan correlation can be prevented.

(34) Next, a modification of the above embodiment is described.

(35) In the above embodiment, the polar coordinate correlator 21 switches the processing between the case of outputting the correlated data and the case of outputting the reception data as it is (the value without being scan-correlated) based on the target detection result from the target detecting module 24. Instead of this, in this modification, the polar coordinate correlator 21 changes the filter coefficient of the scan correlation based on the target detection result from the target detecting module 24.

(36) This filter coefficient is a parameter for adjusting the effect of the scan correlation, and the effect of the scan correlation becomes larger as the value of becomes higher. Therefore, it becomes easier to suppress the target moving at high speed as the value of becomes higher.

(37) Thus, in the radar signal processing device 14 of this embodiment, when the gate signal outputted from the target detecting module 24 is 0 (the target is not detected), the polar coordinate correlator 21 increases the filter coefficient . To the contrary, when the gate signal is 1 (the target is detected), the polar coordinate correlator 21 reduces the filter coefficient .

(38) According to this, when the target is detected by the target detecting module 24, since the effect of the scan correlation can be reduced, the suppression of the target becomes more difficult. Therefore, even the target relatively moving at high speed can be prevented from being suppressed by the scan correlation. On the other hand, when the target is not detected by the target detecting module 24, by sufficiently exerting the effect of the scan correlation, the radar image with suppressed clutter and noise can be obtained.

(39) Next, another modification of the above embodiment is described.

(40) As described above, the target relatively moving at high speed is detected at a position different from the immediately previous scan. Therefore, there is a case where the remained image appears at the position of the target in the immediately previous scan due to the scan correlation. For example, as illustrated in FIGS. 2(a) and 2(b), a case is considered where the target exists at the position at the distance r1 in the immediately previous scan, and the target moves to the position at the distance r2 in the latest scan. In this case, by taking the correlation between the data from the immediately previous scan and the latest reception data, as illustrated in FIG. 5, the remained image may appear at the position of the target in the immediately previous scan (the location at the distance r1).

(41) Thus, in the modification described as follows, the contents of the processing performed by the polar coordinate correlator 21 is changed with reference to the gate signal from the immediately previous scan, so as to suppress the remained image.

(42) Hereinafter, the modification is specifically described. The polar coordinate correlator 21 of this modification includes a detection result storage which can store the gate signals outputted from the target detecting module 24 (the target detection result) for one scan. Further, when at least one of the latest gate signal and the gate signal from the immediately previous scan stored in the detection result storage is 1 (the target is detected), the polar coordinate correlator 21 outputs the reception data as it is (the value without being scan-correlated) as the scan correlation result.

(43) Specifically, the gate signal from the immediately previous scan being 1 indicates that the target at least existed in the immediately previous scan. Therefore, by performing the scan correlation in such a case, there is a possibility that the remained image appears at the target position in the immediately previous scan. Thus, even when the gate signal from the immediately previous scan is 1, the polar coordinate correlator 21 of this embodiment outputs the reception data as it is (the value without being scan-correlated) as the scan correlation result.

(44) According to this, the appearance of the remained image at the position of the target in the immediately previous scan can be prevented. Therefore, a more suitable scan correlation result can be obtained.

(45) Next, a second embodiment of the present invention is described. Note that, in the second embodiment, the configurations identical with as or similar to those in the first embodiment are denoted with the same reference numerals in the first embodiment and the description thereof is omitted.

(46) As illustrated in FIG. 6, in a radar signal processing device 101 of this second embodiment, the signal acquirer 20 also includes a linear amplifier 32 in addition to the log amplifier 26. The reception signal received by the radar antenna 11 is amplified by the linear amplifier 32 and is sampled by an A/D converter 33.

(47) The output of the log amplifier 26 (the reception data sampled by the A/D converter 27) is outputted to the target detecting module 24 and the trend curve calculating module 22 similarly to the first embodiment. Thus, the processing of detecting the target by using the output of the log amplifier which has the wide dynamic range and does not saturate easily can be performed, and therefore, the target can be detected accurately.

(48) On the other hand, an output of the linear amplifier 32 (the reception data sampled by the A/D converter 33) is outputted to the polar coordinate correlator 21. The polar coordinate correlator 21 performs the scan correlation based on the output of the linear amplifier 32. By performing the scan correlation using the output of the linear amplifier 32 obtained by linearly amplifying the reception signal, the correlation between the previous signal level and the current signal level can be easily taken. As a result, a suitable scan correlation result can be obtained.

(49) Although the preferred embodiment and the modifications of the present invention are described above, the above configurations may be modified as following examples.

(50) The radar apparatus of the present invention is not limited to the radar apparatus for the ship, and may be applied broadly to radar apparatuses for other usages.

(51) Following the polar coordinate correlator 21, other processing which can be performed in the polar coordinate system may be performed. For example, processing, such as a known ARPA (Automatic Radar Plotting Aid), can be incorporated for the correlated data in the polar coordinate system outputted from the polar coordinate correlator 21. To simply state, this is processing of automatically determining the chance of collision with the target. According to the configuration of the present invention, even if the target moves at high speed, it is not suppressed by the scan correlation; therefore, the chance of collision with the high-speed moving target can be determined accurately.

(52) It is described that the target detecting module 24 outputs the gate signal according to the target detection result; however, the format that the target detecting module 24 outputs the target detection result is not limited to the gate signal, as long as the contents of the processing performed by the polar coordinate correlator 21 can be switched according to the target detection result from the target detecting module 24.

(53) The amount of the offset added to the trend curve when detecting the target is preferred to be changeable by suitable operation by the operator. According to this, the offset can be adjusted according to a noise level or a clutter level and suitable processing can be performed. Moreover, a configuration may be adopted, in which the value of the offset is automatically adjusted according to the noise level or the clutter level.

(54) The calculation method of the trend curve is not limited to a simple moving average, as long as a changing trend of the signal level of the reception data in the distance direction can be obtained.