Monostatic Millimeterwave Radar Imaging of Vulnerable Road Users

Abstract:
Intelligent transportation moves towards automated and connected driving, which requires detailed environmental per-ception, with automotive radar as one key sensor modality. Conventional radar systems are challenged by the need for high resolution in azimuth, elevation, range, and velocity. To meet the requirements of high angular resolution, the approach of inverse synthetic aperture radar (ISAR) and its applicability in the context of road traffic is discussed in this paper. For this purpose, ISAR measurements of a pedestrian and a cyclist dummy conforming to the “new car assessment programme” (NCAP) were performed in the range from 70 GHz to 90 GHz in a semi-anechoic chamber. The resulting two-dimensional images demonstrate the capability of this approach by capturing the complex contours of vulnerable road users down to a few centimeters. As a result, the different targets can be distinguished by their unique signatures.