US 6,856,277 B2 · Radar beam scanning method, on-vehicle radar apparatus and radar scanning computer program

Abstract

In the on-vehicle radar apparatus of the present invention, the vertical scanning width of the radar beam is narrowed, before the horizontal scanning, thereby avoiding unnecessary data processing and improving the data processing efficiently. Further, the S/N ratio of the target detection signal is increased, thereby stabilizing the distance detection and its accuracy. The vertical scanning antenna is a single travelling wave excitation antenna (TWEA) constructed by a plurality of antenna elements. At the same time, the horizontal scanning antenna is a multi-channel antenna wherein a plurality of TWEAs is assigned to a plurality of horizontal directions. The horizontal scanning angle is arbitrarily widened by increasing the number of TWEAs.

Claims15

Dependent claims

A radar beam scanning method for scanning a radar beam for tracing a moving target, comprising the steps of:

radiating a radar beam scanned along a second direction;
measuring an intensity distribution along said second direction of said radar beam reflected by said moving target;
estimating an angle along said second direction of said moving target;
setting up said radar beam to the estimated angle;
scanning along a first direction perpendicular to said second direction.

2 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Radar beam scanning method, on-vehicle radar apparatus and radar scanning computer program

Life of this patent

Radar beam scanning method, on-vehicle radar apparatus and radar scanning computer program

Life of this patent

Abstract

Claims15