Discrimination of various upper structures and vehicles using radar cross section of frequency-modulated continuous-wave radar

Abstract

Although radar sensors have been known for their robustness in challenging environmental conditions, they face difficulties in distinguishing between upper structure (US), such as road signs, traffic lights, overpasses, and pedestrian bridges, and forward vehicle (FV). This misclassification can lead to false alarms and unwanted braking events. In this paper, the authors propose a method distinguishing between US and FV at different distances based on change in radar cross section (RCS). The study collects real-world RCS data from various objects identified as US and FV during road driving scenarios. The radar sensors equipped in vehicles have excellent resolution in terms of distance, Doppler, and azimuth angles, but they suffer from ambiguous resolution in terms of elevation angles. This ambiguity in elevation angle resolution can lead to situations where upper structures (USs) such as road signs, traffic lights, overpasses, and pedestrian bridges are incorrectly recognized as forward vehicles (FVs). The objective of this paper is to distinguish between USs and FVs using radar, which is known for its robustness in external environments compared to other sensors. image