Micro-Doppler Radar Characterization of Vehicle Vibrations

Open Access
- Author:
- Simone, Benjamin
- Graduate Program:
- Electrical Engineering
- Degree:
- Master of Science
- Document Type:
- Master Thesis
- Date of Defense:
- May 28, 2024
- Committee Members:
- Ram Mohan Narayanan, Thesis Advisor/Co-Advisor
Tim Kane, Committee Member
Madhavan Swaminathan, Program Head/Chair
Karl Martin Reichard, Committee Member - Keywords:
- Radar
Micro-Doppler
Vibrations
Vehicle
Spectrograms
Raspberry Pi
Micro-Doppler Radar
Continuous Wave Radar
Vehicle Vibrations
Spectral Density - Abstract:
- Micro-Doppler radar is a cutting-edge technology that has revolutionized the field of radar sensing, enabling the detection and characterization of complex targets by leveraging their micro-motion dynamics. This paper discusses the design and construction of a 10-GHz continuous wave (CW) micro-Doppler radar, an explanation of how the system operates and extracts data, as well as a discussion of the device’s possible applications for characterizing external vibrations of vehicles under different scenarios. The objective of the experiments is to highlight the potential of micro-Doppler radar for remotely recognizing vehicle transmission shifts, occupancy, and any other noteworthy observations. Chapter 1 will introduce the origins of Micro-Doppler research and investigate examples of previous research that will serve as motivation for this thesis. Chapter 2 discusses the mathematical concepts and theory associated with received Micro-Doppler induced by vibration. This chapter also contains a mechanical model of an automobile which provokes additional consideration for the complex dynamics of the targets this thesis focuses on. The system used for experiments is described in Chapter 3. This chapter supplies a full overview of each component and overall design of the Micro-Doppler radar. Chapter 4 describes the experimental setup and an overview of the conducted experiments. This chapter will also cover why acoustic accelerometers were used as the validation method for this research. Chapter 5 explains how the data was processed through MATLAB. Chapter 6 discusses the results of the experiments and any observations made. Chapter 7 compares the results with the validation method. Finally, chapter 8 discusses the conclusions of this thesis.