Radar Signal Distortion caused by Directional Vibration of a 24 GHz FMCW System

This thesis is an initial attempt to investigate the influence of mechanical vibrations on the 24 GHz FMCW radar developed by IMST GmbH and develop a simple vibration compensation model for the human tracking algorithm.

The project objectives are to determine the radar signal distortion caused by vibrations theoretically, conduct simulations to evaluate the effects of vibrations on the human tracking process, and develop a basic model to compensate the disturbing vibrations.

The single radar pulse simulations conclude that when the radar is vibrating at a low frequency, the signal would not be distorted if the change of phase of the intermediate frequency is less than half a resolution cell. While the results from the multiple radar pulses simulations reveal that factors like the SNR value, vibrating amplitude and the target’s velocity would influence the human tracking process. The higher the SNR value, vibrating amplitude and target’s velocity, the more the detected ghost targets when there is only one target presence. A signal demodulation method is then proposed which indicate the possibility in reducing the disturbance caused by the vibrations.

Keywords: FMCW Radar, Vibration, Human Tracking, Simulation, Compensation