Millimeter-Wave Radar for Rescue Helicopters

A collision avoidance and warning system for civil helicopters in Japan has been developed. A real-time warning method was applied using an image fused from a coloured video, an IR sensor data and mm-wave radar measurements. This paper focuses on the FM-CW mm-wave radar sensor and the associated antennas, working at 94 GHz. Flight tests were conducted in order to detect power lines. Thanks to two different antennas, power line response was measured in vertical and horizontal polarizations. Maximum detection ranges are of 800 and 600m respectively. This variation comes from the antenna gain difference. Radar resolution is limited by the allocated bandwidth at 94 GHz which is 200 MHz. Comparisons were conducted on the ground with an integrated FM-CW radar working at 77 GHz and achieving 500 MHz bandwidth.