Non-Line-of-Sight Multi-Target Localization Algorithm for Driver-Assistance Radar System

In automatic driving, it is difficult for automotive radar to capture the information of vehicles and pedestrians located in blind areas such as street corners and urban intersections, which may lead to collision risks. To deal with it, this paper investigates the problem of multiple target localization in a non-line-of-sight (NLOS) scenario. Specifically, first, the propagation paths of the electromagnetic waves in the L-shaped NLOS scenario are analyzed and a multipath echoes model for the multiple-input-multiple-output (MIMO) radar is established. Then, the time of arrivals (ToAs) with respect to different paths are estimated by the matrix pencil algorithm. Based on the estimated delays, a path recognition strategy, by fully considering the range and angle information of targets, is proposed to pair the ToAs with different types of multipath and targets. Finally, the performance of the proposed method is verified via simulations and experiments, which reveal that the positions of the NLOS targets can be estimated with high precision.