Intelligent metamaterial radar for target identification

Abstract

Examples disclosed herein relate to an Intelligent Metamaterial (“iMTM”) radar for target identification. The iMTM radar has an iMTM antenna module to radiate a transmission signal with an iMTM antenna structure and generate radar data capturing a surrounding environment. An iMTM interface module detects and identifies a target in the surrounding environment from the radar data and controls the iMTM antenna module.

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 . An intelligent metamaterial radar for target identification, comprising:
 an Intelligent Metamaterial (“iMTM”) antenna module configured to radiate a transmission signal with an iMTM antenna structure and generate radar data capturing a surrounding environment; and   an iMTM interface module configured to detect and identify a target in the surrounding environment from the radar data and to control the iMTM antenna module.   
     
     
         2 . The intelligent metamaterial radar of  claim 1 , wherein the iMTM antenna structure comprises a plurality of iMTM antenna arrays. 
     
     
         3 . The intelligent metamaterial radar of  claim 2 , wherein at least one iMTM antenna array of the plurality of iMTM antenna arrays comprises a plurality of iMTM cells configured into a plurality of subarrays that provide a plurality of phase shifts in the transmission signal. 
     
     
         4 . The intelligent metamaterial radar of  claim 2 , wherein the iMTM antenna structure comprises a feed distribution module having an impedance matching structure and a reactance control structure. 
     
     
         5 . The intelligent metamaterial radar of  claim 1 , wherein the iMTM interface module detects and identifies the target with a convolutional neural network coupled to a decision neural network. 
     
     
         6 . The intelligent metamaterial radar of  claim 1 , further comprising:
 a data pre-processing module configured to encode the radar data into a radar point cloud with a non-line-of-sight correction.   
     
     
         7 . The intelligent metamaterial radar of  claim 6 , wherein the data pre-processing module comprises an autoencoder. 
     
     
         8 . A method for identifying a target with an intelligent metamaterial radar in a surrounding environment, the method comprising:
 directing an Intelligent Metamaterial (“iMTM”) antenna structure configured to radiate RF beams with determined parameters;   receiving reflections from the RF beams;   generating, from the reflections, radar data associated with the surrounding environment;   identifying a target in the surrounding environment from the radar data; and   determining a next action for the iMTM antenna structure.   
     
     
         9 . The method of  claim 8 , wherein directing the iMTM antenna structure comprises directing a plurality of iMTM antenna arrays in the iMTM antenna structure to radiate the RF beams with a set of directions and phase shifts. 
     
     
         10 . The method of  claim 8 , further comprising:
 encoding the radar data into a radar point cloud with a non-line-of-sight correction.   
     
     
         11 . The method of  claim 8 , further comprising:
 extracting micro-doppler signals from the radar data.   
     
     
         12 . The method of  claim 11 , wherein identifying the target uses the micro-doppler signals and a convolutional neural network coupled to a decision neural network. 
     
     
         13 . The method of  claim 8 , further comprising:
 tracking the target with a multi-object tracker.   
     
     
         14 . The method of  claim 8 , further comprising:
 transmitting target identification information to a sensor fusion module.   
     
     
         15 . A method for identifying a target in a surrounding environment, the method comprising:
 receiving RF beams from the surrounding environment;   generating radar data from the received RF beams;   identifying a target in the surrounding environment from the generated radar data; and   determining, based on the identifying, an action.   
     
     
         16 . The method of  claim 15 , further comprising:
 encoding the radar data into a radar point cloud with a non-line-of-sight correction.   
     
     
         17 . The method of  claim 16 , wherein identifying the target comprises using the micro-doppler signals and a convolutional neural network coupled to a decision neural network. 
     
     
         18 . The method of  claim 15 , further comprising:
 extracting micro-doppler signals from the radar data.   
     
     
         19 . The method of  claim 15 , further comprising:
 tracking the target with a multi-object tracker; or   transmitting target identification information to a sensor fusion module.   
     
     
         20 . The method of  claim 15 , wherein the action comprises steering the RF beams of an Intelligent Metamaterial (“iMTM”) antenna structure to a direction in a field of view in the surrounding environment.