Millimeter-Wave Automotive Radar Scheme With Passive Reflector for Blind Corner Conditions

Abstract

One of the primary functions of millimeter-waveautomotive radar is collision avoidance. This application istypically realized in line-of-sight conditions. However, it does notperform well in situations, when another car suddenly come intoview around the corner of a building. Hence, this paper proposesa radar scheme with a reflector, enabling the detection of anoncoming car in blind corner conditions. First, our ray tracingmodelling results demonstrate the difficulties of straightforwardnon-line-of-sight radar application in such a scenario. Then thepaper considers the installation of a planar reflector, which shouldsolve the issue. This is verified with real-world measurements.The results also indicate that the detection performance issensitive to the around-the-corner car position and orientationof the reflector. Specifically, +/-10 degree deviation varies thesignal-to-noise ratio of more than 20 dB. Thus, the location anddirection of the reflector should be adopted individually for theparticular deployment.