Safeguarding teleoperation using automotive radar sensors

The Multi-Agent Tactical Sentry Unmanned Ground Vehicle, developed at Defence R&D Canada - Suffield, has been in service with the Canadian Forces for six years. This tele-operated wheeled vehicle provides a capability for point detection of chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear agents. During the service life of this system, it has become apparent that a means of automatically detecting obstacles in tele-operated and semi-autonomous modes would greatly increase the safety and reliability of the vehicle in cluttered or human occupied operating environments. This paper documents the design of such a system based on a 24 GHz automotive radar.