Future trends and directions in radar concerning the application for autonomous driving

Abstract

The top down approach to derive requirements for future radar sensors for autonomous driving is due to its complexity hardly possible. Thus this paper presents the bottom up approach and shows future trends and directions of automotive radar development. This overview paper focusses on functional and non-functional aspects, whereas technological trends are only treated very shortly.

Application of Doppler beam sharpening for azimuth refinement in prospective low‐THz automotive radars

“…iv. Application of DBS mapping using (8) to transform Doppler to angle. This produces the range-azimuth surface.…”

“…Therefore, with the frequency increase, scattering from rougher surfaces becomes more diffuse, less specular and backscatter is received from a fuller extent of an object, enabling more complete imaging of that object [7]. The shift to higher frequencies also has benefits for automotive manufacturers from a cost-space saving perspective, allowing for more compact components [8]. This includes smaller antennas able to deliver narrower beam widths, enabling higher angular resolutions.…”

Radio Vision Systems Ensuring Movement Safety for Ground, Airborne and Sea Vehicles

“…The drawback of these solutions is obvious -of all negative factors that reduce optical visibility are linked to insufficient illumination. Thus, the main way to solve the actual problem of improving the safety of road transport, under limited or non-existent optical visibility conditions, is to use a radar sensor whose operation does not depend on the time of the day, on weather conditions (snow, rain, fog), or on the presence of smoke or dust [2]- [9]. The range of such a sensor can be a multiple of the expected length of the stopping distance.…”

SAR imaging in an automotive scenario

“…Conventional automotive radar systems mostly look forward in the direction of travel since that is the area of greatest interest to a driver. Keeping in mind, however, the progress being made towards autonomous automobiles [1] [2], it is arguably equally crucial to have a radar which is capable of imaging the scenario to the side of the automobile, so that sensitive road users and traffic situations can be recognised in good time, without the assistance of a human driver. The requirement of an imaging radar can be fulfilled by synthetic aperture radar (SAR), which can take images of the stationary objects in the scenario next to the car as the car is being driven.…”