A method for operating a stepped frequency radar system is disclosed. The method involves receiving digital frequency control signals that correspond to different frequencies of radio frequency (RF) signals, and performing stepped frequency scanning across a frequency range using at least one transmit antenna and a two-dimensional array of receive antennas and RF signals at the different frequencies that correspond to the digital frequency control signals.

A method for operating a stepped frequency radar system is disclosed. The method involves receiving digital frequency control signals that correspond to different frequencies of radio frequency (RF) signals, and performing stepped frequency scanning across a frequency range using at least one transmit antenna and a two-dimensional array of receive antennas and RF signals at the different frequencies that correspond to the digital frequency control signals.

The technique allows avoiding collision with an object that is difficult to detect with a radar sensor. A collision avoidance apparatus is an apparatus for an autonomous vehicle including at least one radar sensor for transmitting a radar wave and receiving a reflected wave from an object. The apparatus includes a processor that obtains, from a signal received by the at least one radar sensor, information about a position of the object and information about a reflected power level of the reflected wave, a generator that generates, in response to the reflected power level being higher than or equal to a predetermined value, information about a travel-restricted area being an area adjacent to the object and in which the autonomous vehicle is restricted from traveling, and an output unit that outputs the information about the travel-restricted area.

A system and method to detect a target with a radar system of a vehicle involve transmitting two or more chirps, in turn, from two or more transmit elements. Each chirp is a continuous wave liner frequency modulated waveform. The method also includes receiving reflections generated by each of the two or more chirps from each of the two or more transmit elements at two or more receive elements, and processing the reflections based on a Doppler sampling frequency corresponding with a period of each of the two or more chirps to determine velocity of each detected target relative to the vehicle.

System, computer products, and methods can improve the resolution of data from a sensor array. One of these methods include receiving, from an analog to digital converter, a series of measurements representing frequency samples and spatial samples from a sensor array. The method includes generating a plurality of factors based on a polynomial. The method includes applying one or more complex weights to the measurements based on the factors. The method includes combining the complex weighted measurements into a plurality of values. The method also includes identifying a characteristic of an object detected by the sensor array based on the plurality of values.

A radar system having side lobe blanking capability is disclosed. The system can include a single channel antenna and receiver system, the side lobe blanking system being time multiplexed, but requiring no dedicated guard channel data collection period such that the scan rate of the system is not degraded.

A system and method for resolving a first target from a second target by radar is disclosed. The system includes a transmitter for transmitting a source signal, a receiver for receiving first and second echo signals from reflection of the source signal from at least a first target and a second target, respectively. A processor is used to subtract the first echo signal from the composite signal to obtain a second generation of the second echo signal, subtract the second generation of the second echo signal from the composite signal to obtain a second generation of the first echo signal, and estimate a parameter value for the first target from the second generation of the first echo signal and a parameter value for the second target from the second generation of the second echo signal.

The invention relates to a target characterisation method for a detection device of multi-panel radar or sonar type with electronic scanning, comprising the steps of: generating a plurality of pulses on a plurality of antenna panels (PE1, PE2, PE3) of the detection device according to a temporal and angular interleaving pattern, so as to perform a scan over all of the relative bearing domain of the detection device; generating a plurality of detection maps, by the acquisition of a plurality of observations combined with one another by coherent or non-coherent integration of the echoes corresponding to the plurality of pulses, each detection map being obtained in a given direction (EL1, EL2, EL3) corresponding to the width of the main lobe of the antenna panel; combining the detection maps so as to detect a presence of a target in the relative bearing domain of the detection device.

A phased array radar system comprises an array antenna including a plurality of selectively controllable transmit/receive (T/R) modules. One or more computer processors and associated memory devices are provided in communication with the plurality of T/R modules. The control processor is configured to cause the transmission of a first plurality of radio frequency (RF) pulses from a first portion of the array antenna, wherein the first plurality of pulses comprise at least two pulses having distinct center frequencies. A second plurality of RF pulses are transmitted from a second portion of the array antenna, wherein the second plurality of pulses comprise at least two pulses having distinct center frequencies. Received return signals originating from the first and second plurality of transmitted pulses are non-coherently integrated prior to the performance of target detection operations.

A system for signal processing is provided that obviates the use of prior-knowledge, such as synthetic aperture radar (SAR) imagery, in time compressed signal processing (i.e. it can be knowledge unaided). The knowledge-unaided power centroid (PC.sub.KU) is found by evaluating a covariance matrix R.sub.SCM for its moments m.sub.i. Because R.sub.SCM uses a sample signal, rather than SAR data, the power centroid PC.sub.KU may be found without needing SAR data.