To estimate range and angle information of multiple targets, FMCW MIMO radars have been exploited with 2D MUSIC algorithms. To improve estimation accuracy, received signals from multiple FMCW MIMO radars are collected at the data fusion center and processed coherently, which increases data communication overhead and implementation complexity. To resolve them, we propose the distributed 2D MUSIC algorithm with coordinate transformation, in which 2D MUSIC algorithm is operated with respect to the reference radar's coordinate at each radar in a distributed way. Rather than forwarding the raw data of received signal to the fusion center, each radar performs 2D MUSIC with its own received signal in the transformed coordinates. Accordingly, the distributed radars do not need to report all their measured signals to the data fusion center, but they forward their local cost function values of 2D MUSIC for the radar image region of interest. The data fusion center can then estimate the range and angle information of targets jointly from the aggregated cost function. By applying the proposed scheme to the experimentally measured data, its performance is verified in the real environment test.
Keywords: 2D MUSIC algorithm; FMCW MIMO radar; coordinate transformation; distributed radars; joint range and angle estimation.