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REAL-TIME O.S. BASED RADAR CONTROLLER FOR MULTI-MODE PHASED ARRAY RADAR SYSTEM

Y C Hwang, D H Hong, Y K Kwag

Agency for Defense Development, Republic of Korea

ABSTRACT conventional methods are not efficient to directly

apply the multi-mode phased array radar system,
Modern multi-mode radar system requires the which is required for real-time, multi-tasking
more efficient control structure and algorithm for operation. With the advent and rapid growth of
the dynamically changing radar missions and general purpose, high performance processor and
environments as well as effective utilization of the real-time operating system (RTOS), however, it
limited radar resources. In this paper, a real-time becomes now available to employ the multi-tasking
operating system (0.S) based radar system control environment in developing the multi-mode phased
technique is presented for the multi-mode phased array radar system by supporting the complete
array radar system, which is operated in the developing environment for software development.
composite target and clutter environments. The major advantages of RTOS includes real-time
processing capability, the high reliable system
The proposed radar controller has been designed performance, reduction of development duration,
and implemented with high performance, multiple and efficient task management between control
processors in the real-time operating system processors and subsystem's processors.
environment. The implemented techniques have
been evaluated by the real-time operation of the In order to operate radar system in real-time, a
phased array radar system integrated in the van- prior requirement is that the hardware architecture
type test-bed. Depending on the allocated missions of the control processor has a capability of
and functions, the radar controller efficiently processing and operating in real-time. The design
operates by distributing the required loads to the concept of such a hardware architecture is based
multiple processors interconnected through the on the job-distributed network for optimal
dedicated high speed data network. The main processing load to each processor and task-based
hardware structure design is based on the PME68- software structure for easy programming and
42, single board computer of Radstone and debugging, which is efficient for handling the
Transputer processor of Inmos. The software code massive radar data and various control targets in
is developed using C-language with VRTXsa of real-time.
Microtec and VIRTUOSO of ISI. The standard VME
bus and transputer link are used for the interfaces In this paper, the overview of the phased array
between the control processors , radar system is first described, and the details of
the designed radar system controller is presented
INTRODUCTION with major functions and features of hardware and
software. Finally, some results will be given in
Adaptability and multi-function are the essential to running on the RTOS.
the modern radar system. The multi-tasking radar
system control is a important role of the modern SYSTEM OVERVIEW
radar system in detecting the desired targets
under the complicated clutters and sophisticated For the multi-mode radar operation, the search
threat environments[l]. In order to operate the beam scans the 3D-space by rotating in azimuth
radar system as a whole for the desired function, it direction while simultaneously electronically
is important to sense the timed event and to scanning in elevation direction. There are three
transfer the exact command signal to control each beam modes available in this system such as
sub-system interconnected with central radar search, verify, and track mode. In a search beam
controller: the major subsystems are antenna with mode, various processing algorithms are operated
beam steering unit, transmitter and receiver, radar such as pulse compression, clutter filtering, doppler
signal processor. processing, CFAR processing, and clutter
mapping[2]. In a verify mode, the beam returns to
Most of conventional radar system has employed the back position using frequency backscan where
the dedicated hardwired processor and a high- the target has been detected in order to confirm the
level, assembly language, which is limited in use target detection, and resolve the range and doppler
for sequential or concurrent programming. These ambiguity resulting from the different PRF set.

Radar 97, 14 - 16 October 1997, Publication No. 449 OlEE 1997

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Once a verify detection is made, a series of tests commands' to the related subsystems according
are made to determine if the target of interest, the following beam operational modes of scenario.
including range, velocity, cross-section amplitude, As shown in figure 3, The search mode is to decide
and possible helicopter target. In a track mode, the whether or not the targlet is within the illuminated
initial track beam cluster is sent out at the same pencil beam at the fixed beam positions. It requires
azimuth and elevation. several burst signal to complete the processing of
the returned target signal. The verify mode is to
The system block diagram is shown in figure 1. confirm the existence of targets detected in search
The system is composed of several subsystems : mode using backscan beam in previous azimuth
slotted array antenna with beam steering unit, sector. If the target is detected again in verify
transmitter and receiver, radar signal processor, mode, then the traclk mode is followed with
radar controller. Particularly, the radar controller is sequential lobing technique using three sequential
composed of radar data processor, control beam illuminations. The angle errors in both
processor, and display unit. azimuth and elevatiori are extracted through
tracking process, and the results are used to
The key features of the subsystems are as follows. correct the center position of the tracking target
The slotted array antenna has the beam steering during next scan.
capabilities in both azimuth and elevation directions
using frequency shifting and phase shifting, Design Concept
respectively. The azimuth beam steering is
particularly used for the verify mode operation, This radar system contlrol technique is applied to
using frequency back scan within the limited angle. overcome the real-time processing burden in
The accuracy of 6-bit, nonreciprocal phase shift operating the multi-mode multi-dimensional radar
allows the beam to steer to the various ranges of system under the complicated radar environments :
angle in elevation direction from search to track. The key design concepts employed are real-time
The transceiver uses the TWT for high power to radar operation and control, timed command
detect the longer target and wide bandwidth for transfer to each subsystem, superior target
frequency agility and frequency backscan in verify tracking, and handy clisplay and man-machine
mode. The radar signal processor employs the interface.
multi-DSP based array signal processor for the
speed requirements of real-time multi-beam Features
processing in each beam mode[3]. The
architecture of signal processor shows a fully Based on the design ccincept above, the following
programmable, reconfigurable, modular, and features are considereid: (1) real-time operating
expandable features according to the required system for concurrency and synchronization, (2)
processing time for 3D-beam data in real-time. timed radar control on the job priority, and (3)
parallelly distributed processor structure.
As shown in Figure 2, there are four groups of
elevation beam: the lower two groups are higher Real-time operating system allows the radar
clutter regions, while the upper two groups are controller to decide rad,ar operation mode, and to
clutter-free region. The beam operation depends transfer the selected mode commands to the
on the search, verify, and track mode each other. related subsystems so that the central controller
The renewal rate of four beam groups ranges from and the sub-modules can operate in the same
every 2 to 8 seconds to cover 10 beams in a row. mode concurrently. Priority control allows the radar
The positions of search and verify beams are fixed controller to perform various tasks under the order
in azimuth, but changable in elevation. The track of system priority according to changable missions
beam can be illuminated at any point in three and environments. The task priority is given by the
dimensional space. The track beam is steered to interrupt scheme between the central controller and
the higher elevation in case of the targets being subsystems through data exchange.
detected in the lower elevation region and traced to
the higher elevation region. Therefore, the Parallelly distributed processor structure allows the
operating mode can be determined by considering radar controller to utilize multi-processor through
the available number of pulse, energy distribution, high speed data network for distributing the
and the status of the environmental threat. required processing burden in real-time. This
modular structure gives a flexibility to extend the
RADAR SYSTEM CONTROLLER necessary computing power by adding the
additional control boards.
Control Mode
Hardware Structure
The radar controller supervises all the radar
operational events and responds the necessary
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Hardware architecture of the radar controller is The multi-mode phase array radar system has
shown in figure 4. The bus structure employed in been designed and integrated in the van-type test-
the radar controller consists of the VME standard bed, and operated in the field for the performance
bus and local bus, where the VME bus is used for evaluation.
command and data transfer within radar controller
boards, while the local bus is used for command The concept and procedure of system operation is
and data exchange among transputers and transfer shown in figure 6.
the timing signal to subsystem.
Total number of 720 beams are allocated in the
The radar controller is composed of several key three dimensional search volume at the time of
boards: radar beam scheduling unit (RSU) for initiation. The basic mode of operation is to start
elevation beam scheduling, radar data processor the search beam mode, where the beam
(RDP) for tracking filter, RSP interface unit (RIU) scheduling task is generated while the radar
for transfer of the beam command and receiving antenna rotates with every 2 sec and generates
the target result from radar signal processor, radar both azimuth reference pulse (ARP) and azimuth
control unit (RCU) for interfacing between RSU and count pulse (ACP) in order to get the current
transputer, timing generation unit (TGU) for several position of the beam heading.
reference timing signal generation, graphic
processing unit (GPU) for main target display and TGU is to compare antenna position angle and
clutter map display unit (CDU) for clutter map next command position. If two value is same, TGU
display. Man-machine interface units are also generates the start of beam (SOB) signal. Once
included such as touch display panel, track ball, the beam command is triggered by the TGU, the
push button switch and keyboard. command task transfers the radar control
command to the related subsystems for the
Two kinds of communication link are designed and sequence of the next beam radiation.
implemented for subsystem control. The first one is
the two-way communication module in RIU for General sequence of the beam operation is
control of RSP, This communication module has controlled by the radar control in such a way that
been implemented with EPLD device. The second once the returned echo signal is processed and
one is supported by transputer which has a 4- determined as a potential target by the radar signal
channel with data speed of 20 MHz, and used for processing subsystem, the target data is
control of the beam steering unit and transceiver transferred to the RSU through RIU, and then
subsystem. beam scheduling task switches its mode to the
verify mode and commander task gives the radar
Graphic display is implemented for the main radar control command to the subsystem.
display and clutter map display with the high
resolution of 1280x1024. Main graphic processor of If the beam scheduling task receives the additional
GPU is implemented using the special purpose target information from the verify mode, and then
graphic processor. the beam scheduling task switches its mode to the
track mode. Thus, the track beam is now
Software Structure generated at the beam position identified by the
previous verify beam mode at the next scan.
Figure 5 shows a block diagram of main task of
software structure for radar controller. The main If the illuminated track beam identifies the real
task of RSU is the scheduling of the radar beam by target, the tracking filter is to initiate the target
performing the job of commander, scheduler, tracking using Kalman filtering algorithm to extract
deviation error measurement of track beam, and the track error deviation. The track filter predicts
interrupt service routine. The RDP is assigned for and transfer the beam position of the next scan to
the target tracking in track mode operation, and the the RSU. Finally, the radar controller commands
main tasks are composed of tracking filter, file the three track beam generation at the same target
management, interrupt service routine. The RCU position at the time of next scan.
is the central part of the control, which manages
the subsystem tasks based on the system The implemented hardware and software of the
command from RSU, and control the timing radar controller has been successfully operated in
generation tasks. The main tasks of GPU are the integrated array radar system based on the
composed of RCU interface, graphic controller, operational scenarios above. The complete
interrupt service routine, and man-machine results regarding this operation have been shown
interface unit. in terms of the major features described in the
earlier chapter: real-time operating system
SYSTEM OPERATION AND EVALUATION performance, timed priority control, the task-
distributed processor architecture, and
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development environments. The work has been References

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the phased array radar system integrated in the
van-type test-bed.

failed detected

Search

Antenna failed

Contoller
Command Command
Figure 3. The concept of mode transition
Figure 1. System block diagram

: Diqday Display
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Figure 2. The concept of beam scheduling Figure 4. Block diagram of radar controller
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Figure 5. Software algorithms of radar controller

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Figure 6. The concept of system operation