DRADIS

D.R.A.D.I.S. - Dynamic Radar and Digital Imaging System

 

Member profile details

Membership level
2014-2015 Team
Project Thumbnail Image
Team Name
DRADIS
Project Title
D.R.A.D.I.S. - Dynamic Radar and Digital Imaging System
Design Challenge
Automatic collision avoidance and other advanced driver assistance systems have the potential to save thousands of lives per year. These systems are currently limited in that they are either too low resolution to classify objects, or cannot work in challenging conditions such as rain, fog, dust, or low light. Team D.R.A.D.I.S aimed to design and implement a 3D radar imaging system for research in these advanced driver assistance devices. Our design was based on state-of-the-art techniques in the radar field and will improve the safety and reliability of existing radar imaging systems.
Design Summary
We designed and built an entire radar system, consisting of commercial, off the shelf RF frontend and digitizer chips. We also used a MicroZed dual-core ARM chip with an integrated FPGA. All other hardware and software was fully custom, design and built from scratch. In testing the device, we were able to confirm that all the hardware behaved as expected. The device operates in the ultra-wideband RF spectrum and consists of an array of 16 individual RF transceivers. To generate images, we parallelized the Synthetic Aperture Radar algorithm and ran it on a Graphical Processing Unit (GPU), which allows for multi-teraflop performance. This allowed us to generate images in real time.

Due to difficulty in fully calibrating the system to incorporate signal delays, we have not yet been able to generate 3D images with our software (this is an ongoing effort). However, through extensive testing, we were able to verify that all of the other hardware and software components were working, which indicates that soon realtime image generation will be possible.

Last updated 5/3/2015
Date Updated3
5/3/2015
Date Updated
Sunday, May 03, 2015
Sponsors
Aydin Babakhani
Department(s)
  • Electrical and Computer Engineering
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Faculty Advisor 1 - Name
Gary Woods
Faculty Advisor 1 - Department
  • ECE
 

Team Members

Award(s) and Recognition
ECE Affiliates Day Poster Session:
First Place, Undergraduate Division

OEDK Design Showcase:
Excellence in Engineering: 1st Place Engineering Design Award for 2015
Willy Revolution Awards for Innovation in Engineering Design 2nd Place
Winner

Contact us

Oshman Engineering Design Kitchen
Rice University

6100 Main Street MS 390 | Houston, Texas | 77005

Phone: 713.348.OEDK

Email: oedk@rice.edu

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