My project uses Doppler radar sensors in order to provide the user with movement, speed, and distance information of their environment. An array of Doppler radar sensors are placed on the user’s head and vibration motors are placed on the user’s chest, neck, back, and/or arms in order to provide input to the user without impeding any of their other senses. When something moves within about 25 feet of the user, the corresponding vibration motor for the particular direction relative to the user where the movement was detected will activate with a certain intensity to indicate how far away the movement was detected. In cases where an object is moving rapidly towards the user at a high speed, an emergency notification is sent such that all motors are activated and will pulse, while the motor corresponding with the direction the danger is in will be continuous and at a higher intensity to alert the user to where the danger is.

The reason for this project is that from looking at new safety features being implemented in cars such as forward collision warning, I found a great opportunity to use a similar technology to provide almost another sense for people that may be walking, bicycling, or otherwise. This project is intended to provide added safety to users in multiple situations. For example, this can provide added comfort and safety to users walking at night by alerting them towards anything they may not be able to see. In addition, when walking on the street, this can alert users of bicyclists or electric vehicles coming from behind that they might have not noticed. Lastly, this can also be used for those who have visual or audio impairment by provided extra information about their surroundings to improve their safety and comfort. For example, this project also allows users to be able to detect that they are walking towards an object like a wall, and can help avoid walking users from colliding into things.

High Level Design

Rationale

It is becoming increasingly interesting to have wearable technology, but one type, we have had for decades: technology to help the health and safety of people. This is just another kind of wearable device that can help many people in their daily lives. Inspired from safety technology in modern cars that car alert, and even prepare the car for dangers. One such system is the forward collisions warning or mitigating system that detect an imminent crash and can even help prevent it. With more and more people including wearable technology into their daily lives, this would be a great opportunity to integrate technology similar to the forward collision warning system, but for people. Not only would this device be useful to those with visual or audio impairments by providing almost another sensor to them, but also any other person in their daily lives. Walking at night can be uncomfortable and with very quiet hybrid and electric vehicles, it is difficult to sense the presence of them, which can lead to dangerous situations. This system helps provide extra information from every direction. However, we do not want to impede the user. For example, blind people heavily rely on their hearing to be able to understand their surroundings. This should not impair their hearing, perhaps by requiring their use headphones, as that takes away from their sense of their surroundings.

Background Information

The main piece of information required is that Doppler radar implements the Doppler shift effect. This means that the results we get are relative to the user. So, if the user is stationary and an object is coming towards the user, or if the object is stationary but the user to moving towards the object, we get, for all practical purposes, the same result.

$f_r = f_t \left( \frac{1+v/c}{1-v/c} \right)$

Here, is the original microwave frequency emitted by the sensor, which is at 10.525 GHz. Using the second equation as an approximation, the return frequency is just a function of the original frequency and the relative velocity of the object. This is the fundamental property that allows both an object moving and the user moving to be essentially the same; thus enabling both collision avoidance and obstacle avoidance.

Logical Structure

Approaching the design of the project, it is important to first create an overall structure. For this project, there were two logical components: the sensor system, and the notification system. In addition, both of those systems are divided into the hardware and software systems. This division not only has helped in the process of developing, testing, and developing the project, but also modulizes the components so they could be upgraded or changed in the future. In real development, this modularity was actually kept up; for example, the vibration software is completely separate from the sensor software and, instead, provides an easy to use interface to the sensor software to control the vibration motors.

Figure 2 Logical Layout of System

As shown in the figure above, the sensor provides an IF (intermediate frequency) signal to a band pass filter, which not only filters the frequency but also greatly amplifies the signal. The distance can actually be taken from the band pass filter, as it is just the voltage of the signal. The output of the band pass filter is also fed into a comparator, which outputs a 0-5V digital signal for movement changes. The higher the frequency of change, the faster the object is moving. These two signals are fed into the microcontroller, an ATmega1284P in this case. The sensor software measures the frequency using timers and distance using the ADC. It then determines the current situation and invokes vibration motor control functions. The software changes the PWM output for each of the vibration motors periodically using the input from the sensor software. The PWM drives a simple motor driver circuit and invokes the motor to vibrate. Each sensor has a corresponding vibration motor.

In addition to the core of the project, the extra piece is a mode selector. The mode controller’s hardware is composed of a push button and three differently colored LEDs for status indication. Pushing the button will cycle through the three different modes: normal mode, near distance mode, and emergency only mode. Each mode has a unique LED color to indicate to the user. This system simply adjusts the sensor software to only trigger the vibration software when certain conditions are met. This allows for more use scenarios as normal mode might be too informative in certain situations. For example, for most people, it is not an issue to be notified of every movement around them as they walk through a busy street; in this scenario, emergency only mode is much more appropriate as it will only alert them in dire situations.

Hardware and Software Tradeoffs

One of the major engineering decisions that need to be made is how much to do in hardware and how much to do in software. For this project, I opted to use each of their strengths as a basis of how I split apart the systems. In terms of signal filtering, I could have implemented it in both hardware and software. However, to be precise with the IF signal on the magnitude of millivolts, I would have needed much more than 10 bits of data from the internal ADC to be able to read the IF input. In addition, this imposes processing delay. Analog on the other hand was a much better choice because it is able to process it instantaneously for all practical uses and it was not limited by a finite resolution ADC. For the sensor information processing, software was an obvious choice. This can actually be implemented in digital hardware using basic logic gates, registers, and counters; however, the hardware would require too much space and would be difficult to change or upgrade.

There were also compromises required in order to produce manageable results. The sensor provided information from relatively large distances (about 25 ft.), permeates through many materials such as wood and some metal, and, with the high frequency of 10.525GHz, can detect very small movements as well. However, in order to actually make sense of the signal, it required a sensitive signal processing circuit which required a lot of calibration, a very consistent power source, and was fairly large. It would have been possible to use ultrasonic sensors with much less signal processing requirements; however, this greatly reduces resolution, permeability, and distance. For a system that should warn a user about an incoming collision, it is necessary to warn the user much earlier as it takes time for humans to respond, and ultrasonic would not have enough distance and resolution to provide the couple of seconds that people need to react.

Standards

As with any project, the IEEE Code of Ethics is always relevant. Being a relatively-long term project, it is always a good idea to be aware of the safety of others, good social conduct, and honesty. In addition, there are other standards to comply with is the frequency for the microwave sensor. The module complies with FCC rules, Part 15, Section 15.245, which talks about radiation emissions. In addition, falling under the “motion sensor” category, it must comply with the specified frequency for the US, which is 10.525 GHz. The specific module used compiles with both of the standards. The module is QC passed, so it has been verified to meet these standards. Lastly, I complied with the ISO C90 standard in which all variable declarations are done at the top of a function. This is done to follow convention and to allow anyone reading the code to be able to quickly reference the variable declarations in a consistent spot.

Intellectual Property

There have been some similar implementations as this; however, the form factors, interfaces, and technologies vary widely. Some such implementations include a single sensor in a cane to detect movement in front of the user, and a belt to detect movement around the user. However, none have referenced using Doppler radar or as many use cases as this project. For example, the cane can only sense ahead of the user, and is generally only useful for those who carry canes, and the belt would get a lot of user interfaces since the arms and hands tend to stay at about the waist level. In addition, none have reference multiple modes, or any user interface at all, include how they notify the user. Thus, I concluded there is no patents, trademarks, and copyrights relevant.

Hardware Design

The high level circuit diagram is included in the Appendix. Since the ATmega1284P only has 3 regular interrupt ports, I used the pin change interrupt ports instead. From the sensor system, the frequency outputs were connected to pin change interrupt ports. In order to help with both wire and software organization, two sensors were designated to port B pins and the other two to port D pins. The distance readings require the ADC, so they were all connected to port A pins. Lastly, the vibration motors PWM ports where attached to the PWM pins for the designated port. So the first two sensors (designated to port B) used B.3 and B.4 for the PWM and the other two (designated port D) used D.6 and D.7 for the PWM.

Sensor System

As previously mentioned, the sensor system requires a band pass filter and a comparator to output an analog signal for distance and a digital signal for frequency. Not only does this require frequency filtering and amplification, but also noise reduction. Since the IF signal shown below is just a few millivolts and very susceptible to noise, it is important to have a consistent circuit. Note that the signal almost consistently stays within a 20mV peak-to-peak and that moving something in front of the sensor causes only about 2mV difference in the signal. Also note the time base, with is 50ms per division. The signal is constantly changing, even at this fine granularity.

Figure 3 Raw IF Signal from Doppler Unit. (1) No movement. (2) Hand moving directly in front of device.

As a basis, I used Mathieu Stephan’s circuit and swapped out some parts and made some changes to better fit this project. The circuit composed of a small power circuit that provided a capacitor charged filtered 5V and 2.5V power source, and, for each of the four sensors, a two stage band pass filter and comparator.

Figure 4 Power Distribution Circuit

As shown to the right, there is a simple power circuit that filters out high frequency noise, stores charge in capacitors in order to provide a consistent voltage, and also goes through a voltage divider that outputs a simple 2.5V. I included just one of these circuits in the system to provide the power to all of the filtering circuits.

Figure 5 Sensor Filtering Circuit

Each of the sensors had a filtering circuit to output an analog distance measure and a digital frequency measure. In the figure above, I highlighted parts of the circuits to help break apart the circuit into more understandable parts. First, the purple nodes on the left are inputs and the red nodes on the right are outputs. First, the non-inverting BPF (band pass filter) and the inverting BPF provide precise filtering and high amplification. With a two stage filtering system, we add more poles and zeros to create ascends and descents our Bode plot. This first filter passes between 3.39 Hz and 72.34 Hz. This is derived from the formula below such that the 10kW resistor and 4.7mF capacitor is the low pass filter and the 1MW resistor and 2.2nF capacitor is the high pass filter. In addition, it also amplifies the signal by 100 (1MW / 10kW). Similarly, the second filter has a band width from 4.23 Hz to 72.34 Hz, derived in the same way as the previous filter. The amplification is 125, making it a system total of 12500.

$f_\mathrm{c} = {1 \over 2 \pi \tau } = {1 \over 2 \pi R C}$

Figure 6 Equation for Center Frequency for Filter

Finally, we have the comparator. It takes the output from the filter and compares it to a filtered 2.25V, established with a voltage divider (8.2/(8.2+10)) on the 5V supply. In addition, I added hysteresis on the comparator in order to provide stability in the output of the system. Since the amplification of the two filters is so high, noise can be greatly amplified. Adding hysteresis is one of the ways noise is combatted in the system. The other major way noise is combatted is the two BPF are actually in the same IC and I used the LF353, which provides a CMRR (common-mode rejection ratio) of 100dB. The comparator outputs a 0-5V digital signal to indicate a frequency change.

Finally, we have the line with the diode in it. I used a Schottky diode, which has a lower voltage drop, and thus, higher efficiency. The resistor and capacitor is in fact a passive low pass filter; however, in this case it is being used as an integrator. It provides a voltage measurement of the output of the sensor, which corresponds with how far the moving object is, although this output is not linear to the distance of the object.

Motor Driver

Figure 7 Motor Driver Circuit

For these small motors, it is easy to simply drive them with the generic motor circuit, shown below. PWM is fast enough to be able to, at least to any human, control intensity of the motor while continuously running. The PWM signal is connected to the base of a NPN transistor; this allows us to control the current flow through the circuit. When we output a digital low, the transistor turns off and the motor no longer can get current to flow from V_CC to ground. When we output a digital high, the transistor turns on and allows current to flow, activating the motor.

Note that the circuit also includes a diode across the motor. This is very good practice to include, as it is a flyback diode, which absorbs large voltage spikes caused by inductance from the motor. Without the diode, we can have nasty spikes in voltage, governed by the equation. These spikes can be of very large magnitude (50+ V for typical motors) and can wear out parts of the circuit or even destroy them. The diode allows for a space way for current to be dissipated when the transistor turns off and there is suddenly no other path for the voltage to follow.

Mode Selector and Indicator

The hardware for the mode selector was very basic, as it did not need to be complicated. The selector was just a switch in functionality such that pushing it once would connect the 5V to the rest of the circuit and then the microcontroller would be able to read a digital high on the connected port. Pushing it again would disconnect the 5V source and the microcontroller would read a digital low, as the lower part of the circuit is grounded. The mode indicators were just a resistor and LED in series.

Figure 8 Mode Selector and Indicator Circuit

Software Design

As previously noted, the software was divided into two sections: the sensor system and the notification system. Not only did this help during the process for designing, coding, and debugging, but can also help in the future if any upgrades or changes are needed. I used interrupts to capture the frequency changes, which makes the most sense. In addition, I used interrupts to detect mode selection. This is done because polling for these is not efficient and is unnecessary. However, I would need a way to measure speed using the frequency data in a consistent manner. I decided to implement a completely interrupt based system. The main function, after some initialization, will just idle, and interrupts will prompt the system to update the state. So, I defined a sensor cycle to run at 120 Hz, or about every 8.3 milliseconds using timer 1. This means that I will process collected data from the sensors 120 times in a second. I chose this as it was not fast enough that the response would feel instantaneous, but long enough to collect enough data to be able to determine a relative speed and whether the object was moving closer or farther away. As for the vibration controller, I used the same approach in order to provide a guaranteed minimum run time for each vibration using timer 0. The vibration cycle runs at about 20 Hz, or about every 50 milliseconds. While this may seem slow, the vibration is for humans, and this speed is sufficient to provide up to date information without having situations where a single movement detection only invokes a few milliseconds of vibration, which would be virtually undetectable to users. However, timer 0 actually interrupts at about 980 Hz. The vibration state is only handled at 20 Hz, but other mechanisms, such as the ramp vibration pattern, are handled at a much higher speed to achieve a smooth transition in the pattern. The diagram below shows the general software flow, which will be further explained below.

Figure 9 Overview of Software Flow

Sensor Software

The sensor system has two components: data addition and data accounting. Data addition is done through the frequency interrupts from the sensor. Since we can have four sensor interrupting at the same time and they can interrupt as frequently as every 1.5 milliseconds (determined through testing), this code needs to be relatively quick. The frequency signal is active low, and since we have to use pin change interrupts, we would get two interrupts for every movement detection. Each cycle takes 62.5 ns and we could possible interrupt at 187.5 ns at the worst case, which gives us 3 cycles per interrupt. Obviously this is impossible to achieve, and it is also very unlikely that it will get to that point. Nevertheless, I implemented a “best effort” system that is actually allowed to and designed to drop interrupts. When it gets to the point that we are fighting for cycles, we can load the CPU as much as we can, and calibrate our parameters to be able to understand and properly assess the situation. So, if we take interrupts as fast as possible, we can at least take a large number of the interrupts and we set our thresholds to slightly lower than this large number. With this, we can tell that the CPU is at its maximum load and that the particular object is at its maximum speed. In the interrupt, since it is a pin change interrupt, we check if it was a valid interrupt (a negative edge), update an interrupt counter for the sensor and take the distance measurement to store it as the latest value.

In the data accounting section that runs at 120 Hz, we make sense of all of data we had accumulated in that sensor cycle. For each of the sensors, we look at the latest distance measurement to determine how far the object is, we take the difference between the first and last distance measurement to determine what direction the object is moving (towards or away from the user), then we use the counter to determine the speed of the object. The more interrupts we got, the faster the object was going. Using all of this computed data, we invoke the vibration software, giving it a certain duration, pattern, and intensity appropriate to the situation. We also determine if this was an emergency situation. For each sensor that encountered an emergency situation, we invoke an emergency notification. After the current sensor cycle is handled, we clear all of the collected data so we can start fresh for the new sensor cycle.

Vibration Motor Software

Similar to the sensor software, this runs in two components: state set and state update. State set is invoked by the user of the software and simply updates local variables. The three state set functions, vib_on, vib_off, and vib_emergency take in arguments and updates the pattern, duration, power level, and/or start flag for each motor. The state update is invoked, as the state diagram shows, through timer 0. At about 20 Hz, it updates the state of the vibration motors by changing the PWM output compare registers. When the duration of a motor expires, it stops the PWM output. When a state update set the start flag, it will start a PWM output. This handles the accounting for the vibration. Next, it handles PWM ramping. This happens at the speed of interrupts, 980 Hz, and it simply updates the output compare registers for the PWM output for motors that have a RAMP vibration pattern set. One ramp period takes 127 cycles, so it runs at about 7.8 Hz. For the first 25 cycles, it linearly ramps up to the full value of the set power level, and for the last 25 cycles, it ramps down. For the rest of the cycle, it sustains the maximum output for the given power level. After that, it simply updates its internal counter for timing and toggles the status LED, which is just used for purposes of debugging (to check if the system is still running and making progress).

Mode Selection Software

As previously mentioned, this runs through the pin change interrupt. The push button switch provides an interrupt, letting us know to cycle through the three modes. The mode is just a status variable that gets checked in the sensor software. In order to debounce the button, we take advantage of the fact that we already have timer1 setup and in use. After a mode change, we start the debouncer, which is simply a counter. In each timer1 interrupt, when the counter is set, it will increment the value until it reaches 5 counts, at which point it resets. When the button is pressed and the debouncer is active, the pin change interrupt for the mode selector will simply do nothing. However, if the button is pressed after the debouncer is reset, it will change modes. This is a very simply way to debounce – simply waiting about 33.3 ms between button pushes. I chose this method because it was simple and required minimal effort. Since this button would not be pushed very often, there is no need to load the microcontroller with additional demand.

Code Breakdown

main.c

VARIABLES/MACROS	DESCRIPTION
S# (0,1,2,3)	Pin number for where the frequency input for the sensor is connected to
S#_F (0,1,2,3)	Value for current frequency pin of the sensor
S#_D (0,1,2,3)	Accessor to an 8-bit number, taken from the ADC. Does not invoke the ADC to measure
GRN	Bit value for the pin the green LED is connected to
ORG	Bit value for the pin the yellow-orange LED is connected to
RED	Bit value for the pin the red LED is connected to
STATE_NORM	Enum for normal mode. Pertains to the state variable
STATE_NEAR	Enum for near distance mode. Pertains to the state variable
STATE_EMERG	Enum for emergency only mode. Pertains to the state variable
NORM_DUR	Configuration parameter: duration for a normal vibration invocation
NO_HISTORY	Pertains to pin_history1 and pin_history3. This value is what a no history would be for those two variables.
EMERGENCY_CNT	Configuration parameter: threshold for how many interrupt counts are required for a sensor per sensor cycle to be determined as an emergency
NO_EMERGNECY	Serves no other purpose than just to make the code a little bit more readable
DIST0	Configuration parameter: minimum distance reading for the closest distance level
DIST1	Configuration parameter: minimum distance reading for the 2^nd closest distance level
DIST2	Configuration parameter: minimum distance reading for the 3^rd closest distance level
s#_cnt (0,1,2,3)	Interrupt counter per sensor cycle. Pertains to the speed of the movement
s#_fst (0,1,2,3)	First distance measurement per sensor cycle
s#_lst (0,1,2,3)	Latest distance measurement per sensor cycle
pin_history1	Holds the last port B pin values. Required to determine if there was a negative edge due to the way pin change interrupts work. This is for PCINT1
pin_history3	Holds the last port D pin values. Required to determine if there was a negative edge due to the way pin change interrupts work. This is for PCINT3
state	Current mode of the system (normal, near distance, or emergency only)
debounce_cnt	Counter for debouncer

FUNCTIONS	DESCRIPTION
ISR (TIMER1_COMPA_vect)	Performs sensor data accounting, as described in the sensor software section
ISR (PCINT#_vect) (1,3)	Performs sensor data collection, as described in the sensor software section
ISR (PCINT2_vect)	Performs mode selector handling, as described in the mode selection software
measure_ADC	Given a sensor number (0,1,2,3), this will change ADMUX, the ADC multiplexer to the appropriate pin and invoke an ADC measurement.
initialize	Initializes the sensor system, required microcontroller hardware, and initialize internal data.
main	Initializes the sensor system, the vibration motor system, turns on interrupts, then idles

vib.c

VARIABLES/MACROS	DESCRIPTION
DELTA	Enum for vibration pattern. This just says stay on continuously
RAMP	Enum for vibration pattern. This just says use a ramp pattern
EMERG	Enum for vibration pattern. This just says use an emergency pattern
VIB_LVLOFF	Power level for the motor being off
VIB_LVL# (0,1,2,3)	Power level for the motor being on. 0 is the weakest and 3 is the strongest. They are not linearly distributed. Instead, they are distributed using experimental results to be noticeably different
M# (0,1,2,3)	Output compare registers for each of the given motors. This controls the PWM output
D_E_MAIN	Duration for Emergency: Main motors
D_E_ACCS	Duration for Emergency: Accessory motors
m#p (0,1,2,3)	Current motor pattern
m#d (0,1,2,3)	Current motor duration left
m#l (0,1,2,3)	Current motor power level
m#s (0,1,2,3)	Motor start flag. Setting this indicates to start the PWM for the motor in the next vibration cycle. If not set and it was turned off, it will not start
counter	Used to keep track of pattern cycles and vibration cycles through timer 0
vib_ramp	Ramp table. [power_level][index]. Precomputed for quick execution in the ISR

FUNCTIONS	DESCRIPTION
ISR (TIMER0_OVF_vect)	Performs state updates, as described in the vibration system software section
vib_on	Using the provided enums in the header file, can turn on a motor by providing a pattern, duration, and power level for a given motor
vib_off	Turns off the given motor
vib_emergency	Turns on emergency mode using bitwise numbering. This allows multiple motors to be a main emergency motor and the rest will be accessory ones

Results

Subsystem Results

In order to get intuitive use, there was a lot of calibration that went into getting the results. For example, determining the distances for what was near and what was difficult. The distance measurement was not linear, and the farther away the moving object was, the less resolution I had. In addition, the signal was not perfectly a 0-5V signal, so there was added scaling that was necessary. Through testing and measurements, as shown below, I was able to determine the levels. The closest level was at about 2.94V or above. This was in the vicinity of 4-5 feet radially from the user. The next level was a voltage as low as 1.96V, which corresponded to about 7-8 feet away. The next level was as low as 0.98V, which was up to about 15 feet away, and lower than that would be greater than 15 feet away.

Figure 10 Raw Distance Output. Moving towards the sensor.

Next, the frequency needed some calibration. It was more that the software needed to be calibrated to understand what relative speed of the object. In this case, I took multiple instances to determine speed. One was up and down movement of a hand, another was forwards and backwards movement of a hand at high speeds, another was just normal classroom movement, and others. Some of the oscilloscope screenshots are below. Using this data, I was able to assess how fast the object was moving.

Figure 11 Frequency outputs. (1) Up and down movement. (2) Towards and away movement. (3) Three steps back, 1 lunge forward.

Other performance tests for the sensor included permeability. I testing how well the sensor could not detect movement if it was being shielded by a 3cm. piece of wood and also a 5mm piece of metal. For both instances, the sensor was able to detect movement for over 15ft away. The scope shots are shown below.