Thesis Work: Statistical Model of Human Body Radar Cross Section i Kungsbacka

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ABB Jokab Safety R&D department develops functional safety products for use in industrial applications to avoid injuries and deaths. The products that are developed must be free from systematic faults, which means that the development must be state of the art, follow applicable standards and undergo rigorous third parity reviews and tests.

The ABB Jokab Safety product range is very wide, covering emergency stops to advanced safety PLCs. The products mainly consist of mechanics, HW electronics and embedded SW.

Small-scale radar systems have become ubiquitous in many applications, such as private cars and industrial automation. Nevertheless, their use in safety systems has so far been limited. Achieving reliable detection of human bodies is however challenging, as radar visibility is drastically different from optical visibility. The reflection quantified by the radar cross section (RCS) is determined by the electro-magnetic properties of the surface of the target (TGT). The TGT is here the human body in various positions, which spans a very large solid angle and is not localized in one point, as often assumed. On a micro level the reflectivity is low and strongly varying. To assess the expected reliability, it is crucial to have a credible RCS model of the TGT. A distributed TGT and many safety scenarios necessitates a distributed but also statistical RCS model.

This thesis explores the potential of using any radar system for safety, by proposing, evaluating and verifying (optional) a distributed model of the radar cross section of the human body.

Details:
• Period: Start at the earliest 2020-01-01, end at the latest 2020-12-31.
• Scope: 30 ECTS for Master Thesis.
• Number of students: 1-2
• Location: The most part of the work should be performed on site in Kungsbacka, 27 km south of Gothenburg (good public transportations).

• Study coherent and incoherent scattering against distributed/extended objects.
• Propose a detailed RCS model of a human body. It involves a geometrical macro-model as well as an electro-magnetic ‘point’ micro-model of reflection.
• Implement the proposed RCS model in a general high-level mathematical software tool like Matlab/Octave/Python etc.
• Simulate various detection scenarios with assessment of false negatives (compromise safety) as well as false positives (compromise availability/productivity).
• Verify the proposed RCS model with measurements, utilizing raw data from the radar system studied in Thesis Work: Safety Radar System Evaluation Unit.
• Describe the RCS model, assumptions and simulations of scenarios, as well as recommendations and verifying measurements, in a report.
• Further define, extend and constrain the scope appropriately.

• Preferably studied mathematics and statistical signal processing.
• Rudimentary knowledge of electro-magnetism and scattering.
• Experience of high-level mathematical programming.
• Interest in the closely related Thesis Work: Safety Radar System Evaluation Unit, providing raw data from real scattering measurements.
• Dedication and aptitude to write clear understandable reports.