📋 Tender Overview
The new RS RTS radar test system from Rohde Schwarz simulates driving scenarios for testing radar based advanced driver assistance systems ADAS and radar sensors used in autonomously driving cars AD entirely over the air. The test solution consists of the new RS AREG800A automotive radar echo generator as a backend and the RS QAT100 antenna array as a frontend. Laterally moving objects i.e. objects approaching from the side are currently simulated by mechanically moving antennas. The RS RTS replaces the mechanical movement by electronically switching individual antennas in the frontend on and off. Even objects moving laterally to the car at very high speed can be simulated reliably and reproducibly. The RS RTS is able to simulate the radial velocity Doppler shift and the size radar cross section of objects at user configurable including very small ranges. Countless objects can be represented by cascading multiple RS AREG800A backends. The RS RTS moves tests currently performed on the road to the lab. This allows early error detection and a significant reduction in costs.Radar sensors are key components in autonomous driving. The number of radar sensors in vehicles is growing since in addition to long-range radars required by NCAP New Car Assessment Program an increasing number of corner radars are installed that can also monitor objects moving laterally. The latest generation of radar sensors comes with integrated RF antennas and signal processors for object recognition accommodated on the same chip. That is why the objects to be recognized need to be simulated over the air in radar sensor tests. The new RS RTS consisting of the RS AREG800A backend and the RS QAT100 antenna array frontend is a target simulator that generates dynamic radar echoes that can be used at all stages of automobile radar sensor testing from pre-development through hardware-in-the-loop lab tests to validation of ADASAD functions integrated in the vehicle.The backend can simulate a large number of independent artificial objects and dynamically vary their range size radar cross section and radial velocity. With an instantaneous bandwidth of 4 GHz between 76 GHz and 81 GHz it covers the typical frequency range of current and future automotive radar sensors.The frontend uses up to 192 independently switchable antennas to simulate objects moving laterally to the cars direction of movement providing very fine resolution high switching speed and high repeatability. Electronic switching of the antennas does not cause any wear to RF cables and other moving parts as is otherwise encountered with mechanical antenna motion used in traditional test systems. An optional transmit array makes it possible to simulate two objects very close together and moving laterally to the car. The small patch antennas and the absorber-lined surface provide a low-reflection RF frontend with a very small radar cross section. This reduces the sensors noise floor and suppresses close-range targets and potential multipath reflections. The antenna spacing of just 3.7 mm delivers very fine angular resolution. Multiple frontends can be combined to cover larger fields of view of radar sensors. An angular resolution of less than 0.5 is possible.Starting from simple scenarios such as automatic emergency breaking AEB the RS RTS can be extended to cover very complex scenarios with multiple radar sensors thanks to its modularity and scalability. Any number of RS QAT100 frontends and RS AREG800A backends can be combined. One of the backends synchronizes all the components installed in the setup. A graphical user interface with a touchscreen makes it easy to configure the test setup.For test automation with industry-standard tools the RS RTS comes with a hardware-in-the-loop HiL interface conforming to the ASAM Open Simulation Interface specification.
