Automotive Radar Signal Processing

The latest versions of upper class automobiles are equipped with the first serial radar sensors. Adaptive Cruise Control refers to systems determining the

distance and speed of the preceding cars by several radar sensors located in the front bumper and then adjust the own speed accordingly. A great problem of radar signal processing is the dependency of the radar echo on the form of the target. Plane metal surfaces like the rear of a truck react like a mirror to radar signals. If it is hit vertically it might cause a very strong echo, but if the angle of incidence varies slightly, a great part of the radar energy will be reflected into a completely different direction. Therefore it is very difficult to classify targets only with the radar echo received. The research activities at the Chair of System Theory and Signal Processing concentrate on waveforms design for radar systems, the baseband processing, parameter estimation, tracking and classifying the detected reflections.