3-D short-range localization device by low-cost CW-Doppler radar

Low cost and short range detection/localisation devices arouse a growing interest for civil and military applications such as automotive anti-collision radars or target detection devices used in active shielding. This field of application is principally devoted to FMCW radars, which allow a direct range measurement like pulsed radars, but are less expensive. In this paper we show that it is also possible, under some conditions, to perform a real time localisation based on CW radars only, by means of an adequate signal processing. The targeted application deals with short range localisation of very fast moving targets in order to engage an instantaneous riposte. In the second section of this paper, a principle for extracting the information of the position of a target from a Doppler signal is presented. Some algorithms that perform an estimation of the position within the time restrictions of our application is given in the third section. The following section focuses on the information theory, and gives some useful indications about the optimal configuration of such a detection device and the maximal theoretical performance achievable for it. Sections 5 and 6 are devoted respectively to some realisation aspects and to a few simulation results. Finally, some concluding remarks are provided in the last section.