Compact radar sensors enabling autonomous driving

Increasing customer demands regarding comfort and safety in the automotive sector lead to a constantly increasing number of driver assistance systems (DAS) in vehicles. The resulting expansion of the functional spectrum leads on the one hand to a incremental realization of Vision Zero, but on the other hand to an increase in the complexity of the overall system, FIGURE 1. The ultrasonic, camera, radar and the emerging lidar sensors, which are used to implement comfort and safety functions, usually operate independently resulting in a decentralized decision making process of the systems. A decentralized approach is applied successfully for traditional driver assistance applications, where the driver is usually being informed about dangerous situations by a warning signal. Higher automation, however, requires a combination of the measured data. This so-called sensor fusion and the resulting possibility to create an environmental model are seen as a necessary basis for the realization of highly-automated driving.