INTELLIGENT METAMATERIAL RADAR FOR TARGET IDENTIFICATION
Examples disclosed herein relate to an Intelligent Metamaterial (“iMTM”) radar for target identification. The iMTM radar has an iMTM antenna module to radiate a transmission signal with an iMTM antenna structure and generate radar data capturing a surrounding environment. An iMTM interface module detects and identifies a target in the surrounding environment from the radar data and controls the iMTM antenna module.
1 . An intelligent metamaterial radar for target identification, comprising:
an Intelligent Metamaterial (“iMTM”) antenna module configured to radiate a transmission signal with an iMTM antenna structure and generate radar data capturing a surrounding environment; and
an iMTM interface module configured to detect and identify a target in the surrounding environment from the radar data and to control the iMTM antenna module.
2 . The intelligent metamaterial radar of claim 1 , wherein the iMTM antenna structure comprises a plurality of iMTM antenna arrays.
3 . The intelligent metamaterial radar of claim 2 , wherein at least one iMTM antenna array of the plurality of iMTM antenna arrays comprises a plurality of iMTM cells configured into a plurality of subarrays that provide a plurality of phase shifts in the transmission signal.
4 . The intelligent metamaterial radar of claim 2 , wherein the iMTM antenna structure comprises a feed distribution module having an impedance matching structure and a reactance control structure.
5 . The intelligent metamaterial radar of claim 1 , wherein the iMTM interface module detects and identifies the target with a convolutional neural network coupled to a decision neural network.
6 . The intelligent metamaterial radar of claim 1 , further comprising:
a data pre-processing module configured to encode the radar data into a radar point cloud with a non-line-of-sight correction.
7 . The intelligent metamaterial radar of claim 6 , wherein the data pre-processing module comprises an autoencoder.
8 . A method for identifying a target with an intelligent metamaterial radar in a surrounding environment, the method comprising:
directing an Intelligent Metamaterial (“iMTM”) antenna structure configured to radiate RF beams with determined parameters;
receiving reflections from the RF beams;
generating, from the reflections, radar data associated with the surrounding environment;
identifying a target in the surrounding environment from the radar data; and
determining a next action for the iMTM antenna structure.
9 . The method of claim 8 , wherein directing the iMTM antenna structure comprises directing a plurality of iMTM antenna arrays in the iMTM antenna structure to radiate the RF beams with a set of directions and phase shifts.
10 . The method of claim 8 , further comprising:
encoding the radar data into a radar point cloud with a non-line-of-sight correction.
11 . The method of claim 8 , further comprising:
extracting micro-doppler signals from the radar data.
12 . The method of claim 11 , wherein identifying the target uses the micro-doppler signals and a convolutional neural network coupled to a decision neural network.
13 . The method of claim 8 , further comprising:
tracking the target with a multi-object tracker.
14 . The method of claim 8 , further comprising:
transmitting target identification information to a sensor fusion module.
15 . A method for identifying a target in a surrounding environment, the method comprising:
receiving RF beams from the surrounding environment;
generating radar data from the received RF beams;
identifying a target in the surrounding environment from the generated radar data; and
determining, based on the identifying, an action.
16 . The method of claim 15 , further comprising:
encoding the radar data into a radar point cloud with a non-line-of-sight correction.
17 . The method of claim 16 , wherein identifying the target comprises using the micro-doppler signals and a convolutional neural network coupled to a decision neural network.
18 . The method of claim 15 , further comprising:
extracting micro-doppler signals from the radar data.
19 . The method of claim 15 , further comprising:
tracking the target with a multi-object tracker; or
transmitting target identification information to a sensor fusion module.
20 . The method of claim 15 , wherein the action comprises steering the RF beams of an Intelligent Metamaterial (“iMTM”) antenna structure to a direction in a field of view in the surrounding environment.