阅读说明：本技术 一种雷达天线、雷达、无人机和设备 (Radar antenna, radar, unmanned aerial vehicle and equipment ) 是由 刘新初 陈有生 于 2019-10-22 设计创作，主要内容包括：本发明实施例公开了一种雷达天线、雷达、无人机和设备,该雷达天线包括与主雷达芯片连接的第一接收天线阵列和第一发射天线阵列,以及与从雷达芯片连接的第二接收天线阵列和第二发射天线阵列,主雷达芯片和从雷达芯片连接,在第一方向上,第一接收天线阵列中的多个第一接收天线间隔设置,多个第一发射天线间隔设置,且多个第一接收天线和多个第一发射天线在同一直线上；在第二方向上,所述第二接收天线阵列中的多个第二接收天线间隔设置,多个所述第二发射天线间隔设置,且多个所述第二接收天线和多个所述第二发射天线在同一直线上。本发明实施例可以在第一方向和第二方向上检测物体,实现了物体的立体面检测,结构简单并且成本低。(The embodiment of the invention discloses a radar antenna, a radar, an unmanned aerial vehicle and equipment, wherein the radar antenna comprises a first receiving antenna array and a first transmitting antenna array which are connected with a main radar chip, and a second receiving antenna array and a second transmitting antenna array which are connected with a slave radar chip, the main radar chip is connected with the slave radar chip, in a first direction, a plurality of first receiving antennas in the first receiving antenna array are arranged at intervals, a plurality of first transmitting antennas are arranged at intervals, and the plurality of first receiving antennas and the plurality of first transmitting antennas are on the same straight line; in a second direction, the plurality of second receiving antennas in the second receiving antenna array are arranged at intervals, the plurality of second transmitting antennas are arranged at intervals, and the plurality of second receiving antennas and the plurality of second transmitting antennas are on the same straight line. The embodiment of the invention can detect the object in the first direction and the second direction, realizes the three-dimensional surface detection of the object, and has simple structure and low cost.)

1. A radar antenna is characterized by comprising a first receiving antenna array and a first transmitting antenna array which are connected with a main radar chip, and a second receiving antenna array and a second transmitting antenna array which are connected with a slave radar chip, wherein the main radar chip is connected with the slave radar chip;

in a first direction, a plurality of first receiving antennas in the first receiving antenna array are arranged at intervals, a plurality of first transmitting antennas are arranged at intervals, and the plurality of first receiving antennas and the plurality of first transmitting antennas are on the same straight line;

in a second direction, the plurality of second receiving antennas in the second receiving antenna array are arranged at intervals, the plurality of second transmitting antennas are arranged at intervals, and the plurality of second receiving antennas and the plurality of second transmitting antennas are on the same straight line.

2. The radar antenna of claim 1, wherein the first receiving antennas are disposed at equal or unequal intervals in a first direction, and the second receiving antennas are disposed at equal or unequal intervals in a second direction.

3. The radar antenna according to claim 1 or 2, wherein a distance between any adjacent two of the first receiving antennas in the first direction is an integer multiple of a half wavelength of the radar signal, and a distance between any adjacent two of the second receiving antennas in the second direction is an integer multiple of a half wavelength of the radar signal.

4. The radar antenna according to claim 1 or 2, wherein a distance between any adjacent two of the first transmission antennas in the first direction is an integer multiple of a half wavelength of the radar signal, and a distance between any adjacent two of the second transmission antennas in the second direction is an integer multiple of a half wavelength of the radar signal.

5. Radar antenna according to claim 4, characterised in that the first transmitting antennas are arranged at equal or unequal intervals in a first direction and the second transmitting antennas are arranged at equal or unequal intervals in a second direction.

6. The radar antenna of claim 1, wherein the master radar chip and the slave radar chip each include a radio frequency module and a data processing module such that the master radar chip and the slave radar chip operate asynchronously.

7. The radar antenna as recited in claim 1, further comprising a processor, wherein the master radar chip and the slave radar chip are respectively connected to the processor, each of the master radar chip and the slave radar chip is provided with a signal synchronization pin, and the master radar chip and the slave radar chip are connected through the signal synchronization pin, so as to implement synchronous operation of the master radar chip and the slave radar chip.

8. The radar antenna of claim 7, wherein the signal synchronization pin comprises a local oscillator signal synchronization pin and a radio frequency cascade signal output terminal disposed on the main radar chip, and the radar antenna further comprises a power divider;

the main radar chip is connected with the slave radar chip through the local oscillation signal synchronization pin so as to realize local oscillation signal synchronization;

the input end of the power divider is connected with the radio frequency cascaded signal output end of the main radar chip, and the output end of the power divider is respectively connected with the radio frequency cascaded input end of the main radar chip and the radio frequency cascaded input end of the slave radar chip, so that radio frequency signal synchronization is realized.

9. The radar antenna of claim 1, wherein the first direction is perpendicular to the second direction.

10. The radar antenna of claim 1, wherein the first receiving antenna and the second receiving antenna are equal or unequal in number, and wherein the first transmitting antenna and the second transmitting antenna are equal or unequal in number.

11. A radar, characterized in that it comprises a radar antenna according to any one of claims 1-10.

12. A drone, characterized in that it comprises a radar according to claim 11.

13. An apparatus, characterized in that the apparatus comprises a radar according to claim 11.

Technical Field

The invention relates to the technical field of radars, in particular to a radar, a radar antenna, an unmanned aerial vehicle and equipment.

Background

Along with the development of unmanned aerial vehicle technique, unmanned aerial vehicle wide application is in works such as plant protection, aerial photography, and at its worker work in-process, unmanned aerial vehicle passes through radar range finding and keeps away the barrier to realize unmanned aerial vehicle's autonomic flight.

At present, millimeter wave radar can only perceive plane formula's barrier, for example when unmanned aerial vehicle the place ahead has the hillock of certain slope, can only detect horizontal direction the place ahead and have the barrier, and can't detect the information of barrier on the vertical direction, and unmanned aerial vehicle can only stop the flight or by-pass around the barrier in the horizontal direction.

In order to detect information of obstacles in the horizontal direction and the vertical direction, the millimeter wave radar mainly adopts an antenna phased array technology or a mechanical rotation mode to drive an antenna to rotate. The antenna phased array technique needs to set up more antenna element group array on the PCB board, leads to the PCB board size great to the panel of millimeter wave frequency channel is with high costs, and adopts the antenna of mechanical rotation mode drive, needs to increase mechanical pivoted control part, and has increased unmanned aerial vehicle's heavy burden.

Disclosure of Invention

The embodiment of the invention provides a radar antenna, a radar, an unmanned aerial vehicle and equipment.

In a first aspect, an embodiment of the present invention provides a radar antenna, including a first receiving antenna array and a first transmitting antenna array connected to a master radar chip, and a second receiving antenna array and a second transmitting antenna array connected to a slave radar chip, where the master radar chip is connected to the slave radar chip;

in a first direction, a plurality of first receiving antennas in the first receiving antenna array are arranged at intervals, a plurality of first transmitting antennas are arranged at intervals, and the plurality of first receiving antennas and the plurality of first transmitting antennas are on the same straight line;

in a second direction, the plurality of second receiving antennas in the second receiving antenna array are arranged at intervals, the plurality of second transmitting antennas are arranged at intervals, and the plurality of second receiving antennas and the plurality of second transmitting antennas are on the same straight line.

Optionally, the first receiving antennas are disposed at equal intervals or unequal intervals in the first direction, and the second receiving antennas are disposed at equal intervals or unequal intervals in the second direction.

Optionally, the distance between any two adjacent first receiving antennas in the first direction is an integral multiple of a half wavelength of the radar signal, and the distance between any two adjacent second receiving antennas in the second direction is an integral multiple of a half wavelength of the radar signal.

Optionally, the distance between any two adjacent first transmitting antennas in the first direction is an integral multiple of a half wavelength of the radar signal, and the distance between any two adjacent second transmitting antennas in the second direction is an integral multiple of a half wavelength of the radar signal.

Optionally, the first transmitting antennas are disposed at equal intervals or unequal intervals in the first direction, and the second transmitting antennas are disposed at equal intervals or unequal intervals in the second direction.

Optionally, the master radar chip and the slave radar chip each include a radio frequency module and a data processing module, so that the master radar chip and the slave radar chip operate asynchronously.

Optionally, the radar chip further comprises a processor, the master radar chip and the slave radar chip are respectively connected with the processor, the master radar chip and the slave radar chip are respectively provided with a signal synchronization pin, and the master radar chip and the slave radar chip are connected through the signal synchronization pin, so that the master radar chip and the slave radar chip can work synchronously.

Optionally, the signal synchronization pin includes a local oscillator signal synchronization pin and a radio frequency cascade signal output end, which are disposed on the main radar chip, and the radar antenna further includes a power divider;

the main radar chip is connected with the slave radar chip through the local oscillation signal synchronization pin so as to realize local oscillation signal synchronization;

the input end of the power divider is connected with the radio frequency cascaded signal output end of the main radar chip, and the output end of the power divider is respectively connected with the radio frequency cascaded input end of the main radar chip and the radio frequency cascaded input end of the slave radar chip, so that radio frequency signal synchronization is realized.

Optionally, the first direction is perpendicular to the second direction.

Optionally, the number of the first receiving antennas is equal to or different from the number of the second receiving antennas, and the number of the first transmitting antennas is equal to or different from the number of the second transmitting antennas.

In a second aspect, embodiments of the present invention provide a radar including a radar antenna according to any of the embodiments of the present invention.

In a third aspect, an embodiment of the present invention provides an unmanned aerial vehicle, where the unmanned aerial vehicle includes the radar according to any embodiment of the present invention.

In a fourth aspect, an embodiment of the present invention provides an apparatus, which includes the radar according to any embodiment of the present invention.

The radar antenna comprises a first receiving antenna array and a first transmitting antenna array which are connected with a main radar chip, and a second receiving antenna array and a second transmitting antenna array which are connected with a slave radar chip, wherein the main radar chip is connected with the slave radar chip; in the first direction, the plurality of first receiving antennas in the first receiving antenna array are spaced, the plurality of first transmitting antennas are spaced, and the plurality of first receiving antennas and the plurality of first transmitting antennas are on the same straight line; in the second direction, a plurality of second receiving antenna intervals in the second receiving antenna array, a plurality of second transmitting antenna intervals set up, and a plurality of second receiving antenna and a plurality of second transmitting antenna are on same straight line, the radar that contains this radar antenna has realized detecting in the first direction and second direction, has realized the three-dimensional face of object promptly and has detected to need not to increase other mechanical structure and can realize the three-dimensional face of object and detect, moreover, the steam generator is simple in structure, and the cost is saved.

Drawings

Fig. 1 is a schematic diagram of a radar antenna provided in an embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 2 is a schematic diagram of a positional relationship between antennas in the embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 3a is a schematic structural diagram of a single-element sub-antenna according to an embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 3b is a schematic structural diagram of a multi-element antenna formed by connecting 4 elements in series according to an embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 3c is a schematic structural diagram of a multi-element antenna with 4 elements connected in series and then in parallel in 3 rows according to an embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 4 is a diagram illustrating a detection effect of a radar antenna according to an embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 5 is a schematic diagram of another radar antenna provided in an embodiment of the present invention.

Detailed Description

In order to make the technical problems solved, technical solutions adopted and technical effects achieved by the present invention clearer, the technical solutions of the embodiments of the present invention will be described in further detail below with reference to the accompanying drawings, and it is obvious that the described embodiments are only a part of the embodiments of the present invention, and not all embodiments. 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.

In the description of the present invention, unless expressly stated or limited otherwise, the terms "connected," "connected," and "fixed" are to be construed broadly, e.g., as meaning permanently connected, removably connected, or integral to one another; can be mechanically or electrically connected; either directly or indirectly through intervening media, either internally or in any other relationship. The specific meanings of the above terms in the present invention can be understood in specific cases to those skilled in the art.

For a better understanding of the inventionThe embodiment of the invention first introduces a concept of an angular resolution of a radar, which is a minimum angle at which the radar can distinguish two objects, and the smaller the angular resolution of the radar, the better the performance of the radar in distinguishing the objects. The angular resolution of the radar is calculated byWhere N is the product of the number of transmitting antennas and the number of receiving antennas of the radar chip in the same direction.

Fig. 1 is a schematic diagram of a radar antenna according to an embodiment of the present invention, and as shown in fig. 1, the radar antenna may include a first receiving antenna array 110 and a first transmitting antenna array 120 connected to a master radar chip 150, and a second receiving antenna array 130 and a second transmitting antenna array 140 connected to a slave radar chip 160, where the master radar chip 150 and the slave radar chip 160 are connected.

The master radar chip 150 and the slave radar chip 160 may be connected through an SPI, a serial port, and/or an I2C interface, so as to implement communication and data transmission between the master radar chip 150 and the slave radar chip 160.

In an embodiment of the present invention, each of the master radar chip 150 and the slave radar chip 160 includes a radio frequency module and a data processing module, that is, the master radar chip 150 and the slave radar chip 160 can independently transmit and receive radar signals, and can independently process the received radar signals to obtain detection data, that is, the master radar chip 150 and the slave radar chip 160 can asynchronously operate, where asynchronous operation in an embodiment of the present invention may refer to that when an object is detected, the master radar chip 150 and the slave radar chip 160 respectively operate at the same time to obtain detection data in two dimensional directions.

As shown in fig. 1, the main radar chip 150 is electrically connected to the first receiving antenna array 110 and the first transmitting antenna array 120, and in the first direction a, the plurality of first receiving antennas in the first receiving antenna array 110 and the plurality of first transmitting antennas in the first transmitting antenna array 120 are on the same straight line, and the plurality of first receiving antennas are arranged at intervals, and the plurality of first transmitting antennas are also arranged at intervals, so that the main radar chip 150 can detect information of an object in the first direction a through the first receiving antenna array 110 and the first transmitting antenna array 120, for example, in a distance from a measured object to an unmanned aerial vehicle in the first direction a.

The slave radar chip 160 is electrically connected to the second receiving antenna array 130 and the second transmitting antenna array 140, in the second direction B, the plurality of second receiving antennas in the second receiving antenna array 130 and the plurality of second transmitting antennas in the second transmitting antenna array 140 are on the same straight line, and the plurality of second receiving antennas are arranged at intervals, and the plurality of second transmitting antennas are arranged at intervals, so that the slave radar chip 160 can detect information of an object in the second direction B through the second receiving antenna array and the second transmitting antenna array, for example, the distance from the measured object to the unmanned aerial vehicle in the second direction. The radar can perform three-dimensional detection on the object through the distance between the first direction and the second direction of the object.

It should be noted that the first direction a according to the embodiment of the present invention may be a horizontal direction or a vertical direction, and when the first direction a is a horizontal direction, the second direction B is a vertical direction; when the first direction a is a vertical direction, the second direction B is a horizontal direction. The first direction involved in the embodiment of the present invention is the direction a in fig. 1, and the second direction is the direction B. Of course, the first direction a and the second direction B may also be any other two intersecting directions.

In addition, as shown in fig. 2 and fig. 3a to 3c, as shown in fig. 2, the radar antenna of the embodiment of the present invention may be fixed on a medium, for example, on the surface of a PCB, wherein the transmitting antenna and the receiving antenna may be microstrip antennas or horn antennas. Optionally, the receiving antenna and the transmitting antenna may be a single-element antenna, a multi-element antenna formed by connecting multiple elements in series, or an antenna formed by connecting multiple multi-element antennas in parallel, for example, fig. 3a is a schematic structural diagram of a single-element antenna, fig. 3b is a schematic structural diagram of a multi-element antenna formed by connecting 4 elements in series, fig. 3c is a schematic structural diagram of a multi-element antenna formed by connecting 4 elements in series and then in parallel with 3 columns, and small boxes in fig. 3a, fig. 3b, and fig. 3c represent elements.

In the present embodiment, the antenna is on the same straight line, which means that a node P formed by the antenna and the feeder is on the same straight line in a certain direction, where the feeder may be a connection line connecting the antenna and the main radar chip 150. As in fig. 2, the nodes P of the 3 receiving antennas (RX1, RX2, RX3) are on the same straight line L in the first direction a, and the spaced arrangement means that the antennas have a certain distance from the node P formed by the feeder in a certain direction, as in fig. 2, the node P of two transmitting antennas (TX1 and TX2) has a distance d in the first direction a, or the node P of two transmitting antennas (TX1 and TX2) has a distance d in the second direction B, or the node P of the transmitting antenna TX1 has a distance d in the second direction B from the node P of three receiving antennas (RX1, RX2, RX 3).

Specifically, as shown in fig. 1, the distances between the first receiving antennas in the first direction a may be equal or unequal, that is, the first receiving antennas are disposed at equal or unequal intervals in the first direction a, and the distances between the second receiving antennas in the second direction B are equal or unequal, that is, the second receiving antennas are disposed at equal or unequal intervals in the second direction B. Specifically, the distance between two adjacent first receiving antennas in the first direction a may be an integer multiple of a half wavelength of the radar signal, and the distance between two adjacent second receiving antennas in the second direction B may be an integer multiple of a half wavelength of the radar signal.

Similarly, the first transmitting antennas can be arranged at equal intervals or unequal intervals in the first direction A, the second transmitting antennas can be arranged at equal intervals or unequal intervals in the second direction B, the distance between two adjacent first transmitting antennas in the first direction A is the integral multiple of the half-wavelength of the radar signal, and the distance between two adjacent second transmitting antennas in the second direction B is the integral multiple of the half-wavelength of the radar signal.

Taking fig. 1 as an example, in 4 first receiving antennas connected to the main radar chip 150, along the first direction a, the distance between the first receiving antenna and the second first receiving antenna is preferably 1 half wavelength of the radar signal, which is denoted as d, and the distance between the second first receiving antenna and the third first receiving antenna may be d or may be an integral multiple of d, that is, the distances between the receiving antennas may be equal or unequal, and similarly, the distances between the transmitting antennas may be equal or unequal.

As shown in fig. 1, the master radar chip 150 and the slave radar chip 160 are provided with 2 transmitting pins and 4 receiving pins as an example, that is, the master radar chip 150 and the slave radar chip 160 may be connected with 4 receiving antennas and 2 transmitting antennas, and of course, the master radar chip 150 and the slave radar chip 160 may also be provided with other numbers of transmitting pins and receiving pins, which is not limited in this embodiment of the present invention. For example, as shown in fig. 1, when the master radar chip 150 and the slave radar chip 160 may each be provided with 2 transmitting pins and 4 receiving pins, a distance between two adjacent first receiving antennas is as follows in the first direction aThe distance between two adjacent first transmitting antennas isIn the second direction B, the distance between two adjacent second receiving antennas isThe distance between two adjacent second transmitting antennas is alsoWhere λ is the wavelength of the radar signal, preferably k is 8.

Exemplarily, when the radar is configured as shown in fig. 1, the detection effect of the radar is shown in fig. 4, wherein the circles represent the antennas, and the distance between two adjacent antennas in the same direction isThe distance between the two rows of antennas is alsoIt can be seen from fig. 4 that N is 8 in the first direction a and 8 in the second direction B, when the angular resolution of the radar is in the first direction aThe angular resolution of the radar in the second direction B isIt can be seen that the radar arranged as in fig. 1 can realize the detection of the solid plane of the object, and the detection precision of the first direction a is equal to that of the second direction B.

In another optional implementation manner of the embodiment of the present invention, the master radar chip 150 and the slave radar chip 160 may be respectively provided with 3 transmitting pins and 4 receiving pins, and at this time, N is 12 in each direction, so that it can be seen that if the master radar chip 150 and the slave radar chip 160 are respectively provided with 3 transmitting pins and 4 receiving pins, the angular resolution of the radar may be further improved.

Of course, the transmitting pins and the receiving pins of the radar chip may also be other values, so that the number of the receiving antennas connected to the master radar chip 150 and the slave radar chip 160 is equal to or unequal, and the number of the transmitting antennas connected to the master radar chip is equal to or unequal, which is not limited in the embodiment of the present invention.

As shown in fig. 5, in the embodiment of the present invention, the master radar chip 150 and the slave radar chip 160 may further operate synchronously, and specifically, the radar antenna further includes a processor 170, the master radar chip 150 and the slave radar chip 160 are respectively connected to the processor 170, the master radar chip 150 and the slave radar chip 160 are both provided with signal synchronization pins, and the master radar chip 150 and the slave radar chip 160 are connected through the signal synchronization pins to implement synchronous operation of the master radar chip 150 and the slave radar chip 160.

Specifically, in an optional embodiment of the present invention, the signal synchronization pin includes a local oscillator signal synchronization pin CLK and a radio frequency cascade signal output end that are disposed on the master radar chip 150, the radar antenna further includes a power divider 180, the master radar chip 150 is connected to the slave radar chip 160 through the local oscillator signal synchronization pin to implement local oscillator signal synchronization, an input end of the power divider 180 is connected to the radio frequency cascade signal output end of the master radar chip 150, and an output end of the power divider 180 is connected to the radio frequency signal cascade input end of the master radar chip 150 and the radio frequency signal cascade input end of the slave radar chip 160, respectively, to implement radio frequency signal synchronization.

In the embodiment of the present invention, the master radar chip 150 and the slave radar chip 160 may only include a radio frequency module for transmitting a radar signal and receiving a radar signal, after the radio frequency module of the master radar chip 150 synchronizes with the slave radar chip 160 through a synchronization signal, the radio frequency signal modulated by the radio frequency module of the master radar chip 150 is output to the master radar chip 150 and the slave radar chip 160 through the power divider 180 to implement synchronization of the radio frequency signal, so that the antennas connected to the master radar chip 150 and the slave radar chip 160 may be shared, that is, the master radar chip 150 may receive an echo signal transmitted by the second transmitting antenna in addition to an echo signal transmitted by the first transmitting antenna, so as to improve the detection accuracy.

The embodiment of the invention also provides a radar which comprises the radar antenna.

The embodiment of the invention also provides an unmanned aerial vehicle which comprises any one of the radars in the embodiment of the invention.

The embodiment of the invention also provides equipment, and the equipment comprises any one of the radars in the embodiment of the invention. Optionally, the device may be a manned car, a manned ship, an unmanned car, an unmanned ship, or the like, that is, the device of the embodiment of the present invention may be a mobile platform or a fixed platform, and may also be a manned or unmanned platform, which is not limited in the embodiment of the present invention.

In the description herein, references to the description of "an embodiment," "an example" or the like are intended to mean that a particular feature, structure, material, or characteristic described in connection with the embodiment or example is included in at least one embodiment or example of the invention. In this specification, the schematic representations of the terms used above do not necessarily refer to the same embodiment or example.

Furthermore, it should be understood that although the present description refers to embodiments, not every embodiment may contain only a single technical solution, and such description is for clarity only, and those skilled in the art should take the description as a whole, and the technical solutions in the embodiments may be appropriately combined to form other embodiments that may be understood by those skilled in the art.

The technical principle of the present invention is described above in connection with specific embodiments. The description is made for the purpose of illustrating the principles of the invention and should not be construed in any way as limiting the scope of the invention. Based on the explanations herein, those skilled in the art will be able to conceive of other embodiments of the present invention without inventive effort, which would fall within the scope of the present invention.