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IWR1642BOOST: Visualiser not registering all targets

Part Number: IWR1642BOOST

Hello
Could you help me supoort my customer with a few questions.
Please note this is a follow on from E2E post :-

My customer notices that the Visualiser did not register all targets in range, and the stability (i.e. whether the object was detected or not) was not great.

They tell me :-


A lot of this could have been down to the settings and the classification algorithm used to detect a target. However, this is just an observation as our anti-collision algorithm does not require classification of objects, but a simple 1d map of range to target for each angle.

Our top level algorithm pseudocode looks like this:

 void PeriodicService ( void )

{

      /* Define two limiting demands (for left/right wheel speeds)

which are calculated by the anticollision algorithm */

      PERCENT DriveDemand1 , DriveDemand2 ;

 

/* Define an array containing the distance [meters] to target for each angular segment */

double RangeToTarget [ NUMBER_ANGULAR_SEGMENTS ];

 

/* Extract the latest scan from the mmWave radar sensor and populate this array */

UpdateRangeToTarget ( RangeToTarget ) ;

 

/* Run our anti-collision algorithm on this target information,

Generating our limiting drive demands information which clip the wheelspeeds */

UpdateAntiCollisionDriveDemands ( RangeToTarget , &DriveDemand1 , &DriveDemand2 ) ;

 

/* Send the drive demands to CAN that will then be interpreted by the drive controllers */

SendDriveDemandsAcrossCAN ( DriveDemand1 , DriveDemand2 ) ;

}

I could not find an on line application which provided the UpdateRangeToTarget (and I think using an online app would give really poor performance, even for an initial demo).  I looked into downloading the firmware development suite. I downloaded the CCS, support files for the mmWave target, uFlash downloader etc… following the on-line installation instructions. These all installed correctly on my Ubuntu machine.

I then looked for a demo firmware application which I could use as a reference point to insert the above pseudocode. I’ve found a couple, but they seem to be focused on how to optimise the beam pattern, chirp frequencies etc.. requiring detailed knowledge on radar configuration and not on interfacing to a OEM application.  While we would certainly get up to speed on the radar configuration and optimisation when developing a product, I really need a basic setup so I can demonstrate the basic capability to management. I.e. proof of concept rather than absolute range/accuracy.

This is my current position!

So, Is there a firmware demo which provides the above information? It seems a fairly simple radar function. I’m pretty sure I’m looking in the wrong place for my demos. Also, is there a code snippet which configures the CAN peripheral?

Many Thank
Bob Bacon

  • Bob,

    Factors such as the SNR (CFAR) threshold and chirp/scene parameters set in the mmWave Demo Visualizer GUI will affect whether certain objects are detected or not. The radar cross section of an object and the angle that the object reflects the Radar signal will also impact whether it is detected. One basic thing to try to increase detection of certain objects would be to decrease the SNR threshold required for detection. Other parameters to experiment with would be the enables for the peak grouping in the range and doppler directions. Disabling peak grouping will produce more points in the X/Y scatterplot.

    The mmWave SDK out-of-box demo firmware (source code included in the SDK) is a good starting point for custom applications. The demo firmware outputs a list of detected objects/points each with an X,Y,Z coordinate, intensity, and doppler. The data output of the demo firmware is described in the demo (Doxygen) documentation included in the SDK and is also described in the "mmw Demo Data Structure_8_16.pdf" doc in the following E2E link:
    e2e.ti.com/.../619401

    Please mark as answered if this resolves the question or reply if more support is required.

    Regards,
    John
  • Bob,

    Please mark as answered if the question is resolved or reply if more support is required.

    Thanks,
    John