A radar device includes a transmission part that transmits a radar wave which has been frequency-modulated such that one measurement cycle has a rising section in which a frequency increases and a falling section in which a frequency decreases, a reception part that derives respective beat signals of the rising section and the falling section, and a signal processor that performs a precipitation determining process on the basis of an analysis of the beat signals. In the precipitation determining process, in the absence of objects other than precipitation objects from a transmission range of the radar wave, it is determined whether a spectral similarity of the frequency spectra of the rising and falling section with precipitation reference spectra is not less than a threshold, and if the spectral similarity is not less than the threshold as a result of the determination, it is determined that precipitation is present.

A method is provided that involves identifying a target region of an environment of an autonomous vehicle to be monitored for presence of moving objects. The method also involves operating a first sensor to obtain a scan of a portion of the environment that includes at least a portion of the target region and an intermediate region between the autonomous vehicle and the target region. The method also involves determining whether a second sensor has a sufficiently clear view of the target region based on at least the scan obtained by the first sensor. The method also involves operating the second sensor to monitor the target region for presence of moving objects based on at least a determination that the second sensor has a sufficiently clear view of the target region. Also provided is an autonomous vehicle configured to perform the method.

A radar sensor for use within a vehicle includes blockage detection functionality. In at least one embodiment, the radar sensor collects information on stationary infrastructure around the vehicle. The infrastructure information may be used to generate a Doppler Monopulse Image (DMI) or other graph for the sensor. A clutter ridge within the DMI or other graph may be analyzed determine a blockage condition of the sensor (i.e., unblocked, partially blocked, or fully blocked).

A method for checking at least one driving environment sensor of a vehicle is provided. The vehicle is located on a digital map, features of stored stationary objects in an environment of the vehicle, which are expected to be recognized by the driving environment sensor, are identified in the digital map and the environment of the vehicle is sensed using the driving environment sensor. A degradation of the driving environment sensor is deduced if the features to be recognized according to expectations are not recognized by the driving environment sensor or if features actually recognized by the driving environment sensor deviate strongly from the features to be recognized according to expectations.

The present invention provides an abnormality diagnosis system capable of improving reliability of a diagnosis result on a state of a detector mounted to a vehicle.

An abnormality diagnosis system (50) that diagnoses abnormality of a detector (20) detecting surrounding information on the vehicle includes: a positioning device (59); a storage device (55) that stores map data (70) containing data on an object existing on/above the ground; and a control section (51) that diagnoses presence or absence of the abnormality of the detector (20) by comparing the map data (70) with detection data obtained by the detector (20).

Aspects of the disclosure relate to generating simulated degraded sensor data. For instance, first sensor data collected by a sensor of a perception system of an autonomous vehicle may be received. The first sensor data may be inputted into simulated degraded sensor data for a particular degrading condition. The simulated degraded sensor data may be used to evaluate or train a model for detecting objects of the perception system.

The invention relates to a sensor system (200, 300, 400) for a motor vehicle, comprising a sensor housing and an active or passive sensor (102) arranged therein and held on a movable sensor holder (201, 401), having a sensor technology based on radiation detection and a measurement apparatus assigned to the sensor (102) and a control apparatus, coupled to said measurement apparatus, for the sensor holder (201, 401), wherein the sensor housing has a cover (106, 301) that is signal-transmissive for the sensor (102) on its side located in the detection direction of the sensor (102), and wherein the detection range (108, 109) of the sensor (102) in the region of the signal-transmissive cover (106, 301) has a lower extent than the signal-transmissive cover (106, 301), wherein the sensor system (200, 300, 400) is characterized in that the measurement apparatus is designed such that it is suitable for checking, in the detection range of the sensor (102), whether and in which section the signal-transmissive cover (106, 301) has a region with reduced signal transmissivity (202), wherein the measurement apparatus interacts with the control apparatus in such a way that the control apparatus is able to change the position of the sensor (102) in such a way that the region with reduced signal transmissivity (202) lies outside the detection range (108, 109) of the sensor (102). The invention furthermore relates to a method for operating such a sensor system (200, 300, 400) and to a motor vehicle that is equipped with such a sensor system (200, 300, 400).

The invention relates to a sensor system (200, 300) for a vehicle, in particular a motor vehicle, comprising a sensor housing and an active or passive sensor (102) arranged therein, having a sensor technology based on radiation detection and a measurement apparatus assigned to the sensor (102), wherein the sensor housing has a cover (106) that is signal-transmissive for the sensor (102) on its side located in the detection direction of the sensor (102), and wherein the detection range of the sensor (102) in the region of the signal-transmissive cover (106) has a lower extent than the signal-transmissive cover (106), wherein the sensor system (200, 300) is characterized in that the sensor (102) is assigned a movable deflection apparatus (201), coupled to a control apparatus, for deflecting the radiation of the sensor (102), wherein the measurement apparatus is designed such that it is suitable for checking, in the detection range of the sensor (102), whether and in which section the signal-transmissive cover (106) has a region with reduced signal transmissivity (203, 302), wherein the measurement apparatus interacts with the control apparatus of the deflection apparatus (201) in such a way that the control apparatus is able to change the position of the deflection apparatus (201) in such a way that the region with reduced signal transmissivity (202, 302) lies outside the detection range of the sensor (102). The invention furthermore relates to a method for operating such a sensor system (200, 300) and to a motor vehicle that is equipped with such a sensor system (200, 300).

According to a first aspect, a radar system with blockage detection is provided. The radar system includes a first antenna for receiving first signals and a second antenna for receiving second signals. Input circuitry processes the first signals to generate first input signals and processes the second signals to generate second input signals. A processor computes a correlation between the first input signals and the second input signals, determines a correlation variance related to variation in the correlation, and generates a determination as to whether the radar system is blocked using the correlation variance.

The present invention relates to devices and methods for detecting the blockage of a radar sensor, and radar apparatuses. The radar sensor blockage detection device may include a first determiner for determining an external environment state based on at least one of external weather data, external image data, and vehicle status data, and determining detection sensitivity according to a result of the determined external environmental state, and a second determiner for determining whether the radar sensor is blocked based on a result of the determined detection sensitivity and signal data of the radar sensor.