Vehicle collision warning and avoidance system using real-time FFT

This paper describes a radar system for highway use that is intended to improve both safety and operating efficiency. This system is designed for deployment in both mobile and fixed-location applications, and combines use of advanced millimeter-wave radar technology with low-cost integrated DSP. We employ frequency-modulated continuous-wave (FMCW) techniques, with resulting advantages in power efficiency and cost. A key requirement for real-time operation is high-speed computation of the FFT and power spectrum of the homodyned received signal. This is accomplished by using low-cost programmable DSP technology employing parallel hardware units in a pipelined architecture. We describe the DSP system design and processing algorithm performance.