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IWR1443BOOST: Is IWR1443 able to do 3D imaging?

Haosen Wang
Prodigy 50 points
Part Number: IWR1443BOOST
Other Parts Discussed in Thread: IWR1443, AWR1243

Hi everyone:

Currently we're developing a product end expecting the mmwave radar to sense its surroundings and build a 3D map for further obstacle avoiding and navigation tasks.

Here are some questions about it:  (The development board I'm using is the IWR1443 BOOST)

1. Is IWR1443 able to do 3D imaging, i.e., get a 3D scanning of the surrounding environment, for example, get distance value along every direction across azimuth and elevation? In the MmwDemo, the angle estimation is based on detected object since I think it’s not an imaging task. 

2. If 3D imaging is possible, is the MmwDemo be able to be altered to do this task? In the Demo, the angle FFT and angle estimation seemed to be based on object detection (CFAR) results.

3. In demo visualizer tool, is there any tool for displaying 3D results, such as detected object in 3D coordinate system, and of course it's even better if 3D imaging results are available?

4. In the Demo visualizer, there is a plot named as “Range-Azimuth Heat Map”, is this a 2D imaging plot?

Thanks very much:)

[unlocked 1/19/18]>LE

  • 0
    TI__Mastermind 29925 points

    Hello,

    In the mmWave Demo Visualizer you can view a 3D scatter plot using the profile_3d.cfg configuration found in C:\ti\mmwave_sdk_01_00_00_05\packages\ti\demo\xwr14xx\mmw\profiles.

    The demo is not capable of 3D imaging. As you mentioned, it uses a CFAR algorithm to determine points based on detected objects. You can adjust the CFAR threshold to generate more points per object which will give it more of a point cloud based appearance. However, lowering the CFAR threshold will also lead to more false detections of objects, so this will need to be tuned based on your needs. More information on the CFAR algorithm and how the mmWave Demo Visualizer processes data can be found in the doxygen at C:/ti/mmwave_sdk_01_00_00_05/packages/ti/demo/xwr14xx/mmw/docs/doxygen/html/index.html.

    The range-azimuth heat map is a 2D plot. You can read more about the different plots here:

    To do true 3D imaging you would be required to develop your own code and GUI as the demo is not capable of accurate 3D imaging of a scene.

    Regards,

    Adrian

  • 0 in reply to aozer
    Prodigy 50 points

    Thanks very much for your reply.
    Here's one more question just for confirm~ you mentioned at the end of your reply that if I want to do "true 3D imaging", I have to develop my own code and GUI. So does it mean that the radar system itself (I mean the TR antennas + IWR 1443) is capable of doing a real 3D imaging task, the hardware or the system or the EVM is capable of doing so, and all I need to achieve a 3D imaging is to only develop user customized code and GUI as well as some data interfaces?
    Are 3D imaging-required FFTs (and other required algorithms/calculations) be able to be solved using HWA and EDMA so that I can avoid programming and coding these basic algorithms?
    Best regards

  • 0
    TI__Guru 71526 points
    [unlocked 1/19/18]>LE
  • 0 in reply to Haosen Wang
    TI__Mastermind 29925 points

    Hello Haosen,

    Sorry for the delayed response.

    I would not recommend a single IWR1443 for imaging applications. What you would need for imaging applications is a cascade setup of 2+ AWR1243 devices. We have an application note that discusses cascading here:

    Cascading will allow for much finer resolution than a single chip, which is required for imaging.We currently do not have any cascade hardware or software that is commercially available though we do have customers who are designing their own cascade solutions and we will be releasing a 4 chip cascade solution in the future. 

    To be able to do imaging using a multi-chip AWR1243 setup you will also require a processor for FFT processing and additional algorithms, as the AWR1243 does not have any on board processing capability. The AWR1243 sends the raw ADC data over a high speed CSI2.0 interface for external processing. 

    Regards,

    Adrian