Warsaw University of Technology

Faculty of Power and Aeronautical Engineering

Project Report

Supervisors: ​mgr inż. ​Janusz Gajda & Dr inż. Topczewski Sebastian

Doppler radar Report

By

Zaid Bouslikhin

Student Album Number: 317164

November 2020

1
Table of content

Introduction 4
Subject description 4
Principle of operation 4
System and related elements description 5
Typical errors description 7
Idea of error solution 8
Computer program 9
System and related elements description 9
Assumptions 9
Method of solution 9
Program code description 9
Algorithm 9
Input/Output values 10
Block diagram 10
Program testing and results 11
Testing 11
Results in different scenarios 11
Scenario: the cosine error 12
References 13

2
List of Acronyms

TX/RX Transmitter/Receiver
CW Continuous wave
FMCW Frequency-Modulated Continuous Wave
RF signal Radio-frequency Signal
IF Intermediate frequency
DSP Digital Signal Processing
DAC Digital-to-Analogue converter
ADC Analog-to-digital converter

List of Symbols

Vm Measured speed
Va Actual speed
θ = Θ Angle between the radar and the object
f Source frequency
f’ Frequency perceived by the observer
c Wave velocity
u Velocity of the observer
v Velocity of the source

3
Introduction
1. Project/problem description
This project aims to describe the principle of operation, working mode of a radar
speed gun as well as the inaccuracies and errors that happen during the process.
The device is mainly used in measuring the speed of moving vehicles using the
Doppler effect.
The Doppler effect is a change in perceived frequency of sound emitted by motion of
either the source or the observer. In a different way it could be said that the Doppler
effect is the change in the apparent time interval between two events that arises from
the motion of an observer taking into account the finite velocity of transmission of
information about these two events.

2. Description of objectives to be achieved during the project

Throughout the project, the following points were discussed:
● The principle of operation of the radar speed gun
● The definition of the Doppler effect using in the radar speed gun and its
mathematical model
● Typical errors description during the process and solution
A program that will simulate the problem will be also created and will include:
● The algorithm used during the simulation
● Program code description
● Program testing
● Results of case studies simulation

Subject description

1.Principle of operation
The radar speed gun is based on the principle of the doppler effect.

4
 The Doppler effect is the frequency shift of a wave (usually acoustic or
electromagnetic) between the measurement on emission and the measurement on
reception when the distance between the transmitter and the receptor varies over
time. It is observed every day without realizing it. For example, the sound of a car is
more high-pitched when it comes closer to us and more low-pitched when it moves
away from us.
The doppler differs from one situation to another one. There are few contexts where
the doppler effect would differ:
● Source and observer are both static
● Source gets closer to a static observer
● Source moving away from a static observer
● Velocity greater than propagation velocity

In a typical application of the radar speed gun, the observer is static (radar speed
gun) and the source is getting closer (car).

a) System and related elements description

i. How does a radar speed gun work?

The radar speed gun first generates an electromagnetic wave that is emitted in the
environment that we want to examine, then receives this wave back and analyzes the
changes it has undergone due to signal processing. The wave can be in the form of
pulses or sustained waves. The majority of automotive radars are wave-based
maintained, generally modulated, and use the Doppler effect
The signal emitted by a radar speed run is constant in amplitude and frequency.

Figure 1. Use of Doppler radar to measure the speed

A CW radar transmitting an unmodulated continuous signal can only measure the

speed of a target, e.g.the use of the Doppler effect. He can neither measure distance
nor distinguish two illuminated targets simultaneously.

5
ii. System and related elements description

The essential parts of this system include the following:

● A Transmitter: ​The signal is first generated using a waveform generator and then
amplified in the power amplifier.
● Waveguides:​ The waveguides are transmission lines for transmission of the
RADAR signals.
● Antenna:​ The antenna used can be a parabolic reflector, planar arrays, or
electronically steered phased arrays.
● Duplexer:​ A duplexer allows the antenna to be used as a transmitter or a
receiver. It can be a gaseous device that would produce a short circuit at the input
to the receiver when the transmitter is working.
● Receiver:​ It consists of a processor to process the signal and detect it.
● Threshold Decision:​ The output of the receiver is compared with a threshold to
detect the presence of any object. If the output is below any threshold, the
presence of noise is assumed.

Figure 2. Overview of the speed radar working principle

6
The RF signal and the IF signal are mixed in the mixer stage to generate the local
oscillator frequency. The RF signal is then transmitted and the received signal by the
RADAR antenna consists of the RF frequency plus the Doppler shift frequency. The
received signal is mixed with the local oscillator frequency in the second mixture
stage to generate the IF frequency signal.This signal is amplified and given to the
third mixture stage where it is mixed with the IF signal to get the signal with Doppler
frequency. This Doppler frequency or Doppler shift gives the rate of change of range
of the target and thus the velocity of the target is measured.

ii. Mathematical point of view

Doppler derived two simple equations describing the change of the time intervals
depending on whether the source moves and the observer is stationary or whether
the observer moves and the source is stationary. Doppler's formula,restated in a
simplified form, is:
c±u
f′ = f c±v
However, if one assumes that the observer is stationary, one obtains:

c
f′ = f c±v
where v is the speed of the source. In the limit v = c, f'= f/2 if the source is receding,
and f' = if the source is approaching.

The transmitted signal is represented by a frequency modulated sine wave:

t
f ′t
∫
T x = [2πsin(f + f ′dt)] = sin[2π(f + 2 )]
0

The signal travels a distance and is reflected back to the receiver. The received
signal is identical to transmitted signal, but delayed in time:
t−td
f ′(t−t )
∫
Rx = sin[2π(t − td ) (f + f ′d)] = sin(2π(t − td )(f + 2 d )]
0

Rx is mixed with T x and passed through a low-pass filter, resulting in a signal

proportional in frequency to target distance.

7
 b) Typical errors description
The theoretical accuracy with which distance can be measured depends upon the
bandwidth of the transmitted signal and the ratio of signal energy to noise energy. In
addition, measurement accuracy might be limited by such practical restrictions as the
accuracy of the frequency measuring device, the residual path-length error caused
by the circuits and transmission lines, errors caused by multiple reflections and
transmitter leakage, and the frequency error due to the turn-around of the frequency
modulation.
The error can also be because of the Doppler effect, the frequency of the reflected
signal is slightly higher than the original transmitted signal.
However, the most important and common measurement is the cosine Error.
The cosine error takes place when measuring the speed of an object with radar, an
adjustment needs to be made based on the angle the object in motion is traveling
relative to the radar. In other words, the cosine error occurs when the velocity of the
vehicle is in a different direction than the direction in which the radio wave is
travelling.

Figure 4. Cosine error illustration

c) Idea of error solution

The math for the correction is:
V m = V a cosθ
If​ V m is the measured speed, the actual speed, V a , is a higher value that has been
reduced by the cosine of the angle . For all the angles of from 0 to 90, the cosine provides
numbers from 1 to 0. Therefore, the actual speed vA will be a number larger than the
measured speed. The larger the angle , the higher the actual speed vA will be. Alternatively,
rearranging to solve for Va:
Vm
Va = cosθ
One can notice that vA will be greater than vM with the adjustment by the inverse of cosine.

If the angle to the object is not known but the range R and distance d are, the correction can
still be calculated. The range to the object is not the line of sight distance but the range of
the object if it were slid across and directly in front of the radar module as shown in Figure 4.
Likewise, the distance d is the separation distance between the path of the object and the
line 90 from the radar module. Knowing these two values, the adjustment to speed is:

8
 R
Va = Vm
√R2 +d2
The angle θ is related to the range and distance by:
θ = Θ = tan−1 Rd

2.Computer program
a) System and related elements description
i) Assumptions
The radar assumed to be used in this project has the following properties:
● Frequency of operation = 77GHz
● Max Range = 200m
● Range Resolution = 1 m
● Max Velocity = 100 m/s
Such radar is able to measure the velocity of cars up to 100m/s (360km/h) in a field
of range 200m.
We also assume that the position and speed of the radar is known (in other words, if
the source is stationary or moving) as well as the position and speed of the car.

ii) Method of solution

The goal of the program is to simulate real-life conditions of a radar capturing the
speed of cars. To do so, many tools are needed:
1. Signal generator: an FMCW signal will be generated
2. A radar: with known initial position and velocity
3. A target: for the sake of simplicity, a car will be considered as a target
4. Propagation model: the FMCW signal will be propagated in a free space
using the speed of light as a propagation speed
5. TX/RX: “hardware” to transmit and receive the soundwave
6. DSP techniques: to determine the frequency of the returned single, the
doppler shift and beat frequency. With such informations, one can determine
the range (how far was the target from the radar) and the speed of the target
(how fast was the target was going)
Using the estimated parameters (range, speed), one can compare them to the
original, expected parameters.

b) Program code description

i) Algorithm
❖ Generating the FMCW signal

❖ Radar placement

❖ Radar targeting range

❖ Target position

9
 ❖ FMCW propagation model

❖ Setting up TX/RX

❖ Simulating

❖ Parameter extraction from the returned signal

❖ Parameter estimation

ii) Input/Output values

Input values Description

Radar speed Defines the radar’s state (if stationary or

moving)

Radar position Where the radar is placed in relative to the car

Target distance How far is the car from the radar

Target speed How fast is the car going at

Output values Description

Estimated target position Estimated car’s position in relative to the radar

Estimated target speed Estimated car’s velocity from the sent signal

The output values are then compared to the input values in order to evaluate
the results of the program.

iii) Block diagram

10
 Figure 5. Visual block diagram of the functioning of the computer program

c) Program testing and results

i) Testing
In order to test the program, the doppler map was used in order to make sure
that the program works as expected.
The doppler map uses the initial values that go through each component
(signal generator, TX transmitter, RX receiver) and uses the returned value to
map the radar range highlighting the response, received by the RX receiver.

In the following example, the target was positioned 120m far away from the
radar with a speed of -90.

Figure 6. Estimation of the speed and range in a perfect case scenario

ii) Results in different scenarios

Case Input Data Estimated values

Stationary source, moving target -Source position: 0 -Estimated car position in relative
-Source speed: 0 to the radar: 46.8917
-Car position: 50 -Estimated car velocity:-60.0810

Moving source, moving target -Source position: 110 -Estimated car position in relative
-Source speed: 50 to the radar:10.0000 11
 -Car speed: 60

-Car position: 120 -Estimated car velocity:-0.0249

-Car speed: 50

Moving source, Stationary target -Source position: 0 -Estimated car position in relative
-Source speed: 90 to the radar: 83.1120
-Car position: -90 -Estimated car velocity: -87.8535
-Car speed: 0

Scenario: the cosine error

In order to reproduce the cosine error, another degree of freedom in terms of
position has to be introduced.
In the previous cases, both the radar and the car were placed only on the
x-axis.
In the following example, the radar and the car will be placed on x, y
coordinate frame:

Input Data Estimated Values

-Source position: [0, 0] -Estimated car position in relative to the

-Source speed: 0 radar: 123.0134
-Car position: [50, 120] -Estimated car velocity: -11.8966
-Car speed: 60

-Source position: [0, 10] -Estimated car position in relative to the

-Source speed: 10 radar: 83.7982
-Car position: [-90, 20] -Estimated car velocity: 91.3703
-Car speed: 100

12
 Figure 7. Simulating the cosine error.

One can notice that the cosine error has a huge impact on the measurements.

Conclusion
The aim of this project was to understand how a speed gun radar works and describe its
working principle.
Part of the project was also modeling and simulating an traffic-like car environment and
experiment in different scenarios.
The presented experimental simulations results prove that the radar speed gun is, besides
all the possible error in different situations, still reliable to estimate the speed of a moving
target hence, it’s popularity in the car traffic domain to monitor the speed of cars.

References
[1] ​https://www.neltronics.com.au/how-does-a-speed-camera-or-radar-gun-work/

[2] ​https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radar_speed_gun

[3] ​https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doppler_radar

[4] ​https://apps.dtic.mil/dtic/tr/fulltext/u2/a143240.pdf

13
[5] Radar Guns and Einstein’s Theories, Edward G. Lake, 2018

[6] The Doppler Effect, Michael Fowler, 2009

[7] Radar speed-gun controller, Anthony Stevens, 1996

[8]
https://www.aceec.ac.in/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/unit-II-.CW-AND-FREQUENCY-MODU
LATED-RADAR.pdf

[9] ​https://www.elprocus.com/radar-basics-types-and-applications/

[10] ​https://www.radartutorial.eu/02.basics/Continuous%20Wave%20Radar.en.html

[11] AN-011 Cosine Error Adjustment, OmniPresence

[12]
https://www.infineon.com/dgdl/Infineon-Radar%20FAQ-PI-v02_00-EN.pdf?fileId=5546d4626
6f85d6301671c76d2a00614

14