IWR6843ISK-ODS: How to calculate rangeAzimuthHeatMap(RA map) from Azimuth/Elevation Static Heatmap

liu yang

Part Number: IWR6843ISK-ODS

Tool/software:

Hello everyone,

I want to use deep learning methods for object detection based on the rangeAzimuthHeatMap in TI's millimeter wave radar, but I don't know how to obtain the rangeAzimuthHeatMap

I use "mmWave Demo Visualizer" to output the Azimuth/Elevation Static Heatmap（array in format of(Range FFT size) x ((Number of all virtual antennas)), its tlv type is 8. and I have the following questions:

1. I'm not quite sure about the placement of the antenna of IWR6843ISK-ODS, it seems to have 12 virtual antennas, so what are the indices of antennas related to azimuth and elevation?

2. I saw the TI project uses CAPON Beamforming to calculate rangeAzimuthHeatMap(RA map), so if i simply run an FFT on the antenna domain to transform the data from the antenna domain to the angle domain, will the rangeAzimuthHeatMap generated in this way be different from using CAPON Beamforming?

Best,

4 months ago

0 Josh Dye 3 months ago

TI__Mastermind 20371 points

Hello,

liu yang said:
1. I'm not quite sure about the placement of the antenna of IWR6843ISK-ODS, it seems to have 12 virtual antennas, so what are the indices of antennas related to azimuth and elevation?

Please refer to the picture on this page for IWR6843ISK-ODS antenna indices.

2. First, I recommend you watch the fundamentals of FMCW Radar Training series if you have not already. Module 5 on angle estimation might be especially helpful. Secondly, please review the available documentation to help understand the differences between the SDK OOB demo processing chain and the CAPON Beamforming (MVDR) implementation used in the 3D People Tracking demo.

aoa2dproc Doxygen ({MMWAVE_SDK3_INSTALL}/packages/ti/datapath/dpc/dpu/aoa2dproc/docs/doxygen/html/index.html) - describes the angle processing implemented in the OOB demo.
3D People Counting Implementation Guide - Section 6.1.2.1.3 documents the range-angle heatmap generation of the Capon2D implementation
E2E Thread

Also, if your goal is to obtain a range-azimuth heatmap. I believe this can be done with the Area Scanner example/demo. Have you already evaluated this? See thread below.

https://e2e.ti.com/support/sensors-group/sensors/f/sensors-forum/1015942/iwr6843isk-how-can-i-parse-the-azimuth-heatmap-and-range-doppler-heatmap-from-area-scanner-demo

Best regards,

Josh

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IWR6843ISK-ODS: How to calculate rangeAzimuthHeatMap(RA map) from Azimuth/Elevation Static Heatmap