Projects:2015s1-21 Inexpensive Portable Radar System

The Inexpensive Portable Radar System project is a continuation of the MIT Coffee Can Radar. The project is now in its third year of development.

This project is primarily being undertaken to expand on team members knowledge on radar and related areas which have previously been unexplored. Such areas include programming, RF desgin, and power. The final product shall be used by the continuing honours team next year and eventually as a classroom demostration tool. With the potential of becoming a teaching instrument, many future students may benifit from the successful compeletion of this project. Thus this project is motivated by personal gain and the potential to help students get an understanding on the fundamentals of RF engineering. Such a project has vast significance for students as it will help them gain this understanding.

Project Team

Student Members

Mohammad Hasan

Bachelor of Engineering (Honours)(Telecommunications)

Kieren Nelson

Bachelor of Engineering (Honours)()

Angus Reid

Bachelor of Engineering (Honours)(Electrical and Electronic) with Bachelor of Mathematical and Computer Science

Wenkai (Kelvin) Zhu

Bachelor of Engineering (Honours)()

Academic Supervisors

Dr Brian Ng

Mr Hong Gunn Chew

Project Aims and Objectives

This years Inexpensive, Portable Radar Project team shall focus on three distinct project aims;

Reduce Cost- Produce a final product that is cheaper than last years product of $700.

Improve Portability- Reduce the overall size of the project (~500x200x200mm) by 30%.

Add new functionality- Implement at least one new function to the system. (Lost marks for not providing some funcationality choices)

Reimplementing Processing Procedure:

An onboard processor shall process all data, removing the need of a laptop and MATLAB licence. The processor will be required to process the radar data and produce images for both the Range and Doppler mode.

Reimplementing RF System:

A new PCB RF system shall replace the current, bulky system as PCB RF components are significantly smaller and cheaper.

Reimplementing Power Source:

With new system components, it has been found that a new range of voltages may be required for the system. This requires a new power distribution method which is capable of outputting powers of 6 and 12W (potential to change as system design finalised) and is sufficiently powerful enough to run all components.

Implementing an Interface:

A small, portable screen shall be used as the output of the system to display processed images via a customised GUI. A 7inch touch screen is available from last years project.

Implement Radar Scanning:

A rotation system shall be added onto the radar allowing it to calculate the distance of multiple objects in different directions from a single location.

If these proposed objectives are implemented, the finished product will move closer to its desired final state of being a truly inexpensive, portable radar. Such a radar has the capability of being continued on as a Honours Project with a different focus or becoming a classroom teaching tool for the university.

History (??)

Radar is an acronym for RAdio Detection And Ranging. As its name implies, a radar system uses radio waves to detect and capture information regarding distant targets. This information can include the targets range, velocity, or shape. Radar first became industrialised in WWII, however its development began well before then. The first operating radar was built in 1904 by the German Christian Hulsmeyer\cite{history}. This device was a CW radar operating at 650MHz and was capable of detecting ships at sea within 3.2km, however it was unable to determine their distance or movement. The radar was developed concurrently by multiple nations, one of which was the United States. For the US, true progress began in 1934 when Robert M. Page was able to track a plane 1.6km away using a 60MHz pulse radar\cite{history}. With the evolution of the electronics industry, in particular digital to analog converters, the radar has continued to develop to this day. Modern radars are capable of a large number of functions including search, surveillance, target tracking, fire control, and weather monitoring\cite{modern}. The use of digital systems has allowed modern radars to increase their sensitivity and overcome performance restrictions from problems such as clutter.