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Master's Thesis
Author of thesis: Ing. Martin Svoboda
Acad. year: 2025/2026
Supervisor: Ing. Soběslav Valach
Reviewer: doc. Ing. Václav Kaczmarczyk, Ph.D.
This diploma thesis investigates the feasibility of measuring human vital signs in a vehicle interior using a 60 GHz FMCW MIMO radar. The theoretical part describes the operating principles of FMCW radars, range and phase measurement, angular processing with antenna arrays, and the limits imposed by chirp design. It also summarizes relevant literature on radar-based vital-sign sensing, with emphasis on in-vehicle use, where body motion, vehicle vibrations, clutter, multipath propagation, and the overlap between breathing and heart-rate harmonics make the task difficult. The practical part describes the construction of a radar measurement system based on the TI AWR6843ISK and DCA1000EVM boards, including radar attachment, reference sensor selection, radar data processing, target tracking, and exploratory visualization tools. Several methods for vital-sign extraction were tested, including STFT analysis, band-pass filtering with Hilbert-transform-based instantaneous frequency estimation, correlation-based approaches, and a sliding-window FFT method. Heart-rate extraction proved unreliable in the measured data, mainly because the HR signal was weak and often overlapped with breathing harmonics. The work therefore focuses on breathing-rate-related features as a more robust indicator of human presence. The final evaluation compares human target tracks with strong inanimate reference tracks in several parked and driving scenarios. The results show that breathing-related amplitude, detrended phase, and non-zero Doppler-bin power can provide useful separation between humans and inanimate objects, with average SNR values generally above 20 dB. The work does not yet provide a finished production-ready vital-sign monitor, but it establishes a working radar processing chain, identifies the main practical limitations, and gives a basis for future development of in-vehicle radar-based occupancy and passenger-state monitoring.
FMCW radar, MIMO System, vital signs monitoring
Date of defence
09.06.2026
Result of the defence
Defended (thesis was successfully defended)
Grading
C
Process of defence
Student odprezentoval svou práci a zodpověděl otázky oponenta. Proběhla diskuse ohledně zohlednění variability srdečního cyklu při analýze a ohledně použitých metod detekce. Student komisí vyzdvižené nedostatky práce u obhajoby nezastíral, stejně jako v práci. Komise se ptala na porovnání s referenčním sensorem, které však provedeno v práci s relevantním snímačem nebylo.
Language of thesis
English
Faculty
Fakulta elektrotechniky a komunikačních technologií
Department
Department of Control and Instrumentation
Study programme
Cybernetics, Control and Measurements (MPC-KAM)
Composition of Committee
prof. Ing. Michal Prauzek, Ph.D. (předseda) doc. Ing. Petr Beneš, Ph.D. (místopředseda) doc. Ing. Jakub Arm, Ph.D. (člen) Ing. Martin Čala, Ph.D. (člen) Ing. Jaroslav Lepka, Ph.D. (člen) prof. Ing. Radomil Matoušek, Ph.D. (člen) Ing. Lukáš Pohl, Ph.D. (člen)
Supervisor’s reportIng. Soběslav Valach
Grade proposed by supervisor: A
Reviewer’s reportdoc. Ing. Václav Kaczmarczyk, Ph.D.
Grade proposed by reviewer: A
Responsibility: Mgr. et Mgr. Hana Odstrčilová