Computational simulation of millimetre wave radar with a modified ray tracing renderer

In this paper a high fidelity simulator for millimetre wave (MMW) radar systems is obtained through the implementation of geometric diffraction methods within a physically-based ray tracing renderer. Our method is formulated on an implementation of Kouyoumjian and Pathak´s compact dyadic diffraction coefficient within Pharr and Humphrey´s physically based ray tracing renderer, "pbrt". A recursive path tracing algorithm is used to simulate light transfer between surfaces and a randomly-sampled Monte Carlo surface integrator is used to approximate the incident radiation at each surface intersection. The surface path throughput is determined by a micro-facet-based surface model augmented by Kouyoumjian and Pathak´s diffraction coefficient evaluated with reference to proximity to and relative orientation of nearby edges. The presented method is validated by comparison to experimental radar measurements, whilst remaining able to simulate the complex light transport problem significantly faster than a full wave simulator on a consumer level PC.