Moving target using dielectric waveguide for radar-based pre-crash safety systems

Driving safety awareness has led to the need for pre-crash safety systems installed on passenger cars and long-haul trucks. In developing radars for pre-crash safety systems or automatic brake systems for automobiles equipped with such radars, tests have been traditionally performed with actual car models traveling toward the radar under test from a distance of about 150 m to approximately 1 m. However, for both technical and safety reasons, it has always been a challenge to stop the model as close to the radar under test as the industry-demanded distance of 0.2 m. We therefore developed a moving collision target simulation system using a dielectric waveguide. The system consists of a cylindrical measurement device with a diameter of 0.4 m that simulates the target of the radar under test moving from a distance of 20 m to 0.2 m at a maximum speed of 30 km/h. The newly developed system allows for indoor testing of radars and radar-based automatic brake systems.