Study and Design of MIMO Radar

Multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) radars are sensing systems that employ multiple transmit waveforms and have the ability to jointly process signals received at multiple receive antennas. A MIMO radar may be configured with its antennas colocated or widely separated over an area. In MIMO rad

Project Title

Study and Design of MIMO Radar

Project Area of Specialization

Electrical/Electronic Engineering

Project Summary

Multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) radars are sensing systems that employ multiple transmit waveforms and have
the ability to jointly process signals received at multiple receive antennas. A MIMO radar may be configured with its antennas colocated or widely separated over an area. In MIMO radar with colocated antennas, the emphasis is on the use of waveform diversity, whereas in MIMO radar with widely separated antennas, the work is focused on spatial diversity. With widely separated antennas, MIMO radar has the ability to improve radar performance by exploiting RCS diversity, handle slow moving targets by exploiting Doppler estimates from multiple directions, and support high resolution target localization. MIMO radar systems belong to the class of active localization systems, where the signal usually travels a round trip, i.e. the signal transmitted by one sensor in a radar system is reflected by the target and measured by the same or a different sensor. The target range is computed from the time it takes for the transmitted signal to get to the target plus the travelling time of the reflected signal back to the sensor. The range estimation accuracy is directly proportional to the mean squared error (MSE) of the time delay estimation and is shown to be inversely proportional to the signal effective bandwidth. Various techniques implementing MIMO will be discussed in the project. Differences among the Phased MIMO, SAR MIMO, Active Electronically Scanned Array (AESA) and simple MIMO radar are presented with references to various sources available online as well as some books and thesis. Basically FMCW radar and all its implementation techniques are discussed whereas coherency issues will also be presented in the project.

Project Objectives

Main objectives of the MIMO radar project is to explore MIMO techniques and their applications in aviation as well as automobile industry having ability to revolutionize the above mentioned fields. Some other objectives are as follows:

1. Literature review to study generic radar working and mechanism

2. Literature review to study MIMO tachniques being used in communication systems (4G, 5G, LTE)

3. Study of various MIMO radar techniques 

4. Selection of MIMO compatible, cheap but efficient hardware

5.  Software based simulations using various viable techniques applicable to the project

6. Once hardware is bought, apply all the techniques researched and drawing a conclusion

7. To present a MIMO radar edge over other traditional radars in use

8. To present a comparative study of various MIMO techniques after applying on hardware available

Project Implementation Method

This project is based on the latest research area of MIMO that has revolutionized the data transfer protocols and communications. To apply this technique in the field of radars is the active research area these days. Various implementation techniques are going to be implemented to detect and range a target with better range, doppler, angular resolution and localization. Techniques like Time Division Multiplexing(TDM), Binary Phase Modulation (BPM), Frequency Division Multiplexing (FDM) and Maximum Likelihood Estimation (MLE) are going to be applied in the project keeping in view the complexity and limitations of the hardware.

Major portion of the project after MIMO compatible hardware availability is to be done on the receiving end so that each receiver is able to distinguish the signal and its transmit origin. Matched filtering, windowing and fourier transforms are to be applied in the software/program of the project. Later all the techniques will be compared in context of discovering the best one out of them. At last, MIMO radar edges over traditional radar will be presented. 

Benefits of the Project

This project is based on the latest research area of MIMO that has revolutionize the data transfer protocols and communications. To apply this technique in the field of radars is the hotshot these days. In context to its importance and future opportunities MIMO radar is not only going to give us a chance to research in this area but also enable us to understand this important topic. It will enable Pakistan to stand far ahead of its competitors in aviation perspective. 

MIMO radar gives far better results in detection and parameter estimations of multiple target than normal radars. Multiple targets can be detected with far better precision and accuracy. Angular resolution, improved parameter identifiability, direct applicability of adaptive techniques for parameter estimation, as well as superior flexibility of transmit beampattern designs are the main advantages of the MIMO radar over all other radar technologies.  

Aviation industry, automobile industry and communication industry will be the main beneficiaries of this project.

Technical Details of Final Deliverable

Signal processing techniques and MIMO applications in radar are to be studied extensively
and to know about how this system can be implemented on hardware.
1. Study of MIMO radar system
2. Study of signal processing algorithms regarding MIMO i.e. TDM, BPM, FDM, MLE
3. Implementation MIMO techniques on AWR-1243 Cascaded TI chip

4. Present a comparative study of MIMO vs. other Radars 

Final Deliverable of the Project

HW/SW integrated system

Core Industry

Others

Other Industries

Core Technology

Others

Other Technologies

Sustainable Development Goals

Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure

Required Resources

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