Panasonic Advances Automotive Millimeter-Wave Radar Technology to Detect Pedestrians and Vehicles in Low Visibility Conditions
27 Aprile 2012 - 9:00AM
Business Wire
Panasonic Corporation today announced it has developed an
advanced radar technology for next-generation traffic safety
systems that enables to detect humans and vehicles in a range of
several tens of meters. This millimeter-wave radar technology
allows for detecting objects outdoors in poor visibility
conditions, such as night, rain and snow, as well as against the
sunlight. When applied in traffic surveillance sensors located at
intersections, this innovative technology will help increase
automotive safety by detecting pedestrians and bicycles hidden in
the driver's blind spots.
As accidents at intersections account for about a half of all
traffic fatalities, preventive measures are required to avoid
collisions there involving cars, pedestrians and cyclists.
Panasonic's new radar technology enables traffic monitoring sensors
at intersections to detect pedestrians and bicycles up to 40 meters
ahead even at nighttime and under bad weather conditions that
hinder the driver's visibility. By alerting the driver of the
presence of pedestrians in the crosswalk or bicycles in blind
spots, this technology helps to reduce the driver's burden and
traffic accidents.
Panasonic's new automotive radar technology has overcome the
difficulties with conventional millimeter-wave radar technologies;
the advanced radar technology is capable of detecting humans and
cars simultaneously in spite of the fact that human body reflects
extremely weak radar signals compared with car body. This
innovative radar technology has also achieved high detection
performance with a range resolution of less than 50cm and an
angular resolution of 5 degrees, which enables to detect
pedestrians and vehicles. Furthermore, unlike optical and infrared
cameras and laser sensors, whose detection performance can be
significantly affected by visibility conditions, this new radar
technology will not be subject to such conditions as nighttime,
rain, snow or dense fog.
Panasonic has developed and incorporated the following new
element technologies to realize the new millimeter-wave radar
technology for automotive applications:
1)
Coded pulse modulation technique that
employs a newly designed code sequence for pulse radar method to
improve sensitivity characteristics, thereby achieving extension of
the detection range and finding out small objects that have weak
radar reflection.
2)
Adaptive antenna technique that combines
radar beamforming transmission and adaptive array antenna reception
with signal processing algorism for estimation of target direction,
thereby achieving high angle resolution even with a smaller antenna
compared with conventional one.
With regard to millimeter-wave radars, there presently exist
radars for vehicle to measure distance to the vehicle in front.
However, these radars cannot detect human body with high resolution
due to very weak radar reflection of human body. In addition, an
optical camera is commonly used as a traffic surveillance sensor.
However, it cannot work well under certain conditions such as
nighttime because it can provide almost the same information as the
human eye can capture.
Panasonic has achieved the new radar technology as part of the
"Research and Development Project for Expansion of Radio Spectrum
Resources" supported by the Ministry of Internal Affairs and
Communications of Japan. The company will demonstrate the
technology at VTC (Vehicular Technology Conference) 2012-Spring
(May 7 to 9 in Yokohama, Japan), using a test equipment with an
experimental radio license.
On the new radar technology, Panasonic holds eighteen patents in
Japan and six patents overseas including pending applications.
About Panasonic
Panasonic Corporation is a worldwide leader in the development
and manufacture of electronic products for a wide range of
consumer, business, and industrial needs. Based in Osaka, Japan,
the company recorded consolidated net sales of 8.69 trillion yen
(US$105 billion) for the year ended March 31, 2011. The company's
shares are listed on the Tokyo, Osaka, Nagoya and New York
(NYSE:PC) stock exchanges. For more information on the company and
the Panasonic brand, visit the company's website at
http://panasonic.net/.
Photos/Multimedia Gallery Available:
http://www.businesswire.com/cgi-bin/mmg.cgi?eid=50255847&lang=en
Grafico Azioni Panasonic (NYSE:PC)
Storico
Da Giu 2024 a Lug 2024
Grafico Azioni Panasonic (NYSE:PC)
Storico
Da Lug 2023 a Lug 2024