1 System Description

Today’s vehicles require robust and reliable information about the in-cabin occupancy. Smart airbag deployment systems, air condition controls, detecting children and disabled people left behind in vehicles relies upon this information.

The TIDEP-01001 provides a reference for creating a vehicle occupant detection application, using TI’s AWR6843 sensor based on 60-GHz mmWave radio-frequency (or AWR1843 sensor based on 77-GHz mmWave radio-frequency) complementary metal-oxide semiconductor (RF-CMOS) technology.

TI’s mmWave sensing devices integrate a 60-GHz to 64-GHz (or 76-GHz to 81-GHz) mmWave radar front end with ARM® microcontroller (MCU) and TI DSP core for single-chip systems.

This reference design demonstrates the suitability of the AWR6843/1843 for vehicle occupant detection applications. The design targets the implementation of a wide azimuth field of view (±60°) and close range (3 m) sensor configuration, which can detect life forms acrossmultiple regions (zones) of interest, and can localize occupant signature within a region.

This reference design implements algorithms for generating an azimuth-range heat map, detection, and decision for an AWR6843/1843 device on a TI EVM module.

The design provides a list of required hardware, schematics, and foundational software to quickly begin vehicle occupancy detection product development. It describes the example usage case as well as the design principle, implementation details, and engineering tradeoffs made in the development of this application. High-level instructions for replicating the design are provided.