Using a van-mounted FM-CW radar to detect corner-reflector road-boundary markers

The motivation for this experimental work is to explore a car-borne radar to assist the river of a vehicle in determining where the vehicle is located within the road during adverse (blizzard and/or foggy) weather conditions. This paper discusses the advantage of frequency-modulated continuous wave (FM-CW) radar to achieve such a system. Results are reported of detecting corner reflectors placed on the shoulders of the road with a van-mounted FM-CW radar. The corner reflectors were used as markers of road boundaries. These reflectors were ranged with two radar channels operating simultaneously in real time. The radar signals were processed using a digital signal processing (DSP) circuit board. It is shown that the radar could map the corner reflectors on single and/or two road shoulders in real-time operation at a speed up to 50 km/h. This kind of car-borne radar aids snow-plowing work in a heavy snow regions.