RadarSLAM: Biomimetic SLAM using ultra-wideband pulse-echo radar

This paper presents a novel method for using an ultra-wideband (UWB), super high frequency (SHF) pulse-echo radar sensor as a biomimetic sensing mechanism to successfully solve the Simultaneous Localization and Mapping (SLAM) problem. Due to recent advances in consumer radar technology it has become possible to sample the received echo signals well above their Nyquist frequency. This Nyquist-conform sampling permits the conversion of the signal waveforms into spectrograms which contain spatiospectral cues caused by the interactions of the echoes with features of the environment and the antenna's radiation pattern. Such spectrograms can therefore serve as distinct labels for individual locations, allowing for the identification and recognition of these locations. By adapting an existing acoustic SLAM system (BatSLAM) we have developed a system that demonstrates the feasibility of our proposed method; the results validate the potential of using pulse-echo radar as an exteroceptive sensory modality in topological SLAM systems.