System modeling and signal processing for a switch antenna array radar

A system composed of a single transmitter, M receiving antennas, and a single receiving channel is studied. Echo radar signals are acquired in a number of the cycles and used for estimation of the angle, velocity, and range in a multiple moving target scenario. The receiving antennas are switched to the single receiving channel periodically once every cycle. The developed algorithms are based on minimum variance (Capon) beamforming. A new nonstationary version of Capon beamforming is developed for the time-varying steering vector model. It is shown in simulations done for an automotive scenario that the proposed algorithms yield very good performance in terms of both estimation accuracy and multiple-target resolution. The Capon-based estimation gives results close to the corresponding Crame´r-Rao lower bounds (CRLBs).