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mmWave as a speedometer solution

Bruno Saraiva
Guru 13040 points
Other Parts Discussed in Thread: IWR1443, IWR1443BOOST

Fellow engineers,

Our customer aims to develop a non-contact speed sensor for industrial applications. This would be installed in equipment such as cranes, trolleys, loaders, mostly in harsh environments.

Typically, these systems rely on tradition speed sensing solutions, such as encoders or magnetic pulse counters. We'd like to evaluate the concept of using an mmWave solution as the "vehicle" speedometer. The general installation can be thought as a car's speed sensor, but the floor pavement in this case is a highly irregular off-road situation.

Is that something these devices would be a good solution for?

Regards

Bruno

  • 0
    TI__Mastermind 23570 points
    Hello,

    IWR devices are very well suited for such applications.


    Please check the video for "Traffic monitoring demonstration using IWR mmWave sensors" on product page for IWR1443
    www.ti.com/.../support

    Here is the link to white paper about this application : http://www.ti.com/lit/SPYY002

    Thank you,
    Vaibhav
  • 0 in reply to Vaibhav Mahimkar
    Guru 13040 points

    Hello Vaibhav,

    Thank you very much for the attention. I did look into the nice white paper and had looked at the general specs, things seem to be going the right way!

    Mind me elaborate a bit more on the details here, and maybe we can come up with a initial evaluation hardware list so that I can have my colleagues here set up a proof of concept environment?

    In this particular case, the sensor is installed in the moving vehicle, not on an external fixed target. The goal is to measure "my own speed". Of course, "my own speed" is the same as the wall coming against me, but a few mechanical details concern me:

    - There is hardly a reference that is perpendicular to the movement (such as the wall) - more often, the floor is the only thing around

    - On such environments, the "floor" is all sorts of rocks, bumps and what-not (which is probably more convenient to capture reflections, albeit with irregular response angles).

    Here's a Picasso-quality sketch to make things more visual.

    As an initial step here, we'd like to determine which ev board, antennas/sensors and whatever would be needed for a test. Also, a rough "speed accuracy" expectation would be most welcome. For the data output, we can easily integrate the outputs into our TM4C based measurement systems, so once we get "the sensor values", we'll (probably) easily do the rest.

    Regards

    Bruno

  • 0 in reply to Bruno Saraiva
    TI__Mastermind 23570 points

    Hello  Bruno,

    Thank you for providing more information on the application.

    Addressing a few points highlighted regarding the application need :

    Ability to distinguish between distance from object in front vs ground:

    Ability to measure perpendicular reference for distance:

    mmWave Devices have multiple Transmit receive antennas which allow objects to be distinguished in 3D space. For eg. IWR1443BOOST EVM boards can enable object detection in Azimuth and Elevation  and hence separate out the objects in these dimensions.

    This can be used to determine distance of objects which are various angles to the mmWave Sensor and help identify the distance from object of interest.

    Would this be an add on mounted on the vehicle?

    Is this expected to be operated in controlled environment like indoor plant or enclosed perimeter?

    For evaluation an IWR1443BOOST would be a suitable board to get your hands. The Out of Box demo for this board displays objects in 2D space as well as 3D space. This can allow you to see how the scene gets represented in terms of detected objects.

    Furthermore the demo can be configured for various distance/speed and detection sensitivity by modifying parameters available for demo.

    Regarding compatibility with   TM4C based system:

    Are these systems based on TI's TM4C micro controllers?

    www.ti.com/.../getting-started.page

    The TM4C series devices belong to LaunchPad eco system from Texas Instruments and our mmWave Sensor EVM boards are compatible with this eco system. 

    Thank you,

    Vaibhav

  • 0 in reply to Vaibhav Mahimkar
    Guru 13040 points
    Greetings Vaibhav,
    Thanks for the further support!
    I'll take a look at these options and details in a week or two, and will get back here to annoy you a bit more before we order an evaluation package! Yes, our systems are based on TM4C, and I'm pretty sure that we will have no difficult to integrate your output "digested measurements" to our processors.
    Regards
    Bruno
  • 0 in reply to Bruno Saraiva
    TI__Mastermind 23570 points
    Hello Bruno,

    That Sounds good. Please feel free to post further questions as you have them.
    If you think the current questions are answered please mark this ticket as verified.

    Thank you,
    Vaibhav