阅读说明：本技术 一种毫米波雷达校准方法、装置及电子设备 (Millimeter wave radar calibration method and device and electronic equipment ) 是由 郭坤鹏 买剑春 冯友怀 张燎 于 2021-11-26 设计创作，主要内容包括：本发明提供一种毫米波雷达校准方法、校准装置及电子设备,所述方法包括：基于毫米波雷达针对目标点的多次探测所获得的方位角、俯仰角以及实测相位差组合实施平面拟合操作以得到所述毫米波雷达的第二接收天线相对于第一接收天线的相对位置差的估计值以及实测相位差与理论相位差之间的相位差误差的估计值,并基于所述相对位置差的估计值以及所述相位差误差的估计值校准所述毫米波雷达。本发明可有效提高毫米波雷达探测实际目标对象的方位角和俯仰角的准确性。(The invention provides a millimeter wave radar calibration method, a calibration device and electronic equipment, wherein the method comprises the following steps: the method comprises the steps of carrying out plane fitting operation on the basis of azimuth angle, pitch angle and actually measured phase difference combination obtained by the millimeter wave radar aiming at multiple times of detection of a target point to obtain an estimated value of relative position difference of a second receiving antenna of the millimeter wave radar relative to a first receiving antenna and an estimated value of phase difference error between actually measured phase difference and theoretical phase difference, and calibrating the millimeter wave radar on the basis of the estimated value of the relative position difference and the estimated value of the phase difference error. The invention can effectively improve the accuracy of the millimeter wave radar in detecting the azimuth angle and the pitch angle of the actual target object.)

1. A method for calibrating a millimeter wave radar having at least one transmit antenna and at least two receive antennas, the at least two receive antennas including a first receive antenna and a second receive antenna, the method comprising:

driving the millimeter wave radar to detect a target point for multiple times;

for each detection, recording the current azimuth angle and the current pitch angle of the target point relative to the millimeter wave radar, and the actual measurement phase difference between the receiving signal of the first receiving antenna and the receiving signal of the second receiving antenna, which is obtained according to the echo from the target point;

and performing plane fitting operation based on the combination of the azimuth angle, the pitch angle and the actually measured phase difference obtained by each detection to obtain an estimated value of the relative position difference of the second receiving antenna relative to the first receiving antenna and an estimated value of the phase difference error between the actually measured phase difference and the theoretical phase difference, and calibrating the millimeter wave radar based on the estimated value of the relative position difference and the estimated value of the phase difference error.

2. The millimeter wave radar calibration method according to claim 1, wherein the driving the millimeter wave radar to detect the target point a plurality of times comprises:

determining an initial normal direction of the millimeter wave radar and constructing a radar coordinate system based on the initial normal direction;

and rotating the millimeter wave radar according to a preset rule to enable the normal direction of the millimeter wave radar to be in a plurality of different spatial directions in sequence, and driving the millimeter wave radar to detect a fixed target point which is placed right in front of the initial normal direction of the millimeter wave radar when the normal direction is in each spatial direction.

3. The millimeter wave radar calibration method according to claim 2, wherein the recording, for each detection, the current azimuth and elevation angles of the target point relative to the millimeter wave radar comprises:

and recording the azimuth angle and the pitch angle of the fixed target point relative to the millimeter wave radar at present according to the relative relation between the current normal direction of the millimeter wave radar and the initial normal direction of the millimeter wave radar for each detection.

4. The millimeter wave radar calibration method according to any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein the performing a plane fitting operation based on a combination of an azimuth angle, a pitch angle, and a phase difference obtained for each detection includes:

calculating corresponding first intermediate parameters, second intermediate parameters and third intermediate parameters in a combined manner according to the azimuth angle, the pitch angle and the actually measured phase difference obtained by each detection;

and performing the plane fitting operation based on a preset plane equation and the first intermediate parameter, the second intermediate parameter and the third intermediate parameter obtained according to all the detections to obtain estimated values of the first parameter, the second parameter and the third parameter, and obtaining an estimated value of the relative position difference and an estimated value of the phase difference error according to the estimated values of the first parameter, the second parameter and the third parameter.

5. The millimeter wave radar calibration method according to claim 4, wherein the step of determining an initial normal of the millimeter wave radar and constructing a radar coordinate system based on the initial normal comprises:

taking a normal direction of a radar plane at an initial position of the millimeter wave radar as an initial normal direction of the millimeter wave radar, and taking the initial normal direction of the millimeter wave radar as an initial normal direction of the millimeter wave radarAn axis and a coordinate origin at the position of the first receiving antennaXA shaft,YShaft andZthe radar coordinate system of the axis, wherein of the first and second receiving antennasThe axis coordinates are all 0.

6. The millimeter wave radar calibration method according to claim 5, wherein the step of calculating corresponding first, second and third intermediate parameters for each combination of the azimuth angle, the pitch angle and the measured phase difference obtained by detection, and performing the plane fitting operation based on a preset plane equation and all the first, second and third intermediate parameters obtained by detection to obtain the first, second and third parameters comprises:

calculating the first, second and third intermediate parameters according to the following formulas:

；

wherein X represents the first intermediate parameter, Y represents the second intermediate parameter, Z represents the third intermediate parameter, θ represents the azimuth angle of the target point, φ represents the pitch angle of the target point,representing the actual measurement phase difference corresponding to the azimuth angle and the pitch angle of the same group;

performing the plane fitting operation according to the following plane equation to obtain the estimated values of the first parameter a, the second parameter b and the third parameter c:

。

7. the millimeter wave radar calibration method according to claim 6, wherein the step of obtaining the estimated value of the relative position difference and the estimated value of the phase difference error from the estimated values of the first parameter, the second parameter, and the third parameter includes:

obtaining an estimated value of the relative position difference and an estimated value of the phase difference error according to the following formulas:

；

wherein a represents the first parameter, b represents the second parameter,Representing said third parameter, λ being the wavelength of the transmitted signal,an estimate value representing the error in the phase difference,said second receiving antenna is represented inYAn estimate of the relative positional difference on the axis with respect to the first receive antenna,said second receiving antenna is represented inZAn estimate of the relative positional difference on the axis with respect to the first receive antenna.

8. The millimeter wave radar calibration method according to claim 6, wherein the step of performing the plane fitting operation based on a preset plane equation and the first, second, and third intermediate parameters obtained by all the detections includes:

fitting the plane equation using a least squares methodTo obtain the estimated values of the first parameter a, the second parameter b and the third parameter c.

9. The millimeter wave radar calibration method according to claim 8, wherein the step of calibrating the millimeter wave radar based on the estimated value of the relative position difference and the estimated value of the phase difference error includes:

estimating the phase difference errorSetting a phase compensation reference value for the first receiving antenna and the second receiving antenna;

respectively using the second receiving antennas atYShaft andestimate of relative position difference on axis with respect to the first receiving antenna、Instead of the actual value for subsequent dependenceThe phase compensation reference value, the estimated value of the relative position difference, and the like perform calculation operations for the direction angle and the pitch angle of the detection object.

10. An apparatus for millimeter wave radar calibration, the millimeter wave radar having at least one transmit antenna and at least two receive antennas, the at least two receive antennas including a first receive antenna and a second receive antenna, the apparatus comprising:

the actual measurement driving module is used for driving the millimeter wave radar to detect a target point for multiple times;

the recording module is used for recording the azimuth angle and the pitch angle of the target point relative to the millimeter wave radar at present and the actually measured phase difference between the receiving signal of the first receiving antenna and the receiving signal of the second receiving antenna according to the echo from the target point for each detection;

the plane fitting module is used for carrying out plane fitting operation based on the combination of the azimuth angle, the pitch angle and the actually measured phase difference obtained by each detection so as to obtain an estimated value of the relative position difference of the second receiving antenna relative to the first receiving antenna and an estimated value of the phase difference error between the actually measured phase difference and the theoretical phase difference;

and the calibration module is used for calibrating the millimeter wave radar based on the estimated value of the relative position difference and the estimated value of the phase difference error.

11. An electronic device comprising a memory, a processor, and a computer program stored on the memory and executable on the processor, wherein the processor when executing the program implements the steps of the millimeter wave radar calibration method of any of claims 1 to 9.

Technical Field

The invention relates to the technical field of radar antennas, in particular to a millimeter wave radar calibration method, a millimeter wave radar calibration device and electronic equipment.

Background

The 4D millimeter wave radar mainly estimates and measures 4-dimensional parameters such as the distance, the azimuth angle, the pitch angle and the Doppler velocity of a target, and the 3D millimeter wave radar only estimates the distance, the azimuth angle and the Doppler velocity of the target and does not estimate the pitch angle. Because the 4D millimeter wave radar takes two angle estimations, whether the angle of the target can be accurately measured is an important index for evaluating the performance of the radar. The angle estimation measurement of the target is generally estimated by using a multi-channel antenna, but the phase difference exists between the echo phase of the target received by different antennas and the angle of the target.

The antenna channel is generally calibrated by a point calibration method or a linear fitting calibration method for the phase difference. However, in the prior art, the point calibration method and the linear fitting calibration do not take global optimum strategies (for example, the pitch angle is not taken into consideration) into consideration for the 4D millimeter wave radar, so that the accuracy of the angle measurement of the millimeter wave radar is reduced, and therefore, the invention needs to provide a millimeter wave radar calibration method.

Disclosure of Invention

The invention provides a millimeter wave radar calibration method, a millimeter wave radar calibration device and electronic equipment, which are used for solving the problem of low calibration operation precision in the prior art and improving the accuracy of millimeter wave radar angle measurement.

In a first aspect, the present invention provides a calibration method for a millimeter wave radar having at least one transmitting antenna and at least two receiving antennas, wherein the at least two receiving antennas include a first receiving antenna and a second receiving antenna, the method comprising:

driving the millimeter wave radar to detect a target point for multiple times;

for each detection, recording the current azimuth angle and the current pitch angle of the target point relative to the millimeter wave radar, and the actual measurement phase difference between the receiving signal of the first receiving antenna and the receiving signal of the second receiving antenna, which is obtained according to the echo from the target point;

and performing plane fitting operation based on the combination of the azimuth angle, the pitch angle and the actually measured phase difference obtained by each detection to obtain an estimated value of the relative position difference of the second receiving antenna relative to the first receiving antenna and an estimated value of the phase difference error between the actually measured phase difference and the theoretical phase difference, and calibrating the millimeter wave radar based on the estimated value of the relative position difference and the estimated value of the phase difference error.

In an embodiment of the present invention, the driving the millimeter wave radar to detect the target point multiple times includes:

determining an initial normal direction of the millimeter wave radar and constructing a radar coordinate system based on the initial normal direction;

and rotating the millimeter wave radar according to a preset rule to enable the normal direction of the millimeter wave radar to be in a plurality of different spatial directions in sequence, and driving the millimeter wave radar to detect a fixed target point which is placed right in front of the initial normal direction of the millimeter wave radar when the normal direction is in each spatial direction.

In an embodiment of the present invention, the recording of the current azimuth angle and the current pitch angle of the target point relative to the millimeter wave radar for each detection includes:

and recording the azimuth angle and the pitch angle of the fixed target point relative to the millimeter wave radar at present according to the relative relation between the current normal direction of the millimeter wave radar and the initial normal direction of the millimeter wave radar for each detection.

In an embodiment of the present invention, the performing a plane fitting operation based on a combination of the azimuth angle, the pitch angle, and the phase difference obtained by each detection includes:

calculating corresponding first intermediate parameters, second intermediate parameters and third intermediate parameters in a combined manner according to the azimuth angle, the pitch angle and the actually measured phase difference obtained by each detection;

and performing the plane fitting operation based on a preset plane equation and the first intermediate parameter, the second intermediate parameter and the third intermediate parameter obtained according to all the detections to obtain estimated values of the first parameter, the second parameter and the third parameter, and obtaining an estimated value of the relative position difference and an estimated value of the phase difference error according to the estimated values of the first parameter, the second parameter and the third parameter.

In one embodiment of the present invention, the step of determining an initial normal direction of the millimeter wave radar and constructing a radar coordinate system based on the initial normal direction comprises:

taking a normal direction of a radar plane at an initial position of the millimeter wave radar as the millimeter waveThe initial normal direction of the radar is used as the initial normal direction of the millimeter wave radarAn axis and a coordinate origin at the position of the first receiving antennaXA shaft,YShaft andZthe radar coordinate system of the axis, wherein of the first and second receiving antennasThe axis coordinates are all 0.

In an embodiment of the present invention, the step of calculating corresponding first, second, and third intermediate parameters for the combination of the azimuth angle, the pitch angle, and the measured phase difference obtained by each detection, and performing the plane fitting operation based on a preset plane equation and all the first, second, and third intermediate parameters obtained by the detection to obtain the first, second, and third parameters includes:

calculating the first, second and third intermediate parameters according to the following formulas:

；

wherein X represents the first intermediate parameter, Y represents the second intermediate parameter, Z represents the third intermediate parameter, θ represents the azimuth angle of the target point, φ represents the pitch angle of the target point,representing the actual measurement phase difference corresponding to the azimuth angle and the pitch angle of the same group;

performing the plane fitting operation according to the following plane equation to obtain the estimated values of the first parameter a, the second parameter b and the third parameter c:

。

in an embodiment of the present invention, the step of obtaining the estimated value of the relative position difference and the estimated value of the phase difference error according to the estimated values of the first parameter, the second parameter, and the third parameter includes:

obtaining an estimated value of the relative position difference and an estimated value of the phase difference error according to the following formulas:

；

wherein a represents the first parameter, b represents the second parameter,Representing said third parameter, λ being the wavelength of the transmitted signal,an estimate value representing the error in the phase difference,said second receiving antenna is represented inYAn estimate of the relative positional difference on the axis with respect to the first receive antenna,said second receiving antenna is represented inZAn estimate of the relative positional difference on the axis with respect to the first receive antenna.

In an embodiment of the present invention, the step of performing the plane fitting operation based on a preset plane equation and all the first, second and third intermediate parameters obtained by the detection includes:

fitting the plane equation using a least squares methodTo obtain the firstEstimated values of the parameter a, the second parameter b and the third parameter c.

In one embodiment of the present invention, the step of calibrating the millimeter wave radar based on the estimated value of the relative position difference and the estimated value of the phase difference error includes:

estimating the phase difference errorSetting a phase compensation reference value for the first receiving antenna and the second receiving antenna;

respectively using the second receiving antennas atYShaft andestimate of relative position difference on axis with respect to the first receiving antenna、Instead of the actual values, for subsequently performing calculation operations for the direction angle and the pitch angle of the detection object based on the phase compensation reference value, the estimated value of the relative position difference.

In a second aspect, the present invention also provides a millimeter wave radar calibration apparatus, the millimeter wave radar having at least one transmitting antenna and at least two receiving antennas, the at least two receiving antennas including a first receiving antenna and a second receiving antenna, the apparatus comprising:

the actual measurement driving module is used for driving the millimeter wave radar to detect a target point for multiple times;

the recording module is used for recording the azimuth angle and the pitch angle of the target point relative to the millimeter wave radar at present and the actually measured phase difference between the receiving signal of the first receiving antenna and the receiving signal of the second receiving antenna according to the echo from the target point for each detection;

the plane fitting module is used for carrying out plane fitting operation based on the combination of the azimuth angle, the pitch angle and the actually measured phase difference obtained by each detection so as to obtain an estimated value of the relative position difference of the second receiving antenna relative to the first receiving antenna and an estimated value of the phase difference error between the actually measured phase difference and the theoretical phase difference;

and the calibration module is used for calibrating the millimeter wave radar based on the estimated value of the relative position difference and the estimated value of the phase difference error.

In a third aspect, the present invention further provides an electronic device, which includes a memory, a processor, and a computer program stored in the memory and executable on the processor, wherein the processor implements the steps of the millimeter wave radar calibration method as described in any one of the above when executing the program.

In a fourth aspect, the present invention also provides a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium having stored thereon a computer program which, when executed by a processor, performs the steps of the millimeter wave radar calibration method as described in any one of the above.

In the millimeter wave radar calibration method, the millimeter wave radar calibration device and the electronic equipment, the actually measured azimuth angle and the actually measured pitch angle are calibrated according to the estimated value of the relative position difference and the estimated difference of the phase difference error, so that the azimuth angle and the pitch angle of the actual target object are accurately measured.

Drawings

In order to more clearly illustrate the technical solutions of the present invention or the prior art, the drawings needed for the description of the embodiments or the prior art will be briefly described below, and it is obvious that the drawings in the following description are some embodiments of the present invention, and those skilled in the art can also obtain other drawings according to the drawings without creative efforts.

FIG. 1 is a schematic flow chart of a millimeter wave radar calibration method provided by the present invention;

FIG. 2 is a schematic illustration of the radar scan range of the present invention;

FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram of the present invention for constructing a radar coordinate system;

FIG. 4 is a schematic illustration of a prior art estimated measured azimuth;

FIG. 5 is a schematic illustration of the present invention with respect to angular error prior to calibration;

FIG. 6 is a schematic illustration of the angle measurement error after calibration according to the present invention;

FIG. 7 is a schematic structural diagram of a calibration apparatus for a 4D millimeter wave radar according to the present invention;

fig. 8 is a schematic structural diagram of an electronic device provided in the present invention.

Detailed Description

In order to make the objects, technical solutions and advantages of the present invention clearer, the technical solutions of the present invention will be clearly and completely described below with reference to the accompanying drawings, and it is obvious that the described embodiments are some, but not all embodiments of the present invention. All other embodiments, which can be derived by a person skilled in the art from the embodiments given herein without making any creative effort, shall fall within the protection scope of the present invention.

The technical terms to which the present invention relates are described below:

compared with a 3D millimeter wave radar, the 4D millimeter wave radar increases estimation and measurement of the parameter of the pitch angle dimension. Sensors that maintain robustness under various weather and visibility conditions and achieve 1 degree angular resolution in both azimuth and pitch (even lower under super resolution algorithms) are imaging millimeter wave radars, also known as 4D millimeter wave radars.

In order to solve the problem of low calibration operation precision in the prior art, the invention provides a millimeter wave radar calibration method, a calibration device and electronic equipment.

The millimeter wave radar calibration method, the calibration device and the electronic equipment can be applied to 4D millimeter wave radars and can also be downward compatible with 3D, 2D and other millimeter wave radars.

The millimeter wave radar calibration method, calibration apparatus, and electronic device according to the present invention will be described with reference to fig. 1 to 8.

Referring to fig. 1, fig. 1 is a schematic flowchart of a calibration method for a millimeter wave radar according to an embodiment of the present invention, where the millimeter wave radar includes at least one transmitting antenna and at least two receiving antennas, and the at least two receiving antennas include a first receiving antenna and a second receiving antenna, the calibration method includes:

and 101, driving the millimeter wave radar to detect a target point for multiple times.

Exemplarily, the step 101 further comprises: and determining an initial normal direction of the millimeter wave radar and constructing a radar coordinate system based on the initial normal direction, wherein the radar coordinate system is used for defining the position of a target point relative to the millimeter wave radar.

For example, the millimeter wave radar calibration method can be a calibration scheme for a 4D millimeter wave radar, and since the 4D radar needs to measure the azimuth angle and the pitch angle, the invention can find the globally optimal strategy on the whole azimuth plane and pitch plane, that is, the calibration coefficients of the azimuth angle and pitch angle measured by the millimeter wave radar can be found.

It should be noted that the terms "first", "second", and the like in the description and the claims and in the drawings are used for distinguishing similar objects and not necessarily for describing a particular order or sequence. It will be appreciated that the data so used may be interchanged under appropriate circumstances such that the embodiments described herein may be practiced otherwise than as specifically illustrated or described herein.

For example, the millimeter wave radar may be rotated according to a preset rule so that the normal direction of the millimeter wave radar is sequentially located in a plurality of different spatial orientations, and the millimeter wave radar is driven to detect the target point placed right in front of the initial normal direction of the millimeter wave radar when the normal direction is located in each spatial orientation. For example, the millimeter wave radar may be installed on a turntable that can be rotated in azimuth and elevation, and a target point (e.g., a corner reflector) may be placed right in front of the normal direction of the millimeter wave radar to satisfy the far-field condition.

The far-field condition is a necessary condition that spherical waves emitted by a point wave source can be regarded as plane waves at a field point (a point where a non-point wave source is located). Far field conditions ensure that the phase factor of a spherical wave approximately meets the phase factor of a plane wave.

The preset rule is to set a rotation plan of the turntable, for example, the rotation plan of the turntable may be set to be in a manner of scanning according to an azimuth line. Specifically, a scanning manner by azimuth is set.

Referring to fig. 2, fig. 2 is a schematic diagram of a scanning range of the radar of the present invention, which shows a dot diagram of a rectangular plane, where a line scanning range is set, for example, from-45 ° to 45 °, and a step is 1 °; and the pitch angle is unchanged during line scanning, and after one line is scanned, the next pitch angle is moved to perform the next group of line scanning. The scanning range of the pitch angle is, for example, -15 ° to 15 °, and the step is 1 °.

It should be noted that the present invention is not limited to the dot pattern of the rectangular surface, and may be arranged in other ways, such as an elliptical surface.

And 102, performing plane fitting operation based on the combination of the azimuth angle, the pitch angle and the actually measured phase difference obtained by each detection to obtain an estimated value of the relative position difference of the second receiving antenna relative to the first receiving antenna and an estimated value of the phase difference error between the actually measured phase difference and the theoretical phase difference, and calibrating the millimeter wave radar based on the estimated value of the relative position difference and the estimated value of the phase difference error.

Illustratively, for each detection, recording the azimuth angle and the pitch angle of the fixed target point relative to the millimeter wave radar at present, which are obtained according to the relative relation between the current normal direction of the millimeter wave radar and the initial normal direction of the millimeter wave radar. For example, when the millimeter wave radar scans a certain point, the actually measured phase difference between two antenna array elements is measured, and the corresponding azimuth angle and the pitch angle are recorded together. That is, each time the millimeter wave radar detects, the system records that the fixed target point is currently opposite to the millimeter wave radarAzimuth angle ofAnd a pitch angleAnd actually measured phase difference。

Illustratively, the unwrapping is performed with the 0 ° azimuth and 0 ° pitch points as references. E.g. normally measured phase differenceIs in the range (-pi, pi) and the actual value may beN is positive integer 2 pi.

And 103, performing plane fitting operation based on the combination of the azimuth angle, the pitch angle and the measured phase difference obtained by each detection to obtain an estimated value of the relative position difference of the second receiving antenna relative to the first receiving antenna and an estimated value of the phase difference error between the measured phase difference and the theoretical phase difference, and calibrating the millimeter wave radar based on the estimated value of the relative position difference and the estimated value of the phase difference error.

It should be noted that due to design reasons or processing deviations of the radar device, paths traveled by echoes received by the receiving antenna in subsequent processes are not identical, and thus an additional phase is introduced, which is referred to as a phase difference of an antenna channel. However, once the hardware processing is determined, the path that the echo travels behind the receiving antenna is also determined, and therefore the phase difference of the antenna channels can be considered to be fixed for each radar, and the phase difference of the antenna channels can be calibrated by adopting a proper method without affecting the estimation measurement of the angle of the radar to the target. Therefore, the millimeter wave radar of the invention calibrates the millimeter wave radar through the estimated value of the relative position difference and the estimated value of the phase difference error, so as to realize the accurate measurement of the angle of the target by the subsequent millimeter wave radar.

The above-described steps 101 to 103 are described in more detail below.

The step of determining an initial normal direction of the millimeter wave radar and constructing a radar coordinate system based on the initial normal direction includes:

step 201, taking the normal direction of the radar plane at the initial position of the millimeter wave radar as the initial normal direction of the millimeter wave radar.

Step 202, taking the initial normal direction of the millimeter wave radar asAn axis and a coordinate origin at the position of the first receiving antennaXA shaft,YShaft andZthe radar coordinate system of the axis, wherein of the first and second receiving antennasThe axis coordinates are all 0.

Exemplarily, referring to fig. 3, fig. 3 is a schematic diagram of constructing a radar coordinate system according to the present invention, fig. 3 is a schematic diagram for defining a radar coordinate system, a cube in the drawing and a plane facing to an X-axis is a radar plane, the X-axis is a radar normal direction, and the drawing showsRepresents the azimuth angle of the target point P measured by the radar,the pitch angle of a target point P measured by the radar is shown, the distance from the target point P to the origin O is r, and the coordinates thereof are (Px, Py, Pz). In one embodiment, the target point P may be in the same plane as the second receiving antenna RX2, for example, in the YOZ plane, and dx is equal to 0.

Assume that the coordinates of the first receiving antenna RX1 are (0, 0, 0), and the second receiving antenna RX2 (not shown)The coordinates of (a) are (0,，) The radar coordinate system is centered on the first receiving antenna RX1 as an origin O.

The reason why the phase difference is generated in step 102 is described below:

the angle estimation measurement of the target generally utilizes a multi-channel antenna, and the phases of echoes (echoes refer to signals reflected from the target) received by different antennas and the angle of the target satisfy a specific relationship. Referring to fig. 4, fig. 4 is a schematic diagram of a prior art method for estimating a measured azimuth angle, which is illustrated by taking a radar including a transmitting antenna (TX) and two receiving antennas (RX 1, RX 2) as an example.

The signal transmitted by the transmitting antenna (TX) is reflected back by the target, and in general, the echo satisfies the far-field condition, i.e. it can be approximately regarded as a parallel wave. At this time, the phases of the echoes received by the two receiving antennas (RX 1, RX 2) are different (because the paths of the echoes are different in length), and the phase difference between the two antennas satisfies a specific relationship:

φ=2πdsin(θ)/λ；

where φ is the phase difference between the signals received by the two receiving antennas (RX), d is the receiving antenna spacing (known), λ is the wavelength of the transmitted signal (known), and θ is the azimuth of the target.

For example, phi can be estimated through subsequent signal processing, and then the azimuth angle θ = arcsin (phi x λ/(2 pi d) is estimated, but fig. 4 only shows an example of estimating a measurement azimuth angle, but does not consider a pitch angle.

The specific calculation procedure of the calibration method of step 103 is described below.

In step 103, the performing a plane fitting operation based on the combination of the azimuth angle, the pitch angle, and the phase difference obtained by each detection includes:

step 301, calculating a first intermediate parameter, a second intermediate parameter and a third intermediate parameter corresponding to the combination of the azimuth angle, the pitch angle and the measured phase difference obtained by each detection.

Illustratively, the first, second and third intermediate parameters are calculated according to the following formulas:

；

wherein the content of the first and second substances,represents the first intermediate parameter,Representing said second intermediate parameter, Z said third intermediate parameter, theta an azimuth angle of the target point, phi a pitch angle of the target point,the measured phase difference corresponding to the azimuth and pitch angles of the same group is represented.

Thus, according toTo calculate the point location correspondences，And Z is the measured phase difference of the unwrapping corresponding to the point location in the above step 103。

Step 302, performing the plane fitting operation based on a preset plane equation and according to the first intermediate parameter, the second intermediate parameter, and the third intermediate parameter obtained by all the detections to obtain estimated values of the first parameter, the second parameter, and the third parameter, and obtaining an estimated value of the relative position difference and an estimated value of the phase difference error according to the estimated values of the first parameter, the second parameter, and the third parameter.

Illustratively, the plane fitting operation is performed to obtain the estimated values of the first parameter a, the second parameter b, and the third parameter c according to the following plane equation:

。

following the above-mentioned plane equationThe derivation of (a):

as can be seen from the above, the coordinates of the first receiving antenna RX1 and the second receiving antenna RX2 are (0, 0, 0) and (0,，) I.e. with RX1 as the center as the origin O.

The theoretical phase difference of the echoes of the target point P measured theoretically by the first receiving antenna RX1 and the second receiving antenna RX2 is:

；

wherein the content of the first and second substances,representing the theoretical phase difference corresponding to the azimuth and pitch angles of the same set,the pitch angle is expressed in terms of,representing the azimuth angle, and λ is the wavelength of the transmitted signal.

However, due to the existence of phase inconsistency of the antenna channels, the actually measured phase difference of the echo of the target point P actually measured should be:

；

wherein the content of the first and second substances,representing the measured phase difference corresponding to the azimuth and pitch angles of the same group,the pitch angle is expressed in terms of,representing the azimuth angle, lambda is the wavelength of the transmitted signal,indicating a phase error due to phase inconsistency of the antenna channels.

Compared with the theoretical phase difference, the actually measured phase difference is mainly caused by the phase error of the antenna channel due to the phase inconsistency of the antenna channelTherefore, the present invention needs to estimate the measured phase difference by the estimated receiving antenna coordinate position deviation parameters (i.e. the estimated value of the relative position difference and the estimated value of the phase difference error)Azimuth and pitch ofAnd (6) calibrating.

And transforming the equation of the actually measured phase difference to obtain:

。

order toThen, obtaining:

。

i.e. the plane equation described above, which performs the plane fitting operation.

Illustratively, the plane equation is fitted using a least squares methodTo obtain the estimated values of the first parameter a, the second parameter b and the third parameter c.

E.g. based on the equationConstructing a least squares error function：

。

And when the least square error function S takes the minimum value, obtaining the best fitting plane.

In particular, in the least squares method, the、、Is treated as independent variable, is derived and then is obtained by using matrix form、、By comparing the measured data (i.e. the first intermediate parameters)Second intermediate parameterA third intermediate parameter) By introducing the expression, it can be calculated、、An estimate of (d). The calculation process of the specific least square method is not described in detail herein.

Step 303, obtaining an estimated value of the relative position difference and an estimated value of the phase difference error according to the estimated values of the first parameter, the second parameter and the third parameter.

Illustratively, the estimated value of the relative position difference and the estimated value of the phase difference error are obtained according to the following formulas:

；

wherein a represents the first parameter, b represents the second parameter,Representing said third parameter, λ being the wavelength of the transmitted signal,an estimate value representing the error in the phase difference,said second receiving antenna is represented inYAn estimate of the relative positional difference on the axis with respect to the first receive antenna,said second receiving antenna is represented inZAn estimate of the relative positional difference on the axis with respect to the first receive antenna.

In step 103, the step of calibrating the millimeter wave radar based on the estimated value of the relative position difference and the estimated value of the phase difference error includes:

step 401, estimating the phase difference errorSetting as a phase compensation reference value for the first receive antenna and the second receive antenna.

Illustratively, assume that the original amplitude and phase information of the first receiving antenna RX1 and the second receiving antenna RX2 are respectively、Estimating said phase difference errorThe result of phase compensation on the antenna channels is respectively、。

Step 402, respectively using the second receiving antennasYShaft andestimate of relative position difference on axis with respect to the first receiving antenna、Instead of the actual values, for subsequently performing calculation operations for the direction angle and the pitch angle of the detection object based on the phase compensation reference value, the estimated value of the relative position difference.

Illustratively based on the foregoing、As a result of the phase compensation of , Instead of the above-mentioned actually measured phase differenceIn the formula , Actual values for subsequent calculation operations for the direction angle and the pitch angle of the detection object.

Illustratively, the millimeter wave radar calibration method of the present invention further includes:

and measuring the azimuth angle and the pitch angle of the actual target based on the estimated value of the relative position difference and the estimated value of the phase difference error.

Since the phase difference of the antenna channels is fixed for each radar, the calibration method of the present invention can be used to calibrate the phase difference of the antenna channels without affecting the estimation measurement of the radar to the angle of the actual target. Therefore, the millimeter wave radar of the invention calibrates the millimeter wave radar through the estimated value of the relative position difference and the estimated value of the phase difference error so as to realize the accurate measurement of the azimuth angle and the pitch angle of the target by the millimeter wave radar.

Specifically, the estimated value of the relative position difference and the estimated value of the phase difference error may be stored in a memory inside the millimeter wave radar, so that the millimeter wave radar may measure a target to be detected (i.e., an actual target) by using the calibrated estimated value of the relative position difference and the calibrated estimated value of the phase difference error in a subsequent measurement process, thereby improving the accuracy of the millimeter wave radar measurement.

The following is a detailed description of a prior art point calibration method or a linear fitting calibration method, to distinguish from the plane fitting calibration method described in the present application.

(1) The prior art point calibration method:

the point calibration is performed using only one angle point of the target (usually the radar normal direction, and the azimuth angle and the pitch angle are both 0 degrees). Theoretically, the echo phase difference of the target at the angle point is also determined, if the measured phase difference is different from the measured phase difference, the difference is the inconsistency of the channel phases, then the difference is used as a calibration factor, and the subsequent angle measurement is compensated by using the calibration factor.

(2) Prior art linear fitting calibration methods:

the linear fitting calibration criterion may select and use a plurality of azimuth angles and corresponding phase differences, for example, the above formula phi =2 pi dsin (theta)/lambda, phi and sin (theta) satisfies a linear relationship, after linear fitting, a slope and an intercept of a fitting straight line may be estimated, the slope corresponding to an antenna pitch, the intercept corresponding to a channel phase inconsistency, the method considers global optimum of the whole azimuth angle, and even if the antenna pitch has a processing error, calibration may be performed.

However, in practice, the phase of the echo received by the antenna is different from the theoretical phase, and there is a fluctuation in space, that is, the phase difference at different angles is different from the theoretical phase difference. Thus, the position of the selected point can be calibrated very accurately using the point calibration method, while other angles are not necessarily good, since the selected point is likely to be a point that is far from the theoretical value; while using the linear fit calibration may find relatively good calibration factors globally for 3D radar (3D radar estimates only range, azimuth and doppler velocity, but not pitch), it is not yet comprehensive enough for 4D radar.

Referring to fig. 5 and 6, fig. 5 is a schematic diagram of an angle measurement error before calibration according to the present invention, fig. 6 is a schematic diagram of an angle measurement error after calibration according to the present invention, where the horizontal axis is an actual target angle, and the vertical axis is an error of a measured angle relative to the actual target angle, i.e., a measured angle-actual target angle.

In summary, the millimeter wave radar calibration method provided by the invention calibrates the actually measured azimuth angle and pitch angle according to the estimated value of the relative position difference and the estimated difference of the phase difference error, so as to accurately measure the azimuth angle and pitch angle of the actual target object.

The millimeter wave radar calibration apparatus provided by the present invention is described below, and the millimeter wave radar calibration apparatus described below and the millimeter wave radar calibration method described above may be referred to in correspondence with each other.

Referring to fig. 7, fig. 7 is a schematic structural diagram of a calibration apparatus for a 4D millimeter wave radar according to the present invention, which is a calibration apparatus 500 for a millimeter wave radar according to the present invention, the millimeter wave radar has at least one transmitting antenna and at least two receiving antennas, the at least two receiving antennas include a first receiving antenna and a second receiving antenna, and the apparatus includes an actual measurement driving module 502, a recording module 503, a plane fitting module 504, and a calibration module 505.

And the actual measurement driving module 502 is used for driving the millimeter wave radar to detect a target point for multiple times.

A recording module 503, configured to record, for each detection, an azimuth angle and a pitch angle of the target point relative to the millimeter wave radar at present, and an actually measured phase difference between a received signal of the first receiving antenna and a received signal of the second receiving antenna, which is obtained according to an echo from the target point;

a plane fitting module 504, configured to perform plane fitting operation based on a combination of the azimuth angle, the pitch angle, and the measured phase difference obtained by each detection to obtain an estimated value of a relative position difference between the second receiving antenna and the first receiving antenna and an estimated value of a phase difference error between the measured phase difference and the theoretical phase difference;

a calibration module 505, configured to calibrate the millimeter wave radar based on the estimated value of the relative position difference and the estimated value of the phase difference error.

Illustratively, the calibration apparatus 500 of the millimeter wave radar further comprises a coordinate construction module 501 for determining an initial normal of the millimeter wave radar and constructing a radar coordinate system based on the initial normal.

Illustratively, the measured drive module 502 is further configured to:

and rotating the millimeter wave radar according to a preset rule to enable the normal direction of the millimeter wave radar to be in a plurality of different spatial directions in sequence, and driving the millimeter wave radar to detect a fixed target point which is placed right in front of the initial normal direction of the millimeter wave radar when the normal direction is in each spatial direction.

Illustratively, the recording module 503 is further configured to:

and recording the azimuth angle and the pitch angle of the fixed target point relative to the millimeter wave radar at present according to the relative relation between the current normal direction of the millimeter wave radar and the initial normal direction of the millimeter wave radar for each detection.

Illustratively, the coordinate building module 501 is further configured to:

taking a normal direction of a radar plane at an initial position of the millimeter wave radar as an initial normal direction of the millimeter wave radar, and taking the initial normal direction of the millimeter wave radar as an initial normal direction of the millimeter wave radarAn axis and a coordinate origin at the position of the first receiving antennaXA shaft,YShaft andZthe radar coordinate system of the axis, wherein of the first and second receiving antennasThe axis coordinates are all 0.

The plane fitting module 504 is further configured to:

calculating corresponding first intermediate parameters, second intermediate parameters and third intermediate parameters in a combined manner according to the azimuth angle, the pitch angle and the actually measured phase difference obtained by each detection;

and performing the plane fitting operation based on a preset plane equation and the first intermediate parameter, the second intermediate parameter and the third intermediate parameter obtained according to all the detections to obtain estimated values of the first parameter, the second parameter and the third parameter, and obtaining an estimated value of the relative position difference and an estimated value of the phase difference error according to the estimated values of the first parameter, the second parameter and the third parameter.

Illustratively, the plane fitting module 504 is further configured to:

calculating the first, second and third intermediate parameters according to the following formulas:

；

wherein X represents the first intermediate parameter, Y represents the second intermediate parameter, Z represents the third intermediate parameter, θ represents the azimuth angle of the target point, φ represents the pitch angle of the target point,representing the actual measurement phase difference corresponding to the azimuth angle and the pitch angle of the same group;

performing the plane fitting operation according to the following plane equation to obtain the estimated values of the first parameter a, the second parameter b and the third parameter c:

。

illustratively, the plane fitting module 504 is further configured to:

obtaining an estimated value of the relative position difference and an estimated value of the phase difference error according to the following formulas:

；

wherein a represents the first parameter, b represents the second parameter,Representing said third parameter, λ being the wavelength of the transmitted signal,an estimate value representing the error in the phase difference,indicating the second day of receptionIs wired atYAn estimate of the relative positional difference on the axis with respect to the first receive antenna,said second receiving antenna is represented inZAn estimate of the relative positional difference on the axis with respect to the first receive antenna.

Illustratively, the plane fitting module 504 is further configured to:

fitting the plane equation using a least squares methodTo obtain the estimated values of the first parameter a, the second parameter b and the third parameter c.

Illustratively, the calibration module 505 is further configured to:

estimating the phase difference errorSetting a phase compensation reference value for the first receiving antenna and the second receiving antenna;

respectively using the second receiving antennas atYShaft andestimate of relative position difference on axis with respect to the first receiving antenna、Instead of the actual values, for subsequently performing calculation operations for the direction angle and the pitch angle of the detection object based on the phase compensation reference value, the estimated value of the relative position difference.

Referring to fig. 8, fig. 8 illustrates a physical structure diagram of an electronic device, where the electronic device may include: a processor (processor)810, a communication Interface 820, a memory 830 and a communication bus 840, wherein the processor 810, the communication Interface 820 and the memory 830 communicate with each other via the communication bus 840. Processor 810 may invoke logic instructions in memory 830 to perform any of the millimeter wave radar calibration methods previously described.

In addition, the logic instructions in the memory 830 may be implemented in software functional units and stored in a computer readable storage medium when the logic instructions are sold or used as independent products. Based on such understanding, the technical solution of the present invention may be embodied in the form of a software product, which is stored in a storage medium and includes instructions for causing a computer device (which may be a personal computer, a server, or a network device) to execute all or part of the steps of the method according to the embodiments of the present invention. And the aforementioned storage medium includes: a U-disk, a removable hard disk, a Read-Only Memory (ROM), a Random Access Memory (RAM), a magnetic disk or an optical disk, and other various media capable of storing program codes.

The above-described embodiments of the apparatus are merely illustrative, and the units described as separate parts may or may not be physically separate, and parts displayed as units may or may not be physical units, may be located in one place, or may be distributed on a plurality of network units. Some or all of the modules may be selected according to actual needs to achieve the purpose of the solution of the present embodiment. One of ordinary skill in the art can understand and implement it without inventive effort.

Through the above description of the embodiments, those skilled in the art will clearly understand that each embodiment can be implemented by software plus a necessary general hardware platform, and certainly can also be implemented by hardware. With this understanding in mind, the above-described technical solutions may be embodied in the form of a software product, which can be stored in a computer-readable storage medium such as ROM/RAM, magnetic disk, optical disk, etc., and includes instructions for causing a computer device (which may be a personal computer, a server, or a network device, etc.) to execute the methods described in the embodiments or some parts of the embodiments.

Finally, it should be noted that: the above examples are only intended to illustrate the technical solution of the present invention, but not to limit it; although the present invention has been described in detail with reference to the foregoing embodiments, it will be understood by those of ordinary skill in the art that: the technical solutions described in the foregoing embodiments may still be modified, or some technical features may be equivalently replaced; and such modifications or substitutions do not depart from the spirit and scope of the corresponding technical solutions of the embodiments of the present invention.