Radar is the most robust sensing technology and is not affected by dirt, smog, sunlight, wind or sandstorms. Additionally, rain and snow have only a small impact on performance.
Radio detection and ranging (radar) systems leverage the transmission and reception of radio waves to determine the distance, velocity, and angle of objects in their field of view.
Radar has a rich, 75-year history and is an integral technology spanning applications in aerospace and defense, to industrial automation, security, navigation, vital signs monitoring, and beyond.
Like so many other areas of technology, there have also been advances in radar architecture. IEEE, the world’s largest technical professional organization for the advancement of technology, reports advances in signal processing for radar systems involving a wide range of applications, including health care, archeology, and weather forecasting, to mention a few.
This is significant, especially in the automotive industry, because for several decades, engineers have been wrestling with the signal processing challenges associated with automotive applications.
Soon, automated driving will become a reality. One of the most dynamic areas in research and development in the automotive industry is the field of advanced driver assistance systems (ADASs) for highly automated driving (HAD). The performance and reliability of these systems strongly depend on the ability to sense the environment.
Radar technology is far more important for HAD than alternative technologies, such as cameras and lidar. Long-range radar systems for forward-looking functions especially developed for HAD are commercially available and widely used today.
Radar is typically used in current ADASs, such as adaptive cruise control, forward collision avoidance, lane change assist, and evasion assist, etc.
With nearly 1.25 million road fatalities worldwide each year, safety remains a focus of the automotive industry. Fully autonomous cars of the future will rely on the great capabilities of radar, but the demands by automobile manufacturers on sensor reliability are very high with the goal of reaching the zero-casualties objective.
The signal processing community is in a great position to play an important role in tackling this challenge.
Want to know more? Tonex offers Advanced Radar Course, a 3-day program that covers advanced concepts behind modern radar systems including radar design, advanced functions, phased array radar system design, pulse doppler radar system design and implementation, search and track functions, target detection, signal processing, architecture, critical components, electronic attack and protection, transmitter/receiver, and antenna.