A radar system, apparatus, architecture, and method are provided for generating a mono-static virtual array aperture by using a radar control processing unit to construct a mono-static MIMO virtual array aperture from radar signals transmitted orthogonally from transmit antennas and received at each receive antennas, and to construct a mono-static MIMO forward difference virtual array aperture by performing forward difference co-array processing on the mono-static MIMO virtual array aperture to fill in holes in the mono-static MIMO virtual array aperture, thereby mitigating or suppressing spurious sidelobes caused by gaps or holes in the mono-static MIMO virtual array aperture.

A method for detecting misalignment of a radar sensor positioned on a vehicle. A Doppler spectrum for the radiation emitted and received by the radar sensor is ascertained. For at least one frequency bin of the Doppler spectrum, an angle of incidence is determined in at least a subinterval. The determined angle of incidence is compared to the angle of incidence expected for the frequency bin. A misalignment of the radar sensor is detected as a function of the difference of the measured angle of incidence from the expected angle of incidence.

A co-prime coded DDM MIMO radar system, apparatus, architecture, and method are provided with a reference signal generator (112) that produces a transmit reference signal; a plurality of DDM transmit modules (11) that produce, condition, and transmit a plurality of transmit signals over which each have a different co-prime encoded progressive phase offset from the transmit reference signal; a receiver module (12) that receives a target return signal reflected from the plurality of transmit signals by a target and generates a digital signal from the target return signal; and a radar control processing unit (20) configured to detect Doppler spectrum peaks in the digital signal, where the radar control processing unit comprises a Doppler disambiguation module (25) that is configured with a CPC decoder to associate each detected Doppler spectrum peak with a corresponding DDM transmit module, thereby generating a plurality of transmitter-associated Doppler spectrum peak detections.

An apparatus includes an inverse radar sensor model processor and a grid mapping processor. The inverse radar sensor model processor receives radar sensor data for a time k from a radar sensor, generates object data based on the radar sensor data, and calculates instantaneous masses at the time k for each cell in a field of view (FOV) of the radar sensor based on the object data and a sensor characteristic. The inverse radar sensor model processor outputs the calculated instantaneous masses to the grid mapping processor, which also receives accumulated masses for each cell in the FOV for a time period 0:k - 1. An accumulated mass represents a combination of instantaneous masses for the cell at each time increment in the time period 0:k - 1. The grid mapping processor generates updated accumulated masses for a time period 0:k.

Systems and methods for operating radar systems. The methods comprise, by a processor: receiving point cloud information generated by at least one radar device and a spatial description for an object; generating a plurality of point cloud segments by grouping data points of the point cloud information based on the spatial description; arranging the point cloud segments in a temporal order to define a radar tentative track; performing dealiasing operations using the radar tentative track to generate tracker initialization information; and using the tracker initialization information to generate a track for the object.

A millimeter or mm-wave system includes transmission of a millimeter wave (mm-wave) radar signal by a transmitter to an object. The transmitted mm-wave radar signal may include at least two signal orientations, and in response to each signal orientation, the object reflects corresponding signal reflections. The signal reflections are detected and a determination is made as to location of the object.

A radar imaging system and technique is described in which the imaging system generates an image and transforms the image into world coordinates taking into account host position and heading. Once in world coordinates, successive radar images can be summed (integrated, averaged) to produce an integrated image having a resolution which is improved compared with an originally generated image.

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).

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This disclosure aims to accurately track a tracking target regardless of a surrounding environment. A tracking processor may be provided, which includes a tracking processing module configured to perform processing of tracking a tracking target, and a congestion degree calculating submodule configured to calculate a degree of congestion of objects located within an area including an estimated position of the tracking target. The tracking processing module may perform the processing of tracking the tracking target based on a value of the congestion degree calculated by the congestion degree calculating submodule.

A co-prime coded DDM MIMO radar system, apparatus, architecture, and method are provided with a reference signal generator (112) that produces a transmit reference signal; a plurality of DDM transmit modules (11) that produce, condition, and transmit a plurality of transmit signals over which each have a different co-prime encoded progressive phase offset from the transmit reference signal; a receiver module (12) that receives a target return signal reflected from the plurality of transmit signals by a target and generates a digital signal from the target return signal; and a radar control processing unit (20) configured to detect Doppler spectrum peaks in the digital signal, where the radar control processing unit comprises a Doppler disambiguation module (25) that is configured with a CPC decoder to associate each detected Doppler spectrum peak with a corresponding DDM transmit module, thereby generating a plurality of transmitter-associated Doppler spectrum peak detections.