Automotive radars play a crucial role in navigating today’s driving challenges. As autonomous vehicles (AVs) and other intelligent transport systems become more mainstream, they will become increasingly vital. They work by transmitting radio waves to vehicles, people, and other surrounding objects, with the former bouncing off these objects of interest and returning to the sensor. The sensor then compares the characteristics of the reflected waves against the transmitted counterparts to determine the objects’ positions and movements.
There are numerous advantages with automotive radars over other sensors, including all-weather performance, direct velocity measurement, and affordability. However, as radar systems become more complex, testing strategies must address many more potential scenarios, conditions, and system interactions. This, coupled with increasingly sophisticated industry technology, necessitates that manufacturers and other stakeholders deploy modern, comprehensive radar testing solutions to ensure performance, reliability and, most importantly, safety.
Keysight is helping numerous organizations in this endeavor through our portfolio of radar testing solutions, including:
Radar Scene Emulator
Our Radar Scene Emulator (RSE) enables AV manufacturers and their suppliers to lab test complex, real-world driving situations by emulating up to 512 radar objects and at distances as close as 1.5 meters. This first-to-market technology overcomes conventional radar sensor test solutions, which have a limited field-of-view (FOV) and cannot simulate objects at distances less than 4 meters. With the RSE, companies can model driving scenarios, varying speed, distance, and the number of targets across a contiguous FOV. For more on the innovation behind this revolutionary breakthrough in the emulation of radar signals, take a look at this brief video.
Automotive Radar Signal Analysis
The AV industry is just one example of radar testing at work. There are also numerous applications within vehicles today that rely on radio frequency (RF), including in-car communication, keyless entry, wireless airbag triggering, and tire-pressure sensor data transmission. Infotainment and advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) are ushering in additional use cases such as global positioning and mapping, new safety applications, and emergency call services. Keysight’s automotive radar solutions are designed for the testing complexity burden these present, enabling companies to:
- Model the entire car architecture
- Execute tests and verify results against specifications
- Obtain visibility into which RF components and systems are ready for mass production
Check out this case study for more on these benefits and how we helped a luxury automaker address modern testing challenges while saving on manpower.
Automotive Radar Receiver
Automotive radar systems are only as good as their receivers; the latter is essential for accurate signal detection, distance measurement, velocity calculation, and other system functions. Keysight’s Automotive Radar Receiver Test Solution can generate a wide range of signals to thoroughly test automotive radar receivers in the lab, ensuring their performance and reliability in any real-world situation. The solution generates automotive radar signals across the full frequency range for 24 GHz, 77 GHz, and 79 GHz radar and provides scalable bandwidth from 2.5 GHz to > 5 GHZ, depending on test requirements. This gives manufacturers assurance that radio waves will be accurately detected, processed, and interpreted.
Keysight: Your Testing Co-Pilot
Radar is a crucial technology in the automotive sector, supporting numerous applications in use today and paving the way for advancements in ADAS, infotainment and, most significantly, AVs. As automotive radar systems become increasingly complex and interconnected, rigorous testing is critical. Keysight is a trusted partner for many leading manufacturers and their suppliers, working closely to replicate real-world driving conditions and scenarios in the lab to ensure reliability, performance, and safety on every road, whatever the circumstances.
To learn more about our automotive testing solutions, please click here.