Thu, 12 May, 15:00 - 15:45 UTC
Radar technology is one of the most fundamental and omnipresent signal processing technologies that has pushed the frontiers of hardware and algorithm design. Conventionally, dynamic range in radar systems poses severe limitations in system performance. Here, we demo a novel, real-time approach that leverages hardware-software co-design to enable a high dynamic range (HDR) FMCW Radar. Our work is based on the Unlimited Sensing Framework (USF). In the acquisition part, modulo sampling of the radar baseband signals using the US-ADC results in folded samples that do not clip or saturate (c.f. https://youtu.be/JuZg80gUr8M). Thereon, live reconstruction and processing of the non-linear samples results in HDR recovery. The hardware presented will consist of: a FMCW radar, Unlimited Sampling ADCs that are interfaced with another acquisition board, and a computer that will show both the classic acquisition (and its possible limitations) and the unlimited samples and the live reconstruction of the radar signal. The radar will use a modulation that is able to recover the range of multiple targets.
This live demo will be the first demonstration of the Unlimited Sampling approach, as a practical solution for a real-time application. Both the hardware and algorithmic validation of the Unlimited Sensing Framework (USF) have substantiated the clear benefits of non-linear acquisition when it comes to HDR sampling, thus circumventing the sensor saturation and clipping problems. Inspired by the USF, the practical live demo will highlight the potential advantages that modulo sampling has for the signal processing community for radio frequency based applications such as radar, telecommunications, …
The demo will be performed live and the attendees will be able to interact with the radar front-end and see the effect on the Unlimited Samples and the reconstruction similar to this live demo (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cENWT5mQDXA&t=592s). The showcased USF-Radar will recover the range of multiple targets (eg. the attendees) from real-time modulo measurements acquired by dedicated modulo ADCs. The presence of corner reflectors at different ranges in front of the radar will change the signal’s frequency content of the sampled signal and of their modulo counterparts and the attendees will be able to see the reconstruction performed live.