On Characterization of Vibration Measurement

using Microwave Doppler Radar

Raj Rakshit, Dibyendu Roy, Tapas Chakravarty

TCS Research & Innovation, Kolkata, India
Raj.rakshit@tcs.com, roy.dibyendu@tcs.com, tapas.chakravarty@tcs.com

Abstract—Doppler radar is a compact, microwave sensor for the radar antenna surface (at boresight direction). We assume
detecting vibration of the target object, from a distance. In this that the vibration of the plate follows a simple harmonic
paper, Doppler only measurements are used to characterize the motion (SHM) and is given as
vibrational properties namely vibration amplitude and the
frequency. The focus of the study is to understand the potential ( )= sin (1)
effect of the measurement environment on measurement Here, we follow the line of arguments provided by Li et al.
quality. The investigations lead us to propose a system consisting
[18, 19]. Considering, fT and θ(t) being the transmitted
of two single channel radars (in lieu of one quadrature radar),
frequency and phase noise of the signal source, respectively,
spatially separated both along range and azimuth directions.
The proposed system introduces diversity, ensures robustness in we can represent the backscattered signal as.
detection while keeping the system design cost-effective in large
scale deployments.

Keywords—Doppler; radar; vibration; sensor; diversity

I. INTRODUCTION
Mechanically vibrating systems illuminated by a radar
system display frequency modulation caused by the time-
varying delay between the object of interest and the radar thus
resulting in Doppler shift of the echo signal. This fundamental
principal has given rise to a plethora of emerging applications Fig. 1. Schematic of the system consisting of Doppler radar monitoring a
such as radar interferometry [1], structural health monitoring vibrating plate.
[2-6], range imaging [7], mechanical vibration sensing [8-12], ( )
vital signs detection [13-16] etc. In addition, with the ( )= cos{ 2 ( )− − + ( − )} (2)
introduction of micro-motions in radar observations by Victor
Chen et al. [17] applications such as finer gained human The received signal R(t) is mixed with source T(t) and the IF
activity detection, through-the wall target signature detection output is B(t).
have gained immense popularity. That, the spectral analysis of Let us define: = 4 ⁄ as the phase shift due to range
radar backscattered signal leads to Bessel function and ∆ ( ) = ( ) − ( − 2 ⁄ ) be the residual phase noise.
representation is well established [18, 19]. Li et al. [19] have Hence, the normalized baseband signal B(t) can be
demonstrated that the vibration amplitude can be exactly represented as:
derived from the ratios of even (or odd) order harmonics of
( )
the received signal. However, the said characterization is not ( ) = cos( + + ∆ ( )) (3)
extended to include the effects of phase noise. We conducted
extensive experiments in order to study this effect. Initially, we assume that the phase noise given by ∆ ( )
remains constant over the period of measurement. Thus we
In this paper, the experimentation results are presented can define it as ∆ and define total phase effect as
whose analysis reflects the fact that the received signal
strength is strongly dependent on this phase component which = +∆ ( ) (4)
can also be attributed to the range and multipath effects. We
Then equation 3 can be rewritten as [20]
extend this observation to propose a system consisting of two
low-cost, single channel CW radar (in lieu of a sensitive I/Q 4
radar) to mitigate the above stated effects and enhance the ( ) = 2. cos(2 ). cos( )
robustness of measurement. The objective is to build a radar
4
based automated monitoring system which is not hampered by − 2. sin (2
dynamic changes in the measurement environment.
4
+ 1) . sin( ) + . cos( )
II. MEASUREMENT PRINCIPLE
The schematic of the proposed system is shown in fig. 1. (5)
Let us consider a monstatic, homodyne CW radar operating at
transmitting frequency of 10.525GHz (HB100 radar module) Equation 5 represents the frequency spectrum of the
and monitoring a vibrating plate located at a distance d0 from received baseband signal which consists of the fundamental

978-1-5386-4707-3/18/$31.00 ©2018 IEEE

vibration frequency as well as the harmonics where amplitude
of each harmonic is weighted by Bessel function of first kind-
Jn (X). The lowest frequency component corresponds to
vibration frequency. It is interesting to note that the harmonic
representation offers a direct way to validate whether the
lowest frequency component detected through an algorithmic
method represents a true vibration or not (Any other object
crossing the field of view will also show Doppler effect and
get falsely detected). The above validation has to be a key
component of any remote and continuous monitoring system.
Li et al.[19] has demonstrated how (5) can be used to estimate
the vibration amplitude.
Table 1 represents the amplitude of the first three
frequency components as given by (6) and neglecting DC
component.
TABLE I. ABSOLUTE VALUE OF AMPLITUDES FOR THE RADAR
BACKSCATTERED SIGNAL CORRESPONDING TO A VIBRATING PLATE (AS PER
EQUATION 5)
Abs(Amplitude of . .
Fundamental component)
Abs(Amplitude of 2nd . .
Harmonic)
Abs(Amplitude of 3rd . .
Harmonic)
If A1, A2 and A3 are defined as the absolute values of the
amplitude of the fundamental, second and third harmonic
respectively, taking the ratios of A1 and A3 (or A2) yields
= = (6)
( )
.
= = (7)
( )
R1 computed as per (6) gives an estimate of the amplitude
of vibration of the target oscillation by taking the ratio of the
amplitudes of fundamental and third harmonic components of
the backscattered signal. Additionally, the ratio of A1 to A2
reveals that the relative amplitudes of the each component of
the spectra is critically dependent on both the vibration
amplitude ‘K’ as well as ‘ϕ’. For,
= ∆ + = ± = 0,1 … (8)
Equation 5 results in vanishing fundamental frequency
given as.
4 sin( ) sin( ) = 0 (9)
From (7) we can obtain the spatiotemporal effects of phase
which is seen to be strongly determined by the measurement
environment.
The condition represented by (8) and (9) points to the
difficulty faced, when a radar based vibration monitoring
system is planned for deployment in factory workspace.
However, the problem can simply be solved by deploying a
CW radar with both in-phase and quadrature phase (I/Q) IF
outputs. But it is also well established that amplitude and
phase imbalances between the two channels of I/Q radar as
well as DC offset can be detrimental to accurate
characterization of the given measurement [20]. Due to these
factors typical radars are designed for both balanced outputs
and high sensitivity. It is seen that I/Q radar based system is
way more costly as compared to even multiple single channel
CW radars. Thus, a solution designed for large scale may not
be able to afford such I/Q radars.
We investigated whether a two-radar system (both radars
identical) where both of them are single channel can overcome
the above stated problems. We kept two single channel radars
at λ/8 distance apart, longitudinally (along the range) and /4
apart laterally. Additionally the two radars have orthogonal
polarization. The simultaneous readings from both the radar
system ensured that even if the fundamental vibrational
frequency is not detected in one, the second radar is likely to
detect it. Moreover, the two independent readings of will give
us the indication of the changes in the environment.
Essentially, we have introduced diversity in the
measurement setup in order to make the detection system
reliable and robust to environmental changes. This is akin to
the concept of spatial and polarization diversity utilized in
modern wireless communication systems.
III. EXPERIMENTAL METHODOLOGY
We designed the vibration detection radar system around
HB100 which low-cost and easily available. A preamplifier
with a voltage gain of 15000 is designed. The amplified output
is fed to analog port of Arduino Uno. The data was recorded
and analyzed on a standard laptop using Matlab programming
environment. For conducting the experiments, we selected a
standard mid-range audio speaker as the vibrating object and
covered the diaphragm with thin aluminum foil. An Android
App was used to generate single tone of 40Hz. This was fed
to an audio amplifier and measurements taken at different
amplification levels. We varied the range by placing the radar
at three measured distances from the speaker face namely 20.5
cm, 21.5 cm and 22.5 cm. We took 5 readings at each distance
varying the volume level from low to high at definite intervals.
Although, the actual volume levels in dB were not measured,
the input voltage level at the speaker at loaded condition was
recorded.
IV. RESULTS
Fig. 2 shows the setup consisting of the radar sensor in a 3D
printed enclusure and mounted on tripod. The vibrating
speaker is mounted on a heavy aluminium piece so that
simultaneous lateral displacements do not take place. The two
platforms; source and radar are isolated.
Fig. 2. Measurement setup
The results are shown in table II and fig. 3. In table II, one
can see the apparent randomness in the measurement of ϕ.
Even within the time frame of a set of measurements at any
given distance, the variation in ϕ is seen. This gives rise to the
inference that the phase effect has fast temporal variation.
 TABLE II. MEASUREMENT AT THREE DIFFERENT DISTANCES

Vol. d0 = 20.5cm d0 = 21.5cm d0 = 22.5cm K σ

level K Φ K Φ K Φ (Av)
(mm) (rad) (mm) (rad) (mm) (rad)
Low 2.04 2.42 1.82 0.73 2.38 6.12 2.08 0.23
2 3.02 5.09 2.46 0.98 3.59 2.88 3.02 0.46
3 3.50 5.30 4.07 4.45 3.73 2.78 3.77 0.24
4 4.71 5.36 4.71 5.73 4.63 2.82 4.68 0.04
Hi 4.80 3.06 5.33 5.37 5.07 2.85 5.07 0.22

In order to further investigate the nature of temporal

variation in ϕ, another set of experiments were conducted.
Fig. 4. Temporal variation in the vibration amplitude estimation
Here, we kept the volume level fixed corresponding to a
derived vibration amplitude of 4.28mm and placed the radar In fig. 5, we display representative figures of spectrum of
at 21.5cm distance. We took the measurement for nearly 3
the received signal as measured at two distances.
minutes. Care was taken not to disturb the environment in
within the measurement time-span.
In order to compute the amplitude and phase variation in
time, FFT was done for non-overlapping time windows of 10
sec each, over the entire duration. Figure 3 presents the
temporal variation of ϕ.

(a)

Fig. 3. Temporal variation in the estimate of ϕ

It is seen from fig. 3 that ϕ displays a quasi-periodic

variation with a period of approximately 50 sec. However, we
must add a caveat that many such investigations are needed
before we are able to confirm the periodic nature of such
variations. We are now conducting additional experiments,
corresponding to different possible deployment environments
(including real workshop) to verify this nature and investigate
whether the radar design or the environment itself causes this
variation. An interesting deduction can be made using the
above property with respect to continuous monitoring system.
Considering that fig. 3 represents the characteristics of a real
deployment scenario, we should ideally monitor the target
object at intervals of integral multiples of period of ϕ variation.
This nearly ensures that the measurement remains unaffected
by the environmental changes, thereby simplifying the
deduction of trend line regarding the desired properties
(amplitude and frequency of vibration) of the target object.
Fig. 4 presents the temporal variation of the amplitude of
vibration as deduced by applying (6). It is believed that more
accurate measurement of peak amplitude corresponding to
each frequency component will result in a reduced variance in
the vibrational amplitude estimation.
(b)
Fig. 5. Spectrum of received signal for 40Hz vibration (a) d0=20.5cm (b)
d0= 22.5cm
Fig. 5 offers the visual representation of variation in the ratios
of R1and R2 with respect to distance d0
V. CONCLUSION
In this paper, we have presented a method for
characterizing the properties of a vibrating object namely the
amplitude and frequency using CW Doppler radar only. The
said characterization considers the spatiotemporal variations,
primarily due to the influence of the dense RF challenged
surrounding environment. The investigation is targeted to
build an obtrusive and continuous vibration monitoring
system to be deployed as part of machine condition
monitoring system. Since the objective is to design a system
for scale; cost considerations have influenced us to search for
alternative to two-channel I/Q CW radar. We have proposed
to build a two radar (each single channel) system where the
two units are in proximity yet spatially separated both along
range and azimuth. This system introduces diversity and
makes the automated deduction of vibration nature very
robust, reliable and accurate.
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