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Third generation radar has double vision
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02/01/2008
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The latest 'third generation' 77GHz radar sensors provide both long range and short range views along with narrow and wide fields of view, writes Roger Bishop.
Continental's ARS300 will appear on production cars from this year. It provides two independent antenna scans - a far range scan of ±9deg covering 0.25 to 200m and a near range scan of ±28deg that looks up to 60m ahead.
A full auto alignment in azimuth and elevation within a tolerance window of several degrees enables very easy handling without special alignment tools at the OEM and service stations. It also monitors and compensates for misalignment during usage.
Continental says these features are based on a unique scanning antenna principle offering high angular target separation and angular measurement accuracy.
The system operates in simultaneous transmit and receive mode using a chirped radar modulation scheme - a combination of the classical pulse Doppler and the FMCW scheme.
Range and Doppler information are retrieved independently by two succeeding fast Fourier transformations calculated in the digital receiver. This system approach provides high sensitivity as well as target separation by the range and Doppler domain. The range resolution is automatically adjusted to the driving conditions between 0.25m and 1m.
The high measurement resolution in angle, range and velocity allows the system to accurately estimate 'target' parameters such as cross-section, length, width and so on, enabling true object classification.
Comfort and safety applications covered by the sensor include collision mitigation, smart airbag support, stop-and-go adaptive cruise control, reduced stopping distance systems and integrated active-passive functions.
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Author
Roger Bishop
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