Radar Scattering Design Elements for a Pre-Collision System Surrogate Target

The aim of our research is to design surrogate test targets for evaluation of automotive Pre-Collision Systems (PCS). To design these surrogate test targets, we used derived scattering sources from measured radar returns of selected subject vehicles. Twenty-five vehicles were selected from a broad range of vehicle classes. This group includes several vehicles that are frequently struck in rear-end collisions as determined by the U.S. National Crash Database [1]. We used a wideband, millimeter wave, instrumentation radar to measure radar returns of these subject vehicles. Range profiles and real-beam images were used to isolate scattering sources, which were then used to design surrogate targets that mimic the radar response of real cars. To verify the design of such surrogate test targets, we developed and applied a statistical model [2] of radar signatures from the group of selected vehicles at a fixed set of viewing angles. The collected signatures for each vehicle and test-surrogates were fit to a Weibull- distribution using a maximum-likelihood estimator. We then applied results of the statistical studies to evaluate the surrogate test targets.