Measuring Vehicle Velocity Using Multiple Onboard Radars

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This invention relates to a system and method for accurately estimating the velocity and motion (ego-motion) of a vehicle using two or more onboard radar transceiver units, with all radar data processed by a common processor. By pre-processing combined signals from multiple radars, the system calculates detailed velocity vectors at different points within the radar field-of-view, allowing for precise estimates of forward, lateral, vertical, and rotational movement—even in complex environments. The invention includes techniques for filtering out signals from moving targets (like other vehicles or pedestrians), focusing only on stationary objects to improve motion estimation accuracy.

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• Autonomous vehicles (cars, trucks, drones) for self-localization and navigation.
• Advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) to support lane keeping, adaptive cruise control, automated parking, and emergency braking.
• Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) for accurate motion tracking in GPS-denied or cluttered environments.
• Robotics and automated guided vehicles (AGVs) in warehouses or factories for precise movement and collision avoidance.
• Maritime or aerial vehicles (boats, planes, drones) requiring accurate onboard motion estimation in changing environments.
• Sensor fusion systems to correct or complement inertial sensors like MEMS gyros, improving overall accuracy of vehicle state estimation.

BenefitsContent extracted from patent full text and abstract with AI.

• Substantially improved accuracy in yaw (turn) rate, lateral, and rotational motion estimation compared to independent radar processing.
• Robust discrimination between stationary and moving objects, enabling safer and more reliable navigation and tracking.
• Enhanced vehicle control, especially for autonomous vehicles, by providing refined ego-motion data for complex maneuvers.
• Reduction of noise and error sensitivity in motion estimation through advanced pre-processing and filtering techniques.
• Ability to correct biases or errors in other onboard sensors (e.g., gyroscopes) using independent radar-based motion estimation.
• Applicable in diverse environments and conditions, including poor GPS coverage, cluttered urban or off-road scenarios.

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Patent Abstract

Estimating the ego-motion of a vehicle, e.g., the self-motion of the vehicle, can be improved by pre-processing data from two or more radars onboard the vehicle using a processor common to the two or more radars. The common processor can pre-process the data using a velocity vector processing technique that can estimate a velocity vector at each point of a predefined number of points, such as arranged in a grid in the field-of-view of radars, with coordinates (X, Y, Z (optional)), where U is the component of the velocity in the X-direction, V is the component of the velocity in the Y-direction, and W is the component of the velocity in the optional Z-direction.