Direction of Arrival Estimation with Virtual Antenna Array Using FMCW Radar Simulated Data

The FMCW radars are widely used for automotive radar systems. The basic idea for FMCW radars is to generate a linear frequency ramp as transmit signal. The difference frequency, (i.e., beat frequency) between the transmitted and received signal is determined after down conversion. The FFT operation on beat frequency signal can recognize targets at different range and velocity. Increasing demand on safety functionality leads to the Direction of Arrival (DOA) estimation to resolve two closely located targets. Consequently, the problem of angle estimation for 77GHz FMCW automotive radar simulated data has been investigated in this term project. In particular, we examined the performances of FFT, MUSIC and compressed sensing in angle estimation task, and it was found that although FFT is the fastest algorithm, it has very poor angular resolution when compared with others which are both super resolution algorithms. The code for this project report is available at https://github.com/ekurtgl/FMCW-MIMO-Radar-Simulation.